Inspired by Art: Week 3, Words as Art
A 4-week ekphrastic writing workshop
Hello Zesties,
Welcome to Week 3 of Inspired by Art: a 4-week course in ekphrastic poetry.
If you’re new to ekphrasis, check out my post What is Ekphrastic Poetry?
How the course works:
Every Tuesday in April a set of prompts/exercises will be delivered to your inbox to get your artsy juices flowing onto the page. The basic prompts will be available for everyone, but if you want to go deep, there will be more context below the paywall. Paid subscribers will also get an extra task that builds as the course progresses.
Week 1: Immersion
Week 2: Colour & Imagery
Week 3: Words as Art
Week 4: Beyond Ekphrasis
Week 5: Open Mic & Art Show [Add to Calendar]
Dog Walk Love Note
Before we get into the lessons, I want to start this week with a little love note about how I started writing ekphrastic poetry and why I love it so much:
Artist as Poet - Make a Dada Poem
How to Make a Dadaist Poem
take a newspaper, take a pair of scissors
choose an article
cut out the article then cut out it to the words that make up the article
place in a bag
shake gently
then take out each of the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag
copy conscientiously
If you can print an article or cut an article from a newspaper/magazine that would be best. If not, you can use the Dada Poem Generator which will jumble the words up for you. After that, you can add line breaks and stanzas as you see fit. Try and make it as visually appealing as possible.
Poet as Artist - Make a Word Sculpture
Take a moment to sit in silence and tune into the sounds around you. Write down everything you can hear. Write down the literal words and the phonetic sound, eg. tummy rumbling, grrrmm.
Now, play with your words/sounds. How can you lay them out on the page to emphasise their meaning? Can you add extra letters or punctuation to mimic the sound?