There is a beautiful kind of poetry called ekphrastic poetry, which is simply poetry inspired by art. The word ekphrastic may sound unfamiliar at first, but the idea is very accessible and deeply human: we look at a painting, a sculpture, a photograph, or another work of art, and we listen for what it stirs in us.
Sometimes the poem describes what is seen. Sometimes it enters the world of the image and imagines what happened before or after the moment captured. Sometimes the poem speaks in the voice of a figure in the painting, or the tree, the color, the shadow, the empty chair. Sometimes the artwork becomes a doorway, and the poem walks through.
That is the magic of ekphrastic poetry. It creates a conversation between two forms of art: the visual and the written. The artist begins with image, color, texture, shape, and silence. The poet responds with language, rhythm, breath, and feeling. Together, they invite us to look more closely.
This month’s Poetry Corner features a poem by Cheryl Panosian, Danbury Poet Laureate, inspired by a painting by artist Cy Gavin titled Untitled (Fallen Sugar Maple), 2020, created with acrylic, gesso, and chalk on canvas.
Cheryl’s poem, “Fallen,” enters the spirit of the painting and listens. It does what ekphrastic poetry can do so gracefully: it does not merely explain the artwork, but meets it. The poem becomes a second kind of seeing.
As a poet, I love the way ekphrastic writing asks us to pause. To stand before a piece of art and let it speak before we rush to name it. To notice what rises in us: memory, grief, wonder, beauty, discomfort, awe. It reminds us that art is not only something we look at. It is something we enter.
And sometimes, if we are lucky, it enters us too.
I’m also delighted to share that Cheryl Panosian will be the featured poet at my monthly Poetry/Storytelling Open Mic on Tuesday, June 2, from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, at Molten Java in Bethel. These gatherings take place on the first Tuesday of every month, and they are open to poets, storytellers, listeners, and anyone who loves the brave little lantern of spoken word.
Please join us for an evening of poetry, story, community, and connection. And for now, enjoy Cheryl Panosian’s poem “Fallen,” inspired by Cy Gavin’s Untitled (Fallen Sugar Maple).
Fallen
broken -felled
I wanted to hold a funeral for you
I wanted you to understand
you were always
a showy tree
parading leaves
yellow, burnt orange
deep red waving
calling attention to yourself
I would always notice you
my shade tree in summer
when you were still green
sturdy and strong
I watched you grow
almost overnight towering
dwarfing everything
surrounding your broadening base
after autumn’s show
all your leaves dropped
creating more than a mess
piles and piles
soon barren branches
leaving others to clean up after you
it was those moments
when your leaves were gone
a foreseen, but ignored storm
took you out
cracking you in half
leaving you lying broken
in the midst of life.
© Cheryl Panosian
060324.png)
.png)
