Poetry Challenge: Write an Ekphrastic Poem

An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description or response to a piece of art. They do not have to follow a specific form. They can be any type of poem you like; from Free verse to Haiku to rhyming. You decide!

Can you write your own ekphrastic poem for Vincent Van Gogh’s View of Arles, Flowering Orchards Spring 1889.

For more information on Vincent Van Gogh, visit World Book Online. World Book Online is a resource available through our online catalog, located under the Electronic Resources tab. After you sign-in to the catalog with your library card number and password/phone number, you can click on the World Book Online link to access articles, reference tools, videos and activities for Early Learning, Kids, Student, Advanced or Activity Center. 

Free Verse

A poem that has no specific rules or patterns that poets must follow when writing. 

Rhyming

Rhymes are words that sound similar to each other when you say or hear them. Poets often rhyme words at the end of sentences or words that are next to each other.

Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
The mouse ran down
Hickory, dickory, dock

Haiku

A short, unrhymed Japanese poetic form with three lines of five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables Here’s a Haiku to help you remember:

I am first with five
Then seven in the middle --
Five again to end.

Some poetry books you can find at the Buda Library:

Eric Carle’s Animals, Animals by Eric Carle
J 808.819 CAR

In the wild by David Elliott
J 811 ELL

Handsprings: poems & paintings by Douglas Florian
J 811 FLO

Write your own haiku: see the world through "haiku eyes" by Patricia Donegan
J 808.141 DON

Hypnotize a Tiger: Poems About Just About Everything by Calef Brown
J 811.54 BRO

Maybe I’ll Sleep in the Bathtub Tonight: and Other Funny Bedtime Poems by Debbie Lev
J 811 LEV

Here’s a Little Poem: a Very First Book of Poetry by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters
J 811.008 HER