 Evening on Karl Johan Street, by Edvard Munch (Norway) 1892 Evening on Karl Johan Street, 1892 We had such a good time. We must have a good time. We were supposed to enjoy ourselves. We were told to enjoy ourselves, and we did. Yes, we did. We enjoyed ourselves because we must enjoy ourselves. Life is about happiness, and we are happy. We must be happy. It is our duty. Joy has brought us together. We are together marching towards bliss because we must. One man alone walks past us. He is not happy. He is not one of us. He is going nowhere. We shun him because we must. Charlie Brice Charlie Brice won the 2020 Field Guide Poetry Magazine Poetry Contest and placed third in the 2021 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize. His sixth full-length poetry collection is Pinnacles of Hope (Impspired Books, 2022). His poetry has been nominated three times for both the Best of Net Anthology and the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Atlanta Review, The Honest Ulsterman, Ibbetson Street, The Paterson Literary Review, Impspired Magazine, The Ekphrastic Review, and elsewhere.
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 Ebb Tide, by Mimi Ortiz (USA) 2023 Shore Crabs maybe you feel it too the urge to go to the edge of a low tide following a shore crab laden with eggs scurrying into the sea where a sea star in murmuring waves clings to a barnacled crab drifting just beyond Victor Ortiz Victor Ortiz lives in Bellingham, WA, but travels to Borrego Springs, CA, during the winter, where his wife Mimi loves to paint plein air and he writes about the desert. He has written two chapbooks Into Breath and Into Borrego Valley and has coauthored four books with mezzotint artist Mikio Watanabe. His work has been anthologized and published in Modern Haiku, Haiku Canada Review, The Mainichi, and Right Hand Pointing. Ortiz has served on The Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Distinguished Books Award panel and as the Washington State Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America.  The Invisible World, by Rene Magritte (Belgium) 1954 When the Decorators Leave The rock squats, pride of place, in front of the open window, overlooking the windswept bay, intimidating those outside wanting in and those inside not wanting to be pushed out. Ignoring the comments whooshing about the formal dining hall behind it. “Why not me?” mumbles a panel of silk drape trapped behind an open french door. “Because you’re too flighty, too susceptible to the elements,” yawns the door. “What makes it so special, it has no actual use, really?” drawls the chaise lounge. “I think it’s there to scare away intruders, protect us all,” trills a champagne flute. “Well, it’s certainly not there for its beauty, all grey with no polish,” chortles the high-backed chair at the head of the table. “Come now, what’s ugly to one is beauty to another,” woofs a worn leather couch. “It’s so unfriendly though, never says a word,” clatters a silver soup spoon. “You never know what’s hidden below,” bleats a dyed wool rug. “Yes, yes, it could be hiding anything. It could be paper mache, for all we know,” booms the oak dining table. They all stop and squint at the rock. Solid. Silent. Revealing nothing. Louella Lester Louella Lester loves living in Winnipeg, Canada. She was a teacher for years and then it took a while for her to call herself a writer/photographer, but she does now. Her work’s been published in a wide variety of journals and anthologies. Her quirky CNF book, Glass Bricks (At Bay Press, 2021), is filled with micro/flash length stories about all the jobs she’s done and includes a few flights of fancy.  We are thrilled to have special guest Dr. Finnian Burnett collaborating on a zoom workshop on queer stories in art history, and how LGBTQ+ art can inspire your stories.
This workshop is for everyone! Finnian is a well known flash writer who constantly places stories in contests! They are just as known for their engaging creative writing teaching. Finn is in high demand and we are just pleased as punch to have this afternoon together. Join us! Click here to see all of our upcoming workshops and sign up for this and more. Scroll down to see all the options!  White Light, by Jackson Pollock (USA) 1954 The View of Battle The blur of a battle Surrounded by strokes of colour Unable to discern any of it If you stop to admire it might as well be your last Reds, blacks, whites, blues and yellows All colliding, clashing with each other Hoping one day one will win A victor at the end of this mess Stuck in the middle of it Pushing and Pulling Through the reds, blacks, whites, blues and yellows Its almost claustrophobic Running out of air and energy stuck in battle Of the reds, blacks, whites, blue and yellows Stopping to admire Its beautiful, surrounded In the beauty of battle Sky Schlappich Sky is a junior at Cheltenham Highschool in PA. She has done smaller projects for close friends and other creative work for herself and local classes.  Announcing LIFELINES: Poems for Homer and Hopper, by Joseph Stanton, from Shanti Arts Publishing. Click on the book cover above to view or purchase this ekphrastic collection at Amazon. Joseph Stanton is an art historian who taught at the University of Hawaii and is well-known for his ekphrastic writing practice. His previous books include Prevailing Winds, Moving Pictures, Things Seen, Imaginary Museum: Poems on Art, and more. His poems have appeared in Poetry, New Letters, Harvard Review, Antioch Review, New York Quarterly, and others. As an art historian, Stanton has written about Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Edward Gorey, Maurice Sendak, and other American artists. He has received many awards for his work, including the Tony Quagliano International Poetry Award, the Cades Award for Literature, and the Ekphrasis Prize. Click here to read Five Poems on Winslow Homer, by Joseph Stanton, in The Ekphrastic Review. Click here to read an interview with Joseph Stanton about another of his books, Moving Pictures. Click here to read a poem by Joseph Stanton after Joseph Stella.   