Friday’s writing task
Each day this week, we’ll load up a fun poetry task for you to use in conjunction with the poetry competition prompts, which are designed to help you get inspiration for your entry. This is the last task, so don’t forget to send your poem to hello@waitahaenglish.com when you are done. The deadline is 11 September!
Friday’s task: Ekphrastic poetry
Looking at art, by Rodian Kutsaev
Ekphrastic poetry is the technical name for poetry that is written about a work of art, or a scene. ‘Ekphrastic’ comes from a Greek work, meaning to describe something in vivid detail.
Choose the visual prompt from your category, or find a work of art that calls to mind one of the others.
Instructions:
Look at the piece of art quickly. Write down the first five words that come to mind.
Stand far away from the art- what do you see? Write another five words.
Get close up to the image- what are the small details? Write another five words.
Imagine what you can’t see in the image- what are the sounds and smells and textures in the scene? Write another five words.
Keep generating lists of words until you think you have enough. You could gather lists of words from your bubble as well- what five words does your mum/dad/sibling see?
Select a word from each list and use that as your master list. Include these words in your final poem. Your poem may be a description of the scene or art, or it may be something totally different.
Here is a whole list of ekphrastic poems that you can look at for inspiration.
My favourites are these:
Three for the Mona Lisa, John Stone
Number 1 by Jackson Pollock (1948), Nancy Sullivan
Children's Games, William Carlos Williams
Happy writing!