 The Three Graces, or, The Kharites, by Antonio Canova (Italy), 1814-1817. Kharites Lost I never see the beauty, the time and I never held the charity. Wandered through flesh like a wasp clipping a closed window- wandered like a widow, and fell. Distance between fertility Creativity; the river flows through Delphi yet, I drink from a vessel unmade by man - I slow down at your graces, I am sick. The song keeps me closer than ailment. Waded into Cephissus brought gifts and still I fail to see you Blank love, blind charm, empty prayers. Fallen foul, the stench of underworld clings to broken skin. I failed when you needed me most. Zac Thraves Zac Thraves is a writer and performer in Kent; poems have been published with various magazines and stories have been performed throughout the county. You can find some work on Instagram and join him on Twitter.
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 I am so pleased to announce Pretty Time Machine: ekphrastic prose poems. Click here to check it out or purchase on Amazon. thanks so much! Lorette On Pretty Time Machine These bittersweet, lyrical, yet often eviscerating poems are ekphrastic explorations that examine life’s fragile connections with ruthless intent. Sparing no one, Luzajic strips the shiny façade from her subjects, exposing their humanness, and her own.” Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of The Dead Kid Poems, poetry editor, Cultural Weekly "Astonishing, urgent, leaves nothing behind. Each brief narrative emboldens an emotional truth with language that is fierce, elegant, and unflinching; Luzajic's writing is nothing short of brilliant." Karen Schauber, editor, The Group of Seven Reimagined: Contemporary Stories Inspired by Historic Canadian Paintings “Best writing I've read by a living writer since who knows when.” Darrell Epp, author of After Hours, Sinners Dance, Imaginary Maps “"We only see what we want to see,’ writes Luzajic in ‘Anthropology.’ If that’s the case, praise the gods we have Luzajic to contemplate the things we miss, due to willful blindness, or despair. Luzajic's new book is full of original insights into what it means to be alive, and human. The characters you’ll encounter are so vivid, so honest, that the reader cannot help but feel they know the poet. This is when you know you are dealing with a master.” Jordan Trethewey, author of Spirits for Sale "This book's more honest than you. It'll hold your hand and bring you places." Noah Wareness, author of Meatheads, Real is the Word They Use to Contain Us  Untitled, by Cy Twombly (USA) 1967 Erasure Whatever the last message was it has been erased and replaced with repetitive symbols of chaos. Triangles upon rectangles. A formula of empty boxes, scratched out and silently slipping through space. Or perhaps they are running away from the scene of a horrific accusation. Someone can read these hieroglyphs but it is not me. People ask me daily-- What do you think? How do you feel? I am despondent over what has been lost—can never be recovered. I think of what you have done and it is not within my power to know the truth, heal the rifts, forgive your trespasses, repair your community. This is not a blackboard. it is a painting of one; oil on canvas. Permanently affixed-- there is no erasing it or what you have done. Judith J. Katz Judith J. Katz is the Lead Teacher for Creative Writing at the Cooperative Arts and Humanities Magnet High School in New Haven, Connecticut, where her signature courses focus on writing poetry. Ms. Katz’s work has been published in The Muddy River Poetry Review, Crossing Class Anthology, 101 Jewish Poems for the New Millennium Anthology, Months to Years, The Literary Nest, Ritualwell, The Raven’s Perch, The New Sound Literary Journal, Of Sun and Sand, and Sending Our Condolences. She has been a first runner up in the Kind of a Hurricane Press’s Editor’s Choice Awards and recently won a NEH award to study Emily Dickinson.  The Angelus, by Jean-Francois Millet (France) 1859 Join us for biweekly ekphrastic writing challenges. See why so many writers are hooked on ekphrastic! We feature some of the most accomplished influential poets writing today, and we also welcome emerging or first time writers and those who simply want to experience art in a deeper way or try something creative.