Cream of Mushroom, by Andy Warhol (USA) 1968 Cream of Mushroom If my mother had written a cookbook when I was a boy it might have begun, Open a can of cream of mushroom soup… Money was often tight and food is where our budget stretched. …Boil a batch of noodles. Fry some ground chuck. Mix ‘em up. Meals began in cans. Beans, tuna, Spam. Packed with vitamins! But not that orange spaghetti. Civilized people don’t eat that stuff. If I complained, Dad didn’t whip me with the starving kids in Asia routine, though he saw his fair share in the Korean War. Instead, he taught me how to use the Army-issue P-38 can opener that hung on a chain with the dog tags he still wore around his neck. Mom ginned up a scheme to feed a family of four for just a dollar. There were only the three of us so we were always ahead of the game. And here’s the thing: It saved enough money to keep us in books. Used books. Library book sale books. Food for thought, Mom called it. Brian Kates Brian Kates holds a Pulitzer Prize and a George Polk Award among other journalism honours. His book, The Murder of a Shopping Bag Lady, was a finalist for Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award in non-fiction. His poetry has appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, Paterson Literary Review, Third Wednesday, Common Ground Review, Banyan Review and other journals. He was a Best of the Net nominee in 2021 and 2022. He lives with his wife in a house in the woods in the lower Hudson Valley.  In the Library, by John Arthur Lomax (England) before 1923 We have bookshelves here at The Ekphrastic Review!
Readers can browse our Ekphrastic Book Shelf to choose literary works after visual art. They can also browse our Contributors' Book Shelf to choose other kinds of books to support our writers. Add your books to these bookshelves! If your book has three or more ekphrastic poems, essays, or stories, it can go on our Ekphrastic book Shelf. If you have had work published in TER, your books can go on the Contributors' Book Shelf. Listings are usually $25 Canadian dollars (approximately $18 USD.) Until September 30th, you can list one or more books for ANY donation to TER. Please consider a generous donation towards our expenses, if you are able. Please feel free to list your books for a small donation if you aren't. Our hopes are always to raise awareness of ekphrasis and ekphrastic writers, and to share the talents of our contributors. Send the following to us: subject line: BOOK SHELF [email protected] a link to the book cover a link to your preferred point of purchase book title, author, publisher, year whether or not it is ekphrastic a contribution of your choice (check out below)  Buste d’homme accoude, artist not known, late 15th century. Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0 Trapped He’s been caught off guard contemplating his future his fate as a medieval misfit His brow is furrowed and his tilted head weighs heavily in the palm of his hand Having only moments left to be who he is there’s resignation and sadness in his soulful brown eyes The church is in charge and with no other choice but hopeless deception he’ll be wed by the end of the day Joan Kantor Joan Kantor has completed several poetry collections and has been published in numerous journals. She has won The Hackney Literary Award for Poetry, first place for poetry in The Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards and has been a finalist in several other contests. She has mentored young poets at The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, performs in Stringing Words Together (violinist and poet duo) and does readings and workshops throughout the Northeast and Florida. Her work focuses on nature, the human condition and the arts.  St. Michael's Mount, Penzance, UK, by Bill Arnott (Canada) contemporary Saint Michael’s Mount, at Morning A fan of folded sunlight skeins through towered parapets five fingers splayed in morning rays gleam gold on battlements a wave of shoreline cobbles damp in toasted almond sand they dance like finely jewelled hands in stony dusted bands We climb a path of basalt, carved in shallow sea-washed burls underneath four granite flagstones, next to samphire swirls where bands of Benedictine brothers rest, long buried in bog barrows swallows swoop with rooks as choughs sing psalms with hooded sparrows A distant beam of light shines down, where Michael slew the dragon the hill an ancient salt path where the pilgrims rode their wagons to the port across the hillock and a place they called Land’s End while the next stop was Gibraltar, what the caliphates defend Apart from when the clergymen came through to claim the grail as Crusaders chose a line of rose to stake as their own trail leading on beyond the dawn, a path of solar means a place where Celts and Saxons felt lay north of Aberdeen To the frozen isle of Thule, misty isle where Grecians sailed Iberians, Phoenicians too, and clerics were assailed the rock was found by Vikings and two ravens through the fog as a circle was completed with the monks submerged in bog Bill Arnott Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of the Gone Viking travelogues and A Season on Vancouver Island. When not trekking with a small pack and journal, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, where he lives near the sea on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land. |
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