By Flapper Press Poetry Café:
It's time to announce our five winners for the Flapper Press Poetry Café's Summer 2024 Ekphrastic Poetry Contest!
The Flapper Press Poetry Café continues to champion artists, writers, poets, and creators from around the globe and provide in-depth interviews about their work and passions. This year, our 2024 Ekphrastic Poetry Contest featured the esteemed photography of John McDermott and served as inspiration for a multi-national group of poets. We were honored to receive so many submissions for the contest and, as always, it is a difficult process to narrow down the field. As a special touch, we asked the photographer to select our final five poems.
Thank you to all the poets who submitted their wonderful work! Stay tuned for our next contest!
To read more about John McDermott and his work, check out our in-depth interview, poetry submission photos, and his website. You can also purchase an autographed copy of his gorgeous art book here.
So, what exactly is ekphrastic poetry?
According to the Poetry Foundation:
Ekphrasis
“Description” in Greek. An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT REGARDING THE POETRY COMPETITION
First off, I would like to say that I am very honored and flattered that my pictures were used as inspiration in this contest. Having my images stand as subjects for interpretation was something I have never experienced, so it was very exciting to see what would develop. I had no idea which pictures, if any, would be chosen, and in what way they would inspire the authors. Needless to say, I was impressed with the results.
Of the images that were selected by the participants, three were from Myanmar (formally known as Burma). The remainder were from a project I had done on Angkor in Cambodia.
The capital of the great Khmer Empire, Angkor once had a population of almost a million people. Over the course of several hundred years, the various god-kings who ruled there built a series of massive stone temples, the greatest of which is Angkor Wat, the largest religious edifice in the world. Having withstood the ravages of time, these mysterious temples are witness to the deep spirituality of the culture that created them.
It was always of great importance to me that my images transcended time, that there were no indicators of any time-frame present in them. I also wanted to create images that emphasized the otherworldly atmosphere that can be found in places that were host to ancient cultures.
With the series of photographs of Angkor, I used a specialized black-and-white infrared film to enhance the surreal aspects of the ancient architecture. Nature assisted me with the bizarre appearance of the branches and roots of the trees and their interrelationship with the stones of the old temples.
Myanmar is a visual feast of surreal imagery and needed little help in transcending time. It is a country that seems to be lost in time, and its landscapes and scenery are magical and often alien in character. These are qualities I highly value in the ethos of my work.
Most importantly, I have always wanted my images to convey a sense of mystery, to be thought provoking, to inspire curiosity and wonder, and to suggest a shadow of mystical significance in the places they depicted.
Judging by the words they inspired in this contest, I feel that they have succeeded.
Some of the entrants chose a personal narrative to the pictures, while others were more esoteric in their writing. A couple of people related descriptions of their own individual experiences. Others tied the pictures to experiences of the characters in the image, and others weaved portraits of messages contained within the photos.
There is no proper or correct way to interpret these pictures. Each person wrote his or her own impression of an image. The connection each person made proves that observation and interpretation of imagery is highly personal. Seeing the variety of the resulting poetic creations has been thrilling to me. I thank everyone who participated, and I hope my pictures can continue to inspire.
Thank you,
John McDermott, September 6, 2024
Summer 2024 Flapper Press Poetry Café
Ekphrastic Poetry Contest
Winners!
Radhika Soni
(Choice: "Three Fishermen on Lake Inle")
The Ballet on Lake Inle
At dawn they rush from stilted homes to glide
Above the misty waters where fish bide.
Vigilant under grey-streaked morning skies,
They browse the lake with eager, searching eyes.
Perched daringly, with one leg around the oar,
They scan the shallow water, seeking more
Fish; their unfilled, grey nets speak of their plight,
Which they must fill before the fall of night.
With grace, one leg is lifted in the air,
Like ballerinas showing off their flair;
Their conical hats shade their weary eyes
As fish beneath the water's surface rise.
The stage now set to play the ancient game
Before the sun begins to hurl its flame.
Radhika Soni is a poet from Haryana, India. She graduated with Honours in English and loves to read and write poetry. Her poems have been published by The HyperTexts, Borderless, The Society of Classical Poets, among others.
Michael H. Brownstein
(Choice: "Twisted Tree")
The Holding Vessel
The roof of god
lays low
balancing
the tree of life
against its rafters,
its roots digging deep
through earth and stone.
The siren psalm
sings to its trunk
twisting its flesh
until every episode
of man's inhumanity
fills its inner being.
Its roots fall deeper
until they reach
fields of bone.
Michael H. Brownstein is a poet from Missouri. His latest volumes of poetry, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else (2018) and How Do We Create Love (2019), were both published by Cholla Needles Press.
Thomas Durbin
(Choices: "West Gate" & "Twisted Tree")
Timeless
Echoes of voices of venerable sages,
Reverberate throughout the ages,
Visages of the past enshrined,
Near ancient walls long entwined,
Waterfall of roots streams down,
In shadows cast by skyward crown,
Lightly fluttering leaves,
Energized by gentle breeze,
Whisper tales of ancient sages,
Infused with the wisdom of the ages.
Thomas Durbin resides in Illinois. The poet is a free spirit, author, professional engineer, traveller, father, and grandfather with a passion for Earth and nature.
Maril Crabtree
(Choice: "Monk in the Wind")
A Message for the Departed Monks of Angkor Wat
Your footsteps are invisible. They’re not embedded
in fossilized remains. Still, they will never be erased.
The energy of you – walking on this earth, skipping
through childhood into the sure stride of adulthood
and into the hesitant steps of age – is layered
into the tapestry of memory, the path of history,
into the wind that continues to blow on stone steps.
Maril Crabtree’s latest book, Journey (Kelsay Press, 2024), as well as poems from other books and literary journals, can be seen on her website www.marilcrabtree.com.
Jane Martin
(Choice: "Twisted Tree")
Heaven and Earth Trees
The nimbus of the jungle haunts me,
rising from the temple ruins,
the white trunk of stunning height
Stretches for the jungle light
Surrounded by heat and damp
The stonework of the monks
Abandoned, crumble over time
Making way for jungle climb
Trees began growth toward light
Taking over what monks left behind
Had they fallen from favor?
Gone in search of a new savior?
Is the story told by giant roots
reaching over walls into the ground?.
Are they writing in some unknown language
Telling us truths of human anguish?
Heaven and earth united
Trees link to kin beneath our feet
Shield us from unrelenting heat
Mere humans wrapped in the fecund smell
Struggle to understand messages they tell
Jane Martin is a New England transplant living in Kansas City, Missouri. Retired from 31 years of government work, she now volunteers with Lead to Read and Harvesters.
Presenting a wide range of poetry with a mission to promote a love and understanding of poetry for all. We welcome submissions for compelling poetry and look forward to publishing and supporting your creative endeavors. Submissions may also be considered for the Pushcart Prize. Please review our Guidelines before submitting!
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