Ekphrastic poem

Our latest assignment in poetry class was to write an ekphrastic poem--a poem on a work of art. We could choose from any painting, photo, sculpture, etc. So I chose a photo I took in high school when I was in photography class...mostly because I had easy access to it...also because I love the picture. Ekphrastic poems should be able to stand alone without the picture, but also avoid summary description.

Here's the poem I wrote:

Woman on the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry

by Emily Culp

There’s something on the water

she can’t see.

             Black and thirsty

     Tossing beneath thick fog

     the lovers seated behind her

laugh

now              as one shows the other a secret

45 minutes on the ferry

       Inside today because it is too

cold

Her mother will be waiting in

                             Kingston.

Maybe her mother is on the             water

Out there         

  already gone. 

        She’ll have to take the 5:30 back

When traffic

                     is 

                            heavy

Behind the couple

a lamp shade of curly hair

overexposed in the darkroom

keeps her back turned

out of focus

the killer whale

           at the back of the boat

Leaps almost out                                                                of frame.

Mother will be waiting

in             Kingston.

if she is not already            gone.

(And here's a crappy picture of the photo I took with my cell phone)

This class is pretty over my head a lot of the time...but I love it.