Tag: ekphrastic poetry

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House of Straw

Pam Bonaguide <p> straw, old cedar shakes, Pal Tiya, wood, paint, wire, glue, string </p><p> $5,900 Inquiries: artonthetrails@gmail.com </p><p> You stand in front of a small straw house, about six by seven feet and ten feet tall, built on a simple wooden frame. Straw fills the walls, held in place by metal screen, while the roof is covered with old cedar shakes. As summer unfolds, the straw shifts in color, fading in sun and darkening in rain. Like the house in the nursery rhyme, it isn’t meant to last. The piece reflects Time in the Landscape, marking change as it slowly weathers and becomes more a part of its surroundings, shaped by season, memory, and the natural world.</p>

House of Straw

a house for today

out of the wind’s and rain’s way

for pig or for wolf

characters seeking shelter

we all need our own safe space

I enjoy writing poetry using art as inspiration, and that’s what Art on the Trails invited poets to do for their 10th Annual event in Southborough, Massachusetts. I read about the process and learned that once the artists were selected and their works installed along the trail, organizers invited poets to write ekphrastic poems inspired by the art, and then a poetry juror and the artist would select two poems for each piece of artwork to be published in this year’s chapbook.

That’s the sort of writing that makes me happy, so I decided to accept the invitation. I scrolled through the works of art and selected four that were particularly inspiring. The House of Straw took me back to my favorite childhood storybook days, and The Three Little Pigs came to mind, of course. I wrote a tanka with a variation of a borrowed line from Padraic Colum’s “An Old Woman of the Roads” in response to Pam Bonaguide’s work House of Straw as part of this year’s Time in the Landscape theme. 

You can hear the audio clip of my poem here:

This is one of four poems that I submitted for the works of art along the trail, but this one was not selected for publication. I’ll share the poem that the artist and poetry juror selected on Sunday, when the gathering of artists and poets will happen beside each work of trail art in Southborough during a progressive trail walk. Though I will not be able to be there in person for the closing event this year, I’m celebrating in spirit as the week leads up to the closing event on Sunday.

For today, may we all know our own safe spaces. As I see it, there are no safer spaces than the pages of books …..and nature trails with art, poetry, and fireflies.

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Ekphrastic Art: Time in the Landscape Signposts Tanka

Art on the Trails is a unique celebration of art in nature and poetry that takes place at the Elaine & Philip Beals Preserve in Southborough, Massachusetts each year, and this will be the ten year anniversary of this event. In the first phase, art is selected by an art judge who announces the 16 winning works for installation along the nature trail, and then in the second phase, two poems are selected by a poetry judge and the artist to go along with each work of art. You can read about the poetry process here. I responded in verse to four of these works of art along the trail this year and submitted them for chapbook publication. I’ll share my poem that is selected to appear in the chapbook on the scheduled day of the event finale on Sunday, September 13.  I will be unable to be there in person to read my poem at the progressive walk, but I have shared a video recording with event organizers and will share that here as well. Today, I’m sharing the tanka I wrote in response to Mike Libby’s work Here and There and Now and Then as part of the 2026 Art on the Trails: Time in the Landscape. 

Signposts Tanka

signposts guide our way~

here and there and now and then

we choose our own paths

today, tomorrow, later

tonight, forever, always

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Rattle’s Ekphrastic Poetry Challenge

Throughout the month of September as we officially welcome the start of the fall season, I’m sharpening my awareness and appreciation of the art and nature around me. This week, I will share five ekphrastic poems that I’ve written in response to works of art. These five poems were all submitted for publication to various calls for poetry I found through Submittable.com in the Discover tab, and of the five poems, one was accepted into a poetry chapbook celebrating works of art in nature. I’ll share the poem selected for publication one week from today.

For the month of July, Rattle’s Ekphrastic poetry prompt was the piece below by Leslie Ann Aguillard. Find more about the artist here. My poem is beneath this image. I didn’t win or place with this nonet, but Rattle hosts a monthly Ekphrastic challenge that writers love, and we all win when we write. We just don’t all get that $15,000 prize for the big contest or the $100 for the monthly challenges……

Wrong Number Nonet

another wrong number again, truth

beginning to set in like knives

each piercing deeper into

memories of warnings:

he can’t be faithful

….don’t marry him!

she knows now ~ 

.

.

.

they were

right

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August Open Write Day 1 of 3

Our host for the first day of the August Open Write at www.ethicalela.com is Denise Krebs, who lives in the Mojave Desert. A retired teacher, Denise gets out in nature every chance she gets and continues to write. She blogs regularly at Dare to Care, is the co-author of The Genius Hour Guidebook, and has some poems published in anthologies, including today’s prompt inspiration Picture Perfect Poetry. I’m blessed to share time each month with Denise at Ethicalela and in a small group of writers with The Stafford Challenge.

Denise inspires us to write ekphrastic poems today. An ekphrastic poem is one inspired by a piece of art or photograph. She suggests looking through our camera roll and considering something in nature, possibly using the 2-4-6-8 form, explaining, “I wrote my poem in a form I call a 2-4-6-8 poem. It may be a syllable-counting form I made up. Each line increases by two syllables. Write as many stanzas as needed. Your choice of rhyme scheme is optional.” Hop over to the site to see her photos of Joshua Trees and read her poem about them.

I was inspired to write about our tree frog who lives under the Blackstone grill on our front porch. I’d purchased the small griddle to go on the road with us when we travel in the Wayfarer, but after seasoning it and testing it out, I noticed that two tiny tree frogs were making their home in the grill cover. I couldn’t bear to move it, so now we have a grill on our front porch coffee table (it’s okay, there are no neighbors to complain). They have become my front porch friends now, hopping onto the watering jug whenever I water plants and peeping out to say hello from the grill cover. Incidentally, one made an appearance on the loveseat with me last time we were in our Stafford Challenge Google Meet. I introduce you today to one of the Johnson Funny Farm Front Porch Frogs.

Front Porch Tree Frog

front porch

tree frog hops up

on my watering jug

like The Lorax, speaking for plants

he lives under the Blackstone grill

with his lady frog friend

(we shall not cook

frog legs)

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March 17: 1:32-2:03 Ekphrastic M(art)ch Madness in My Favorite Meeting Spot

Today’s host at http://www.ethicalela.com is Dave Wooley, whose prompt (you can read it in its entirety here) inspires us to write short-form poems of ekphrastic bursts. I’ve chosen a place where I often have workday meetings during the slice of time between 1:32 and 2:03 as the focus of my poem, written in tricubes (3 stanzas of 3 lines consisting of 3 syllables on each line).

1828 Coffee Company: A Work of Art

coffee shop

art shows the

time journey

restoring

origins

hardwood floors

window panes

still the same

come, peek in!