The tradition of ekphrastic poetry is a long, rich, and varied one, with poets from Ovid to Frank O’Hara taking delight in the mirroring (or reconstructing or deconstructing) a visual image via the use of a written text.

In this three-hour workshop, participants will initially read and discuss a selection of compelling ekphrastic poems that instructor Maurya Simon will distribute and post digitally. Then the class will compose an impromptu ekphrastic poem in class, using a wide array of reproductions of art that Simon provide. This assignment provides poets with new ways of looking deeply at an object; it generates effective strategies for articulating what’s been observed; and it furthers the exploration of how a specific work of art sparks within us new insights and surprising feelings and intellectual connections. Finally, the class will use the remaining workshop time to discuss in depth their newly born ekphrastic poems.

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