Ekphrastic poetry highlights a (usually well-known) work of art. “Ekphrastic” derives from the Greek word for description. Ekphrastic poetry can describe, explore, or expand on the content or subject of an art piece. A famous example of this genre of poetry is “Ode on a Grecian urn” by John Keats (1795-1821). In this work, Keats speculates on the identity of the lovers who appear to dance and play music, simultaneously frozen in time and in perpetual motion: What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? There are more contemporary examples of poetry based on art by poets such as W. H. Auden and William Carlos Williams. Art forms and techniques turn up a lot in my own writing. An example of my ekphrastic poetry is “Hangin’ with Goya.” This poem is based on Goya’s aquatint-etching, El sueño de la razón produce monstruos“- "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.” This poem is published in my chapbook, Molten Muse.
Hangin’ with Goya
El sueño de la razón produce monstruos
—Francisco Goya
He paced deep inside the black box
where he’d been held captive
for God only knows how long.
Silence inside light and shadow
betrays the working class
of the mind, he was sure of it.
Saturn devoured his children here
with a blood moon mocking,
circling birds of prey hovering over
a diviner’s oak collapsed,
an altar destroyed by sparks from
the mouths of envious enemies.
It’s a grand plan unfolding
to produce impossible monstruos,
fantasy abandoned by lucidity.
I too find no sueño de la razón here,
only pulses of spider lightning
flashing against a sky of black holes.
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