Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

Do you know what ekphrastic poetry is?

Don’t feel bad, lots of people don’t.

 In the broadest sense, it is poetry written in response to an artwork – a painting, sculpture, drawing, architecture, etc. It’s an old tradition stretching back to ancient Greece when it was often focused on the poetic description of the art. Today, it has more to do with a personal, subjective reaction to a piece of art that serves as a jumping off place for the poet’s own creation of original art in verbal form.

This year, the organizers of the National Poetry Month San Antonio came up with the idea of sponsoring an ekphrastic poetry contest open to all poets from San Antonio and South Texas. But you don’t get to pick the inspirational artwork. Four images from four local museums were preselected by the museums themselves to serve as sources of inspiration.

They are:

Once Upon a Time by Mark Maggiori at the Briscoe Western Art Museum

Sarah # 9, by Heidi McCall, at the McNay Art Museum

Mama Ocllo, First Coya by an unknown artist, at the San Antonio Museum of Art

Apache Pitch Lined Basket, at the Witte Museum

Each poet can submit up to two poems, 15 lines or less, plus title. It is emphasized that the poems should be about how the art affects you, the writer, how it speaks to you, not a mere description of the art piece.

Up to three winning poems per artwork will be selected by three judges: Jim LaVilla-Havelin, the National Poetry Month Coordinator; Octavio Quintanilla, the immediate past San Antonio Poet Laureate, and Linda Simone, a poet, artists and educator. Submission deadline is March 20, 2021 and winners will be notified by email no later than March 25. There’s no entry fee. The winning poems will be “shared throughout April” which is national Poetry Month.

To enter, send an email to Simone at lindsim1@gmail.com, and include your name, address, phone and email, and attach one poem per email as a Word doc. You should not put any identifying information on the poem itself. Subject line should read Ekphrastic Poetry Contest Submission – (Title of Artwork).

ARTS ALIVE SAN ANTONIO will publish all winning poems, and they will also be featured on the websites of the four museums, the Public Library, Gemini Ink and Bihl Haus Arts.