Dada Dady or Marcel Duchamp in Drag
 
They have found you, your alter-ego.
The ephemeral Rose Selavy, not so incognito.
In Roumanian they cry "Da, Da, yes, yes."

Organza puffs, a stupendous dress,
cadaverous cheeks, rouged lips too thin,
kohl rimmed eyes, so beguiling, a real success.
Your maleness divulged only by stubbled skin.

But you gather your skirts, cloche hat pulled low.
Mounting your hobbyhorse with a determined grin
You elude the sisterhood’s embracing glow.

​Jeanne Cannizzo

​Jeanne Cannizzo is the co-author, with Irish poet Elieen Casey, of Bog Treasure, published in 2021 by Arlen House, Dublin.

​Send in the Clowns: an Ekphrastic Circus

The rise of the circus over 200 years past inspired an incredibly vast and varied world of visual art depictions. Painters were attracted to the rich array of themes and interesting characters of the circus. The colourful props, epic entertainment, harrowing feats, and beautiful women were irresistible subjects for many artists.

The circus, of course, also had its darker side, its underbelly crawling with strange power exchange relationships, the display of differently abled human beings for profit, abuse of animals and women, and more. 

This colourful tapestry of psychology and spectacle was and is fertile ground for artists and writers, too.

The new contest at The Ekphrastic Review is Send in the Clowns. We have curated more than NINETY fascinating paintings and other artworks, chosen to invite your writing to unexpected places. You can write poetry, flash fiction, or both, inspired by any of the artworks in Book One or Book Two.  Be inspired by the characters and scenes in these paintings, by the art itself or the artists, or the subjects of the art,  in any way that you want to interpret them.

The purchase of one ebook of circus images serves as entry fee for the contest ($10CAD or approx. $7USD). You can choose book one or book two or both. These images can serve your ekphrastic practice through the contest and beyond, providing endless inspiration.

We will publish a selection of finalists in The Ekphrastic Review. One poetry entry and one flash fiction entry will be declared winner in that category. The winning poet and winning flash fiction author will receive $100CAD.

Rules

1. Write stories or poems inspired in any way by any of the artworks in the Send in the Clowns ebooks. Art can be from book one, book two, or both.

2. Submit up to three poems or flash fiction entries. You can enter as many times as you wish, with three entries for every $10 entry purchase. (For example, if you get both books one and two, you can enter six works.)

3. Poems and flash fiction 1000 max including title.

4. Deadline is midnight, eastern standard time, February 20, 2025. 

5. Submit entries to [email protected].

6. Put your entries in a Word document, together. Don't put your name etc. on the document.

7. Include a 100 word bio with your submission. Include your order number with your submission as well.

8. Include CIRCUS CONTEST in the subject line when submitting.

9. Please include the name and artist of the painting that inspired the work, noted along with every poem or story. 

10. Please tell your friends and peers about this fabulous contest. We can't wait to be inundated with amazing circus stories and poetry!

I Think of Her at Sunrise
for Grandma

Dawn flowered through magenta clouds
and waves of blue worries
swept downstream

Under azure sky of first star 
fields of periwinkle, larkspur, iris, indigo, and forget-me-nots
remember the storms, the pain, the loss 
that passed so many years past

Petals of possibility yawn and stretch
coffee perks, chickens scratch, roosters bugle in the day
as my grief becomes an umbilical joining our lives
in my river of memories, joy, and comfort
keeping us together
              floating leaf
                            by soaring hawk 
                                                by drops of morning dew

Cathy Hollister

Cathy Hollister was a Finalist in the Ageless Authors 2020 Coping with Crisis writing contest. Her work has been in Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, Corona Global Lockdown and It’s Not Easy published by Poet’s Choice, and others. She lives in middle Tennessee.

Surrealist artist and writer Leonora Carrington had an unbelievable life. Her own surreal, terrifying experiences as a young woman fuelled her work, as did her imagination, steeped in Irish folklore, Mexican history, and a lifelong study of esoteric traditions of all kinds.

On Tuesday we will gather by zoom and explore her life and work together, using some stunning images to inspire our own poems or stories.

Click the link below to register.
​https://www.ekphrastic.net/ekphrasticwritingworkshops.html

Lots of other incredible workshops coming up at our Ekphrastic Academy.

​Click on any image below for more information and to register.

​Grief
 
He
holds himself fiercely,
for fear he will shatter
if he speaks or sheds even
one tear.
he gazes into no-
thing, sees no-
one, belongs no-
where.
It is possible he will never
unclench those arms.
Nothing left to say.
Not even an idea remains.

She
cradles the husk
of her heart.
Her soul knows and also
un-knows presence
and loss, memory
and emptiness. She remains
forever bowed before
the monstrous truth
of his eternal absence.

Kathy Paul

​Kathryn Paul (Kathy) is a survivor of many things, including cancer and downsizing. Her poems have appeared in Pirene's Fountain; Last Leaves; The Examined Life Journal; Intima: Journal of Narrative Medicine; Rogue Agent; The Ekphrastic Review; and in the anthology, One Albuquerque, One Hundred Poets. Kathy lives in Albuquerque, NM.

​Shuffled Album Covers
     Les Beat Rearranged 

1.
Helter-Skeltered

Well, yeah.
Til it be blisters, my love
Stop again, won’t you? Top down, slide to me.

Yes, you. 
I want you to.
Fast fingers go on down. 

Got out of love
But come back, for she is a top and bottom lover. 

Slide miles! Break fast! Don’t answer. 
Ride the love, make do.
Look above—where she won’t answer me.
But I ain’t coming, see?
I’m a dancer when I get down

It may be. 
But ooh, tell no helper 
‘Cause the fast turn, here it comes.
Stop again, won’t you? You helter-skelter, you.