The prompt this time is The Angelus, by Jean-Francois Millet. Deadline is February 7, 2020. The Rules 1. Use this visual art prompt as a springboard for your writing. It can be a poem or short prose (fiction or nonfiction.) You can research the artwork or artist and use your discoveries to fuel your writing, or you can let the image alone provoke your imagination. 2. Write as many poems and stories as you like. Send only your best works or final draft, not everything. (Please note, experimental formats are difficult to publish online. We will consider them but they present technical difficulties with web software that may not be easily resolved.) Please copy and paste your submission into the body of the email, even if you include an attachment such as Word or PDF. 3. Have fun. 4. USE THIS EMAIL ONLY. Send your work to [email protected]. Challenge submissions sent to the other inboxes will most likely be lost as those are read in chronological order of receipt, weeks or longer behind, and are not seen at all by guest editors. They will be discarded. Sorry. 5.Include MILLET WRITING CHALLENGE in the subject line in all caps please. 6. Include your name and a brief bio. If you do not include your bio, it will not be included with your work, if accepted. Even if you have already written for The Ekphrastic Review or submitted other works and your bio is "on file" you must include it in your challenge submission. Do not send it after acceptance or later; it will not be added to your poem. Guest editors may not be familiar with your bio or have access to archives. We are sorry about these technicalities, but have found that following up, requesting, adding, and changing later takes too much time and is very confusing. 7. Late submissions will be discarded. Sorry. 8. Deadline is midnight, February 7, 2020. 9. Please do not send revisions, corrections, or changes to your poetry or your biography after the fact. If it's not ready yet, hang on to it until it is. 10. Selected submissions will be published together, with the prompt, one week after the deadline. 11. Rinse and repeat with upcoming ekphrastic writing challenges!  don't you see the signs, by Marcel Herms (Netherlands) 2019 Along Zandvoort Beach After the crunching and creaking you emerge from the mist and wander soft sands under a scattered sky where the air is still; your head is numb and you hear no sound except gentle waves then you finally turn to stare at the wreck that you caused and all you recall is the echo of warning saying, "don’t you see the signs?" Henry Bladon Henry Bladon is a writer and art lover based in Somerset in the UK. He writes all types of fiction. He has a PhD in creative writing and runs a writing support group for people with mental health issues. His work can be seen in Writers’ Forum, Microfiction Monday, Friday Flash Fiction, the drabble, entropy 2, and 50-Word Stories, amongst other places.  The Red Kerchief, by Claude Monet (France) 1868 Red Kerchief Oh, to be a peacock, my tail-feathers collectable, adoration as certain as gravity or death. Or a comet: brilliant, chased, my arrival heralded across the world, telescopes purchased just for me, my too-soon disappearance leaving everyone a little empty. To be seen, to not be left off the list, to be named in a conversation, to be present in my absence. To be more than a crack in the sidewalk, evidence of disrepair, seen only by those who keep their heads down, remembered, if at all, as an inconvenience, a flaw, a task to be tacked to the bottom of a list. To be a woman who happens to be wearing a red kerchief and not a red kerchief on a famous painter’s mock-up of a woman. Shira Atik Shira Atik is an award-winning poet and a Hebrew-English literary translator. In 2018, she and sculptor Alice Kiderman co-published Stone Word, a book featuring nine of Shira’s poems alongside the sculptures that inspired them. Her poems have been published in Poetica Magazine and were displayed at the Beachwood Jewish Community Center and the Nature Center in Shaker Heights, both in Ohio. Her translations have been published by the Jewish Publication Society, the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature, Zeek Magazine, Jewishfiction.net, and individual authors.  