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  Home>Stories>Poems about Art
      

      
      Search Poems about Art
 Explore works in our collection with celebrated American poets.
 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.
 
 Ada Limón on Andy Goldsworthy
						
							The 24th Poet Laureate of the United States responds to Goldsworthy's Roof

								
								
									Read the poem
 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

								
								
									Read the poem
 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

								
								
									Read the poem
 Ilya Kaminsky on Alberto Giacometti
						
							The professor of creative writing, Princeton University, responds to Giacometti's Walking Man II

								
								
									Read the poem
 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)

								
								
									Read the poem
 Naomi Shihab Nye on Max Beckmann
						
							The essayist, educator, and professor of creative writing at Texas State University responds to Beckmann's Falling Man

								
								
									Read the poem
 Teri Ellen Cross Davis on Alexander Calder
						
							Thepoetry coordinator of the Folger Shakespeare Library responds to Calder's Little Spider

								
								
									Read the poem
 Jorie Graham on Edouard Vuillard
						
							The Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University responds to Vuillard's Repast in a Garden.

								
								
									Read the poem
 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

								
								
									Read the poem
 "Poetry is a country"
						
							These poems were created as part of our 2023 celebration of art and poetry.

						
						
							Learn more








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