NaPoWriMo 2019, Day 2

I love ekphrastic poetry and have written my fair share of poems inspired my various works of art. For National Poetry Month/NaPoWriMo, I’m focusing on the ekphrastic. I will also be writing about it for Superstition Review, which will be published on their website on April 11.

I highly recommend the book, Sunlight on the River: Poetry about Paintings and Paintings about Poetry, edited by Scott Gutterman, if you’re interested in the ekphrastic. It has such a wide variety of paintings and poems, from traditional to experimental, so there’s something for any taste!

For day two of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month), I was inspired by the above photograph of Anna Pavlova from 1899. She was dressed for her role as Zulma in the ballet, Giselle. If you’re not familiar with the story of Giselle, Zulma is one of the ‘wilis’ women, who are spirits who in life died of broken hearts after being jilted by lovers, many of them before their weddings. These characters return to dance men to death in retribution to what happened to them while they were alive. The story is so haunting and I love it!

Here is my ekphrastic poem based on the photograph:

 

[Photograph of Anna Pavlova as Zulma in Giselle]

St Petersburg, 1899

Note: NaPoWriMo poems will only be left up on the blog for one week and then taken down so I can edit and submit.