Ekphrasis Monday

Monday seems like a good day to do ekphrasis poems, right? If you’re not familiar with this term, it is poetry written as a vivid description of a work of art. It is a great writing exercise to keep you writing.

You can explore more ekphrasis poems by clicking that link. Read as many as you can and find the art work they are based on. Then, try your own! Grab a book on art, go a museum, art gallery, an art show at an elementary school… Find a piece that makes your imagination wiggle and write…

The ekphrasis poems that I will do on Mondays will be based on photos that I take, for now. I’ve decided that this is a great way to join to things I love: photography and poetry.

So, here is my photo and the poem, enjoy!

Down in Braamfontein,

 my wife and I sit in the shadows of buildings, talking. Our conversation

drops into our coffee word by word, letter by letter.

He sits at the table across from me, orders, pulls out

his phone, scrolls and scrolls. Leaving his coffee

to cool on the table. Leaving the street, leaving Braam

he floats away. Where to, old man? Check the weather in

Cape Town? Look at your friends’ pics of the Durban beaches?

Did you take off from South Africa, fly to Europe or the States?

Maybe he is looking for words to drop into his drink,

but only bits and bytes fall into his cup. I hold him

with my eye in the handle of my cup, hoping to keep him

there on the street, there in Johannesburg. I want

to delay him from drifting up and over the Highveld, but

only long enough that his coffee doesn’t get cold.