What is "reverse ekphrasis"?

I write only because

There is a voice within me

That will not be still

-Sylvia Plath

About this project:

This project takes a multimodal approach to a traditional alphabetic poetry portfolio. Many digital literary magazines call for authors to send in audio clips of them reading their work after it has been accepted for publication. Listening to a poem being read provides the listener with a unique experience; the author’s voice, inflection, and narration can contribute to special insight into the poem’s meaning, including how white space and punctuation contribute to the way a poem is read/spoken. As writer Jorge Luis Borges once said, “Truly fine poetry must be read aloud…If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art.” 

However, this project moves beyond just the audio component. An ekphrastic poem “is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art” (Poetry Foundation). While an ekphrastic poem addresses a work of art, this project applies what I refer to as “reverse ekphrasis.” Instead of composing a poem after a work of art, images have been created or photographs have been taken to address an already-written work of poetry. Using this blog interface, this project includes the ten poems from the original portfolio, audio files of the poems being read (links to SoundCloud), and original, unique images (artwork/photographs) that enhance the overall creative experience of interacting with a work of poetry. 

Each of the poems from the original portfolio exists in an individual page on this blog, so each page contains one poem and that poem’s audio file and image. While the poems don’t follow an overall theme, they are brought together by the blog's consistent design and use of audio and image. The comment function is enabled for each individual page on the blog, so the poem/audio/image is interactive for participants. 

Poetry is more than just reading; it is meant to invoke the feelings and emotions of the reader. This is why so many poets read their work at live events and why this project contains the audio files, but poetry is even more than that. Each person who reads a poem begins to visualize what the poem means based on their own individual life experiences, thoughts, and feelings. 

This project includes images that may offer one insight into a poem’s meaning. While the images suggest one meaning of each individual poem, it is ultimately up to the audience to develop their own interpretation. As poet Sylvia Plath said, “Once a poem is made available to the public, the right of interpretation belongs to the reader.”

All of the poems, photographs, and artwork within this blog are by Kristin LaFollette.