Ekphrasis: Poems and Art

Welcome to a new Mad Poets blog, to be offered every two months.

It’s a pleasure to write about the relationship between poetry and other art forms, to examine ways that a various creative arts relate to each other.

The term ekphrasis can be defined narrowly as writing that describes a work of art in another medium-- paintings, music, photography sculpture and the like. It can also refer more broadly to the alchemy that happens when one medium tries to define and relate to another. This could refer to poems inspired by the visual arts or music -- and also the reverse! To my mind, ekphrasis can also encompass hybrid works, like artists’ books, author/illustrator collaborations and graphic poems.

Many scholars have written about ekphrasis and there are great resources online. Though not scholar of the topic, I have had a practice of writing poetry and painting for many years. Both are essential to my creative life. These art forms interact, challenge each other and open up many questions and tensions.

My aim in this blog is to feature the work of various poets and artists, to let you know of interesting viewing opportunities and to provide some angles that might prompt your own writing.

I’d Rather Be a Hyacinth: The Ekphrastic Poems of Cathy and Alexandra Hailey

Cathy Hailey has a long and impressive career teaching English and creative writing in Prince William County, Virginia schools, Johns Hopkins University and other institutions. Her teaching and writing has garnered many awards and prizes. I admire not only her work, but also the generosity and passion she brings to the poetry community. (https://advanced.jhu.edu/directory/cathy-hailey/ and https://cathyhailey.com).

This year, the Poetry Society of Virginia celebrates its centennial. As vice president of its Northern Region, Cathy recently organized an excellent online series of readings based on ekphrasis, “Where Art Meets the Line” (links below). Cathy experiments with ekphrasis, inspired by others’ paintings and photographs as well as her own, as can be sampled in her recent collection, I’d Rather Be a Hyacinth. Its vibrant cover displays one of her own images and this book is dedicated to another talented artist and poet, her late daughter, Alexandra “Zan” Delaine Hailey.

The poems of both Cathy and Alexandra display a fine sensitivity and lyricism in observing and sharing the natural world. Alexandra’s poem is paired with her own photograph and Cathy’s, with her own painting.

PRAYING MANTIS
Ridges ladder a slender
back perpendicularly lined
in burnt orange—he sways,
swinging forearms like a jazz

man on keys before stopping
to stare at a file folder
reflecting his delicate lime-
green structure; sweet sax
radiates through radio

before purifying white walls
with a touch of liveliness
right out of Robinson’s back
lily garden: tips dripping

orange neon from golden
nectar breasts. Mantis’ serrated
limbs climb to the ceiling
exploring spackled foam-core
that holds fluorescents in place—

the withered gleam, never
as warm as lamp light, works
for now, just as a picture speaks
so many words but never

does the moment justice,
relative to presence. A triangular
face waits patiently for clocks
to strike release—freedom
from stone walls that fracture

each passing day. Ink-crossed
calendar blocks roll, finding
fresh cycles endearing
and repetition swelling. See,

it isn’t time that changes
people; people change time.

Alexandra “Zan” Delaine Hailey

Ardea Herodias

Tribute to a Tall Friend

Oh Heron, where art thou?
I heard a tale of your trajectory across Burke Lake,
the glide path of your blue majestic wings.
In past years, I remember you standing statuesque—
the tallest bird on stage—towering over
a gaggle of green-necked geese
and a paddling of white-winged ducks
like those I see today choreographing dainty steps
as they glissade across slick glass surfaces.

I search for you in the canopy of trees,
along log-littered shorelines,
among swaying reeds circled by dragonflies.
Though I long to see you in your natural habitat,
I discover you only within me as I recall
snapshots of summer sojourns,
awe-inspiring recitations, scenes of influence
over a siege of admiring apprentices
eager to share a laugh, a skit, a song.

Oh Heron, where art thou
in the prophecy of our future?
Our retreats already too infrequent,
I will miss your grace and noble stature,
your wisdom, curiosity, strength,
and perpetual creation of light.
When I no longer find you in a familiar place
on our lake, on a campus home we share,
you will still be memorialized in art and word.

Cathy Hailey

Integrating poetry and art is one of Cathy’s favorite topics and processes. She shared that she has used different kinds of art throughout her life. Lacking expertise in drawing when young, she turned to other arts and crafts, especially jewelry making and gem cutting. She learned to cut cabochons and facet amethysts. Using sterling silver wire and sheets, she grew skilled in constructing pendants, rings, bracelets and earrings. These talents she continued growing at the Crafts Center at Duke University, adding new skills using a potter’s wheel to make ceramic cups, bowls, vases, and other art pieces. Clearly a lifelong learner, Cathy also loves working with weaving and hopes in the near future to get her table loom and other homemade looms out of storage.

Cathy shares with pride about her talented daughter, Alexandra, to quote:

Alexandra was an English/Creative Writing major at VCU and credits Gary Sange, Gregory Donovan, and David Wojahn with helping her hone her craft. Alexandra also took courses in the Fine Arts Department, talking her way into upper-level classes without the prerequisites. She took photography and a course that allowed her to paint and create sculpture, even design and produce furniture. She took a business art course that was very helpful for developing skills in marketing and entrepreneurship. She took other courses in the Communications Department that inspired creativity (including a Band-Aid project based on Noah Scalin’s Skull-A-Day project, and she frequently incorporated art and poetry in portfolios she designed whenever a professor would consider a more creative approach rather than the standard analysis paper. She learned and grew so much from these opportunities.

“Darwin’s law does not apply.
She lived as a butterfly.”
– Cathy Hailey, from “Flying High”

Cathy has taken advantage of prompts from several sources as a springboard for writing. She recommends: Rattle Ekphrastic prompts(https://www.rattle.com/ekphrastic/), The Ekphrastic Review (https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges) and the Passagers Journal’s monthly ekphrastic poetry challenge (https://www.passengersjournal.com/ekphrastic-poetry-contest).

Cathleen Cohen was the 2019 Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, PA. A painter and teacher, she founded the We the Poets program at ArtWell, an arts education non-profit in Philadelphia (www.theartwell.org). Her poems appear in journals such as Apiary, Baltimore Review, Cagibi, East Coast Ink, 6ix, North of Oxford, One Art, Passager, Philadelphia Stories, Rockvale Review and Rogue Agent. Camera Obscura (chapbook, Moonstone Press), appeared in 2017 and Etching the Ghost (Atmosphere Press), was published in 2021. She received the Interfaith Relations Award from the Montgomery County PA Human Rights Commission and the Public Service Award from National Association of Poetry Therapy. Her paintings are on view at Cerulean Arts Gallery. To learn more about her work, visit www.cathleencohenart.com.