The Maier Museum of Art Journal of Ekphrastic Poetry

The creation of original poetry and prose in response to works of visual art, known as Ekphrastic writing, is a writing exercise originating in ancient Greece. Schoolboys were assigned composition exercises in which they were challenged to describe painting and architecture in vivid detail. Familiar examples are poems such as John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1819) or W. H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” (1938). Ekphrastic writing has enjoyed a revival among contemporary authors in recent decades.

Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College - Online Journal of Ekphrastic Peotry The Maier Museum of Art’s first Ekphrastic poetry publication came in 2005 with Image/Word: A Book of Poems. This compilation of verse was written by community members of all ages in response to artworks in the collection. In 2009, Image/Word was followed by Water Lines, a book of original poems inspired by the 2008 exhibition Water Marks: Selections from the Permanent Collection. Water Lines includes poems from area elementary, middle, and high school students; Randolph College students; and adult writers active in Central Virginia.

In 2010, poet Keith Ratzlaff taught a class on Ekphrastic poetry as guest instructor for Randolph College’s Visiting Writers Program. At that point, the Maier established an Ekphrastic poetry webpage, now the Maier Museum of Art Journal of Ekphrastic Poetry.

While we are no longer accepting submissions, we hope readers will enjoy the poems inspired by artwork in our collection which have been published over the years.

Published Poems 2010 – 2024

2024
	Autumn Morning After Hiroshige’s Yumihara-zuki by Ira Schaeffer
	Blacksmith After William Bicknell’s The Blacksmith by C. Perricone
	I’ve Seen Places a Lot More After Flavius J. Fisher’s Dismal Swamp by Mary Christine Delea
	Mrs. Scott’s House After Edward Hopper’s Mrs. Scott’s House by Elissa Greenwald
	One, Once After Fernando Puma’s Yellow Sunlight by Steve Wilson
	The Life of Clouds After Eric Sloan’s Cloud Mural by Lynne Knight
	Untitled After Salvador Dalí’s Love’s Promise by Lynne Knight
	Visualization of Blues (a cherita) After Alison Saar’s Backwater Blues by Jianqing Zheng

2021
	Parlous Waters by R. A. Allen
	Seventh Sister by R. A. Allen
	At the café by Jennifer Hernandez

2020

	darkness doesn’t win by Gwynneth Green
	Much Morning by Rikki Santer
	Winslow Homer’s Paris Courtyard by Joseph Stanton
	John Frederick Kensett’s On the Connecticut Shore by Joseph Stanton

Lady with a Dog
by Akshaya Pawaskar

Untitled (after Mrs. Scott’s House)
by Martin Willitts, Jr.

2019

	In My Dreams I Am Whole by Steve Wilson
	The Gift by Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad
	To Understand by Luigi Coppola
	New Winters by Luigi Coppola
	Mixer by Luigi Coppola
	The Eyes of Cows by Luigi Coppola
	Animals by Luigi Coppola
	Scaradh by Tyler Thier

2018

	Vipassana by Steve Wilson
	After the Demise of the Swine’s Sister by Mary Ellen Talley

2017

	On the Brink by Dianne Borsenik
	3 AM Meditation by Steve Wilson
	Lake Scene With Figures by Lee Evans

2016

	The Beauty of the Village by Steve Wilson
	Of April by Steve Wilson

2015

	Prudence Pauses by Warren Meredith Harris
	Dying Words by Kevin C Chadwick
	Breaking Up of the Duncan by Kevin C Chadwick
	Pinion by Kevin C Chadwick

2014

	A Poem for Irving Amen’s ‘Girl with Flowers’ by Terry Bodine
	Considering Rest by Terry Bodine
	Suspension by Andrew L. Smiley

2013

	The vibrancy of red by Lisa Alexander Baron
	How To Forget The Horizon At Sea Is Even There by Jessica M. Brophy
	Haunted House by featured poet Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda
	The Deserted Beach by Guy Terrell
	Cape Cod by Kristine Ong Muslim
	Mary Scott Swann, 1816 by Joan Mazza
	One of Twenty-Eight Views of the Moon by Vivian Teter
	Yoshitoshi \| Yoshiiku \| Mishima Asagiri \| Kunisada \| Soshu Tonegawa by Chris Doss
	Missing My Mother by LuAnn Keener-Mikenas