illustration from De Humani Corporis Fabrica, by Andreas Vesalius (Belgium) 1543 Last Words of Saint Anthony of Padua I lift my arm over the city I love. Do not look away. The world left me breathless and I can no longer live. I have come, Padua, to say goodbye. Goodbye to the sleek fish and the river lilies, goodbye to the hills rocking in their green sea. Goodbye to the castles, the clear air that binds us. One more shining day and one more night to find what you have lost. Now I am skinless while bells in their towers ring, ring, and the light reveals how life has shaped my toiling muscles, sailing in penance, working my way back in late spring to the start of my last loss. Muscles change, then skin begins forming growth around them. All the world is flesh of the God I walk in each early morning, praying, praising, longing. Do not leave. Listen. My tongue is for you and it is singing. God is crying within. You can believe in the attention of rushing water, touch of pardon, shelter of walnut trees in your grief. See the white stars in your hidden garden. Closed like small hands in prayer all day, blooming in night under the one heaven. I am tired of separation. I make my way seized and fasting in my last earthly grip. My palms face you. Look at me today. Margaret Lloyd Margaret Lloyd was born in Liverpool, England of Welsh parents and grew up in a Welsh community in central New York State. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press published William Carlos Williams’ Paterson: A Critical Reappraisal. Alice James Books brought out her first book of poems, This Particular Earthly Scene. Plinth Books published Lloyd’s second collection of poems, A Moment in the Field: Voices from Arthurian Legend. Forged Light was published by Open Field Press in November 2013, and Travelling on Her Own Errands: Voices of Women from The Mabinogi was published in 2017 in Wales by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. Her poetry honors include a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, fellowships to Breadloaf and to Hawthornden Castle in Scotland, and a writing residency at Yaddo.  The Floor Scrapers, by Gustave Caillebotte (France) 1875
Annie Stenzel Annie Stenzel was born in Illinois, but has lived on both coasts of the U.S. and on other continents at various times in her life. Her book-length collection is The First Home Air After Absence (Big Table Publishing, 2017). Her poems appear or are forthcoming in print and online journals in the U.S. and the U.K., from Ambit to Willawaw Journal with stops at Chestnut Review, Gargoyle, {isacoustic*}, Kestrel, Pine Hills Review, Poets Reading the News, The Lake, and Whale Road, among others. She lives within sight of the San Francisco Bay. For more, visit anniestenzel.com.  Seated Nude, by Georges Braque (France) 1906 Seated Nude She bathes in the sun’s early glow, that moment of splayed colour when magenta, yellow and violet spill over the hills and brush her nude body with pastel fingers. In this first movement of spectral light, she sits on the edge of an armless chair and reaches a hand to her hair. Soon she will turn, surprise her voyeur and even herself. Easy in her skin, she bends her back to the shadowed green shade, sighs and relaxes her stomach. And yet, her hair is not soft like the landscape, but bleeds into the chair. Hard and bold, the fusion cuts through the scene, does not try to belong. She bends her arm at the elbow, angles it like the back of the chair. She’s no longer round and soft like the background. She leans forward to added dimension, swivels toward different views, desires to be known by more than one perspective. Although she allows this portrait of transition, allows Braque to hold her one last time, she demands her release, shifts her complexity to greet the new century of angles, cubes and facets, her curved past slowly fading behind her. Mary Jo Balistreri This poem first appeared in Mary Jo Balistreri's book, gathering the harvest, (Bellowing Ark Press, 2012). Mary Jo has three full length books of poetry and one chapbook. She was a musician most of her life but due to the death of a grandchild and a consequent loss of her hearing, she turned to poetry. Mary Jo has always been interested in art and received her BA in art from the U. of Pennsylvania. Please visit her at maryjobalistreripoet.com. She lives in Wisconsin.  Luminous Zag: Night, by Louise Nevelson (USA, b. Ukraine) 1971 105 Degrees of Freedom The red head docent asks, why black? I think she is not being specific enough. The matte black surface recedes in shadows. It's unifying I say--twice--but she cannot see or hear me. A woman in front hears and repeats my answer. And she's pleased that the docent agrees, now repeating, Yes, it's unifying. And I smile, suddenly freed from my needing to be seen and heard. Pamela Joyce Shapiro Pamela Joyce Shapiro is a cognitive psychologist intrigued by memory and language. She writes poetry to capture thoughts and moments otherwise forgotten. Her work has appeared in Poetry Breakfast, Better Than Starbucks, The Ekphrastic Review, Unlost, and One Sentence Poems. |
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