A Month of Ekphrastic Poetry Writing Prompts

 It's National Poetry Month (which like many of these writing related 'months' is originally a USA initiative but now seems to be embraced worldwide). The idea is to celebrate poetry and poets, though many poets use it as a challenge to write a poem every day (I haven't done that this year!). When faced by that type of challenge many people find it useful to have writing prompts.

A Month of Ekphrastic Poetry Writing Prompts was produced by Lorette C Luzajic for The Ekphrastic Review specifically for National Poetry Month though it has an extra prompt so that it can be used as a poem a day for any month. 

For those who don't know, ekphrastic poetry is poetry inspired by other art forms. I was first drawn to ekphrastic art years ago when the National Galleries of Scotland used to hold an annual contest for poetry written in response to any art work in their collections. The contest no longer takes place, but my interest has continued.

'A Month of Ekphrastic Poetry Writing Prompts' offers a wide range of prompts, to inspire not only poetry but also different ways of looking at art and using art as inspiration. Each prompt is open ended so can be used over and over to inspire responses to different works of art. So there are prompts to base poetry on: the art work in your home: the idea of motherhood as imagined by different artists; pastoral art; confronting your own fears by responding to art showing difficult themes; exploring the stories in or behind artworks. There's even a prompt to write a poem inspired by a work of art you hate! In other words there really is a very wide range of prompts! 

Although these are all billed as poetry writing prompts (it being National Poetry Month after all!) any of them could probably be used to inspire other forms of writing. Some could also be adapted as prompts that don't necessarily directly use art as the inspiration.

I look forward to writing many poems inspired by this publication!

This publication is only available as a download, which may not be ideal for everyone, but it is beautifully designed and very inspiring! 

A Month of Ekphrastic Poetry Writing Prompts by Lorette C Luzajic is available from The Ekphrastic Review

And do check out Lorette C Luzajic's mixed media art on her website here.