Friday Writings #178: Pick Your Pic

 

Hello again, dear Word Weavers –

Maureen Thorson’s April prompts this year for Na/GloPoWriMo were complex. We didn’t have to use every aspect of a prompt – in fact the prompts were altogether optional – but when I attempted to do so, they took my poems in directions which I found both unexpected and exciting.

While we were set specific tasks to do with form, style, and subject matter, there was also opportunity for the ekphrastic (in which, as I'm sure most of you know, visual art inspires poetry). Every day we were invited to look for inspiration in particular online art museums, choosing which of a great range of artworks spoke to us poetically. 

I haven’t been very keen on ekphrastics in the past, finding it hard to summon up good poetry about particular paintings, even those I enjoy looking at. It was different this time. With the opportunity to explore vast collections and make our own choices, it was much easier to find something which set lines forming in my head. So I am offering you the same. 



Your prompt this week is to find a piece of visual art which inspires you to poetry – or prose, since here we accept both.

By all means choose something you already know, but if nothing springs to mind you might like to take an online look at one of my favourite galleries: the National Gallery of Victoria, in Melbourne – a city I lived in for many years and have visited often since. Click here to roam around the NGV and see what inspires you. I enjoyed searching particular words, whether artists’ names, regions of the world, styles of art, historical eras …

 

 Entrance to the National Gallery of Victoria, taken by moi in January 2020.
(The display alters as exhibitions change.)

Guidelines: Link your ONE post on Mister Linky, below. 369 words maximum (excluding title and notes). Old or new writing, poetry or prose, on prompt or not.

Next week: We will invite you to write poetry or prose which explores starting over... again and again.