2.
Jude Redux

Begin.
Take out any pain under your cool shoulders,
Take it with heart.
You’ll just need a better song.

Remember anytime, to feel with the world,
Start its movement into your skin, 
waiting under it, a fool afraid, 
and Jude, carry that fool for the world.

It’s waiting. Just begin. You can do it.
Perform your heart-plays upon a sad someone.
Making na na na, make his refrain better. 
You know who.
Let a little pain down, bad don’t need to get colder
Just a song, found by you 
Hey, nanana-na.

3.
Away With Your Hidden Love

Ev’ryday I’m on to her.
I stare at your face, seeing clowns, 
Even hearing them, feeling them.
Never will I find them all.

I gather your laugh to me, and laugh away your love  
You’ve let my head turn,
Never at hand, my love.

Each small foot on the wall
Could win my feeling, hearing you say,
Hey I’m in your way

Stand and state your never-me love:
I hear you’ve gone away—say hey if you see me.
You say: see you.

On the day I’m here, even your clowns hide, 
Seeing the day go.
Hey, she got it ev’rywhere

Seeing how you can’t go ‘round two people in love
How can’t they let me in on the feeling?
She’s hearing them all. 

Try seeing me, hearing me, feeling me.
You can’t love me. Can’t love my face.
Can and can’t laugh me away.

R. C. Barajas
​
​These are cento poems, created by rearranging song lyrics by The Beatles, inspired by Beatles' album covers and music.

R. C. Barajas is surprised by everything lately. Her writing and photography have appeared in such places as The Washington Post, Cleaver Magazine, Fatal Flaw, and Hole in the Head Review. One of her favourite places on earth is a darkroom. But she likes the ocean, too. Especially the Pacific. R. C. is a Californian by birth and temperament, and a Virginian through transplant. She lives with her husband and two loopy dogs.

The Gift of Tears 

At panic's valley, penchant's peak...
...what you would hide her art will seek
as mirror in which you reveal
what she has found and knows you feel...
 
...confusion as the frame of fear
surrounding what within is clear...
...the azure of an endless sky
where clouds are merely passing by
 
and songs of love are softly heard
as sun unseen by light inferred
that whitens billows even more
of lifting shrouds becoming door
 
through which you'll pass as you accept
the gift of tears that she has wept.

Portly Bard

Portly Bard: Prefers to craft with sole intent...
of verse becoming complement...
...and by such homage being lent...
ideally also compliment.

Ekphrastic joy comes not from praise
for words but from returning gaze
far more aware of fortune art
becomes to eyes that fathom heart. ​

**

​Editor's note: This poem is from a very special collaboration between Portly Bard and Lorette. The book, Thinking Inside the Box, features a dialogue in poetry and art, with ekphrastic pairings and a back and forth discussion between the artists on the meaning of painting, poetry, and life. You can get a full colour hardback or paperback copy at Amazon by clicking on the cover image below. 

You can also get a completely free digital copy by scrolling down. When we created this project, we wanted to make it accessible to anyone who was interested in looking at it, as well as having a coffee table and shelf version. 

​Death in Tepito
 
And just like that, you are there again, pushing your way through the yellow tents of Tepito’s market. You cannot stay away from Mexico. It is like skydiving, or popping amphetamines. It is life at the crescendo. These stalls of towering flowers, these heaps of chintzy, absurd toys are a labyrinth connecting the Centro Historico with the no-go barrio. Here, heads roll, if they’re lucky.  
 
At the north and east of the squalor of caged dogs and baby birds, past baskets of chipotle crickets, nopales, past skyscraper shoeboxes of wrestling masks and diablito figurines, you slip into the streets.
 
You shake your head curtly whenever a twin set of stony eyes latch onto yours. You aren’t looking for blow or a guerrilla machine gun for a steal. You have no list of enemies you want dead. 
 
But you ARE looking for death, after all, and haven’t you always been? Tonight, you are one of her pilgrims. 
 
You follow the others past the shady men whose faces are covered like old western train bandits. Toss paper money into an upturned cup for an ancient mestiza missing both legs.  She hands you a bouquet of orange and violet chrysanthemums. Armed with sacred offerings, you are now part of the procession. A thousand candles flicker as the river of humans moves toward Her shrine.
 
You approach the church of Santa Muerta, a humble hole now showered in purple and gilt fire. You weren’t expecting to see glory in the grim one’s gaunt visage, but you were hoping for something. A glimpse, at least, of what might come after. But the colours in her aura are festoons of the living. There is nothing there after all, only sockets emptied of sight, and a grinning rope of clattering dentin keys.

Lorette C. Luzajic
 
This was first published in Rune Bear Weekly and in the author's collection, Winter in June.

Lorette C. Luzajic is the founding editor of The Ekphrastic Review and The Mackinaw: a journal of prose poetry. Mexico City is her favourite place in the world.

The brilliant innovative surrealist Leonora Carrington has a fascinating life story and a tremendous body of work. Join us Tuesday afternoon on Zoom to discover more about her remarkable art. We will be doing some creative writing exercises using her paintings as well.

The Ekphrastic Academy has added several new workshops. Upcoming Zooms include Women Outsider artists, erotic paintings, the Pre Raphaelites, Warhol, Frida Kahlo, and Still Life.

​Our Zoom sessions are focused on community, conversation, connection, and creativity. Come and explore a range of visual arts and let them ignite your writing practice.

Click on image above, or the link below, to see what's coming soon.

​https://www.ekphrastic.net/ekphrasticwritingworkshops.html