Poet and Editor Virginia Bell

You know, if you are reading an ekphrastic poem, which is...

Let's talk about that.

What is an

ekphrastic poem?

Evan, do you want to take this or should I? Well, you know, I'm on here every episode.

I'd love to hear.

You know, I took a class with you about this, so I think you've got a better working knowledge.

Yeah, the short answer is that the word comes from ancient Greek, And it was developed in that time as an exercise for students of rhetoric.

And in that exercise, a student practicing oral rhetoric was supposed to describe a work of art so well that you could picture it even if you had never seen it.

So it was simply an exercise in using good descriptive language.

It's very different now.

When we think of ekphrastic poetry, that's not an exercise.

It's an art form in and of itself.

And you don't have to describe the art object so well that the person can see it.

But the art object becomes a jumping off point for you, for your imagination.

There might be a little bit of description of it, but there doesn't have to be even.

And a jumping off point where you can react, debate, challenge, or just freely associate from it.

Or maybe write in the persona of an object or a human figure that's in the work of art.

There's a lot of different approaches.

And what counts as a work of art is also broken wide open.

It could be pop culture, The Simpsons.

It could be film, dance, sculpture, music.

you know, or a painting.

Yeah.

So just one thought, because we don't need to know what Lilith Fair is.