Tag: ekphrasis

Updates

Newly published poem: “Tanager’s Cantrip”

mwinikates

I am absolutely delighted that my poem “Tanager’s Cantrip” was selected as editor’s choice for the April ekphrastic challenge over at Rattle literary magazine. My little magic spell of woodland birds and dappled light is on the front page today, and will shortly be listed in the archives of the ekphrastic challenge for future reading. I’m very grateful to both the editors and the artist; I loved Stephanie Trenchard‘s painting as soon as I saw it. I also really enjoyed the artist’s choice of poem as well, so I recommend that you check that one out when the two April winners are up in the archive!

A small songbird sits on a branch which rises diagonally across the image from left corner to right. The bird is a saffron-crowned tanager, with a bright yellow head with black mask around its eye, bright blue feathers on its breast and belly, and black and yellow striped feathers on its wings. The background is a blur of green suggesting leaves.
Saffron-crowned Tanager (Tangara xanthocephala), used with a creative commons license, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saffron-crowned_Tanager_(Tangara_xanthocephala)_(cropped).jpg

What the series editor, Megan O’Reilly said about my poem:

“I was moved by ‘Tanager’s Cantrip’ before I even looked up the word “cantrip,” but when I read the definition–‘a magical spell’—I had a moment of ‘ah, of course.’ With its alliterative, chanting rhymes, this poem is an incantation, a blaze of magic language to match the visual magic of Stephanie Trenchard’s painting. The light, color, and movement in the image all contribute to its air of enchantment, and yet the figure of the girl is motionless and beige—an artistic choice that seems to lend credence to the poet’s use of the word still in ‘magic lives within you still.’ The girl in the painting, one could speculate, struggles to connect with the beauty around her. The last line of ‘Tanager’s Cantrip,’ seems to remind her that, despite this perceived separateness, she is where she belongs.”

Yellow caution tape in close up crosses diagonally from lower left to upper right over a blurry dark background of rubble or asphalt
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Poem: Afterwords

mwinikates

They say poetry is a form of protest, and certainly it is good to feel like sometimes one’s words can pack a punch. I wrote this poem originally inspired by Rattle’s ekphrastic challenge for September of 2024, using this image by artist Barbara Gordon. I thought I was angry then, and I’m angrier now. So I’m sharing a poem, and asking you to contact the people who have power over the things you care about. Maybe that’s at the federal level, but maybe it’s your state or local government, your school committee, your library trustees. Make sure they know you’re paying attention.

Close-up photograph of caution tape over a dark background of asphalt, used under creative commons license. Photo by Tewy, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caution_Tape.jpg

Afterwords
by Meg Winikates, September 2024

CAUTION — DANGER — DO NOT CROSS —
Barricades and barrels,
flashing lights and flaring eyes.
They tried to lock us out.
They tried to box us in. 
But the people are the books
are the ideas are the will to be
free. 
And the library stayed open.
And the books flew off the shelves.
And the only words left 
unread
flutter yellow in the wind
like the cowardice
that strung them.

Caution.

Danger.

Do 
Not 
Cross
the librarians.

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Happy Announcement: Another published poem!

mwinikates

I was incredibly thrilled to hear that the Mass Poetry Festival was returning for 2021, as it has been an incredible source of inspiration and community for me for years. I was even more happy to see that as part of this year’s festival, they were running a contest for the creation of ekphrastic poetry (a personal favorite). They invited any and all to respond poetically to any of 12 works of art from those in the Montserrat College of Art community, and the top poem for each piece would be exhibited online and also be sold as broadsheet posters to support MassPoetry.

I am honored and excited to say that my poem, “Manifest,” inspired by the painting “Being Perfect is a Very Unrealistic Expectation” was chosen to be part of the exhibition and the broadsheet publication.

The girl is a ghost
made of moonlight and movement
blue smoke in the mirror
of a reflecting pool world.

You can use the link above to jump straight to my poem, or you can visit the whole exhibit here:

Mass Poetry Online Ekphrastic Gallery

If you are so inspired, you can purchase any of the broadsides from the gallery here. (Bit of vanity, direct link to mine is here.)

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5 Tips for Your Inspiration Expedition

mwinikates

Not all those who wander are lost. All those who wonder are found.
Detail from a map in the collection of the Boston Public Library’s Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.

A few weeks ago, all the sins published my reflections on and exhortations to the wonders of gathering artistic inspiration in museums. (If you missed it, you can find it here.)

This week, they’re back with my best suggestions on how to outfit yourself for a museum exploration. Matthew Henson didn’t head for the North Pole without a coat, after all!

So if you’re suffering writer’s block, or it’s been ages since you went on that school trip to your local historical society, here are my 5 tips on using museums for inspiration.

…Inspiration can come from a fossil in a natural history collection, a scrap of wallpaper in a historic house, the view from a national park peak. What would a taxidermied specimen have to say to its collector? What words still resonate in the walls of an old structure? Whose hands molded the pot whose shards sit in that case, and how do the pieces evoke the whole?

 

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On stealing inspiration, and why I love museums

mwinikates

museum_indiana_jones.gif

My features essay, “Art Heists for Art’s Sake,” is now up to kick off Issue 3 of the lovely UK literary journal, all the sins!

…the day I stood in front of that Breugel painting and talked poetry with my mother was a turning point for me. Since then, I’ve worked inspiration from other art forms into my creative writing, both poetry and prose, both consciously and unconsciously. Museums have also become my career, both as a museum educator and as a museum advocate. Fortunately, one creative practice informs the other in a rewarding cycle.

You can read the full article here.

 

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Found: Poetry, Art, and Longfellow connections

mwinikates

I had a great time leading two workshops at the Longfellow House/Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site to help celebrate National Poetry Month.

“Something New, Something Strange:” Found Poetry Workshop

This workshop included lots of discussion of found poetry in the 21st century, including the many ways the internet has made found poetry more possible, varied, and hilarious. We tried illustrated found poetry using Henry Longfellow’s poetry, and also pages from a mystery novel and a historical fiction, and talked about fun everyday found poetry from sources like Pentametron and GooglePoetics.

longfellow shipwreck found poem
My found poem of a sea sprite, from Longfellow’s “Musician’s Tale” in Tales of a Wayside Inn.

“Grace Unto Every Art:” Poetry and Visual Arts Workshop

This included getting to talk about the Longfellow family connections to the visual arts (Henry’s wife Fanny Appleton had a brother, Thomas, who was part of the founding of the MFA. Henry’s older son Charlie collected a lot of Asian art on his trip to Japan, and Henry’s younger son Ernest became a painter.) and taking a tour of the first floor of the house. Many thanks to the fabulous rangers who kept an eye on us and answered our dozens of questions as we each picked an object that inspired us to write!

fanny longfellow writing desk
Fanny Longfellow’s writing desk in the parlor of the Longfellow National Historic Site

Inspirational Books
I brought these to the workshops for people to leaf through for inspiration; you can find them at your local library or bookstore (or museum gift shop!):

Missed out on the workshops? There’s lots of cool programs coming up at Longfellow for their summer festival, and the Mass Poetry Festival is this weekend in Salem, MA. I’ll be at the Peabody Essex Museum talking scale in poetry & art on Saturday afternoon. Hope to see you there!