Gavin Bennett's Blog: 2015 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 14

Well, we’re two weeks in now! That’s something!

For today’s prompt, write an ekphrastic poem. An ekphrastic poem is a poem inspired by art, usually, though not always, images. I’m providing a few below:

Michelangelo

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Frida Kahlo

Edward Hopper

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Re-create Your Poetry!

Revision doesn’t have to be a chore–something that should be done after the excitement of composing the first draft. Rather, it’s an extension of the creation process! In the 48-minute tutorial video Re-creating Poetry: How to Revise Poems, poets will be inspired with several ways to re-create their poems with the help of seven revision filters that they can turn to again and again.

Click to continue.

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Here’s my attempt at an Ekphrastic poem:

“Masks”

Walt wears the mask of a reasonable soul; Barbara wears one
that cares for the whole; Eddie wears a mask wild and free;
but Marcus wears a mask that is not quite as easy to read.

The adults wear their masks of “don’t bother us now, but behave
and be brave as we cower and scowl.” Jesse wears a mask
that’s invisible now, but his shadow engulfs every heart in town.

The Carter House, itself, is a mask dark and deep that conceals
two muffled voices and a mystery. In a downtown jail cell,
there sits alone a man with a mask without his cell phone.

And the teachers wear masks that plead, “Please look away
from the drama in town both tomorrow and today.” There’s one
mask left to lift, one mask still yet untouched, a mask of the dawn,

a mask of the dusk. There’s one mask left to pull in this whole
tossed around world, the mask that belongs to Jesse’s girl.

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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of the poetry collection, Solving the World’s Problems (Press 53). He edits Poet’s Market and Writer’s Market, in addition to writing a free weekly WritersMarket.com newsletter and a poetry column for Writer’s Digest magazine.

This is his eighth year of hosting and participating in the November PAD (Poem-A-Day) Chapbook Challenge. He can’t wait to see what everyone creates this month–not only on a day-by-day basis, but when the chapbooks start arriving in December and January. Fun, fun, fun.

Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.

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