Ekphrastic Challenge For Writers Everywhere

Writing prompted by images is the new rage and a great way to find inspiration for your writing

It happens to every writer at some point in their career. Those of us who write every day experience it along with burnout on more days than we care to admit. Writer’s block is the bane of a writer’s existence. There are countless articles on breaking through impediments and overcoming obstacles to our writing process. But if you’re like me, you’re always looking for new possible solutions to add to your tool box.

As income has been falling off for the poetry I publish on Medium, I’ve been seeking outside opportunities, both to help me increase my inspiration to write poetry — I’ll admit that the lost earnings has led to lost motivation to write new poems — and to increase the reach of my poetry with a possible bonus of a bit of new income. And there are more options out there than I previously recognized.

When I start spiraling down in motivation, I need something concrete to help me come up with new ideas. For my non-fiction articles I turn to the news. For my fiction and poetry, I turn to prompt related calls for submissions.

Recently, I came across a great site that has several different poetry competitions that are free to enter. One of these is for ekphrastic poems. Though the name sounds intimidating it’s just poetry that is inspired by a work of art. The intention of the poem is to reflect on the action of the painting or sculpture to expand what may be considered as it’s regular meaning. One of the most famous examples of this type of poetry that you may be familiar with is Keat’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn,”

The challenge provides you with a prompt in the form of an image that you use as the inspiration for a poem. There is a new piece of artwork provided each month and many of them are altered by artists to form images that are different from the original.

This month they provided poets with a mixed media piece created by Marc Alan Di Martino based on Boy Blowing Soap Bubbles. Allegory On the Transitoriness and the Brevity of Life by Karel Dujardin (featured above). The image definitely called up phrases and interpretations when I first viewed it.

Two winners are chosen each month, one selected by the artist themselves and the other by the publications editor and they each receive $100 along with publication. It’s not a lot of money and there are obviously a lot of entries, sometimes more than 100, but still this is enough to serve as a rope to haul me out of my poetic lethargy.

The poem I wrote in response to this challenge can be found below.

Oblivion

Broken breath Breezes past cherubs cheek Who sees but beauty In a colorless realm Melts into perfumed rhythm All soft curves Superimposed on a jagged world Smiles to stars become Though transient is joy for most Cheeks blushed bright A fevered glow Though calm of might Hand held out To colored fragments small And with a word wills them To spin and dance Backed by subtle hue Despite the chaos Which presses at the edges Seeking with a steel growl To devour keen

This is the second time I’ve entered, and each time I not only found new inspiration for my own poetry, I discovered new poets and artists I was unfamiliar with who are now some of my favorites. I think my take away from this challenge is that while writer’s block is inevitable, if we seek out alternate forms of inspiration that we weren’t aware of before, we can find new ways of overcoming these writing obstacles and the negative mood that accompanies them. Sometimes it just takes a little push to get our writing back on track.

For anyone interested in participating in this challenge, you can find information about what it entails and how to submit at Rattle. I’ve also included it in the new updates to the article Paying Markets for Poetry with No Submission Fees.

Natalie Frank (Taye Carrol) has had her poetry featured in several anthologies including Untimely Frost. Her fiction has been published in Haunted Waters Press, Weirdbook Magazine, Siren’s Call Publications, Lycan Valley Press and Zero Fiction among others. She holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Her collection of poetry, Disguised I Breathe, In Love I Hold, can be found on Amazon under her pen name, Taye Carrol.

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You can find links to all of the articles, stories, fiction and poetry I publish on Medium here. Thanks for reading and for supporting Mental Gecko!