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Poems about Art

Explore works in our collection with celebrated American poets.

2 min read

Have you ever sparked with a work of art? Felt electrified or even overwhelmed in its presence? And longed to share your experience with the person next to you?

It might be simple enough to describe what you see. Two people embrace, acrylic paint dripping down one of their backs (and the canvas). Colorful, curvy shapes on curved wires keep a delicate mobile perfectly balanced. A cleaning woman armed with mop and broom gazes steadily at the camera from behind wire-rimmed glasses.

But where do we find the right words to capture what these artworks stir in us? Poetry could be the answer. Poems written about visual art—called ekphrastic poems (from the Greek ékphrasis, which means “description”)—tell a new story.

Ekphrasis comes from a centuries-old tradition of creating a vivid experience for readers by describing art objects in rich and thorough detail. But today, ekphrastic poetry goes beyond description; it allows us to share in a poet’s experience.

We may discover that one member of the embracing couple is “a lover from a world that has already ended,” as we travel to poet Hanif Abdurraqib’s haunted attic. Teri Ellen Cross Davis keeps us right where we are, creeping up and down Calder’s mobile (Little Spider), speaking softly about its “glistening intention.” Or we could take a whole different kind of journey: back to July 1942, as Jason Reynolds considers what a Washington, D.C. Government Charwoman might have been thinking as Gordon Parks posed her.

Will these poems feel like suddenly arriving at the familiar? Putting words to an idea that felt just out of reach when you first saw the same painting? Or more like a shift in perspective, a brand-new take on a sculpture you know so well? Maybe a poem can help you discover a work you’ve never seen before.

Read these new poems.

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The 24th Poet Laureate of the United States responds to Goldsworthy's Roof

Article:  Hanif Abdurraqib on Mwangi Hutter

The poet, essayist, cultural critic, and contributing writer for the New Yorker responds to Mwangi Hutter's Ours To Hold And Caress And Cherish

Article:  Heid E. Erdrich on Amedeo Modigliani

The educator, curator, interdisciplinary artist, and guest curator at the Mead Art Museum of Amherst College responds to Modigliani's Roma Woman with Baby

Article:  Ilya Kaminsky on Alberto Giacometti

The professor of creative writing, Princeton University, responds to Giacometti's Walking Man II

Article:  Jason Reynolds on Gordon Parks

The 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, New York Times bestselling author, and faculty member for the Writing for Young People MFA Program at Lesley University responds to Parks's Washington, D.C. Government Charwoman (American Gothic)

Article:  Naomi Shihab Nye on Max Beckmann

The essayist, educator, and professor of creative writing at Texas State University responds to Beckmann's Falling Man

Article:  Jorie Graham on Edouard Vuillard

The Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University responds to Vuillard's Repast in a Garden.

Article:  Teri Ellen Cross Davis on Alexander Calder

The poetry coordinator of the Folger Shakespeare Library responds to Calder's Little Spider

Article:  Victoria Chang on Anne Truitt

The Bourne Chair of Poetry at Georgia Tech, director of Poetry@Tech, and poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine (2022-2023) responds to Truitt's Mid Day

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