Imagine Nature painting a spring sky in yellow, white, and blue, and inserting a tree filled with dainty blossoms. Artists, like Van Gogh, added beauty to a canvas by observing nature's glorious hues. The beauty of living life is captured in Van Gogh's artwork, Almond Blossom from the Van Gogh Museum. Adding poetry provides another layer of artistic expression.
A poem transforms a Van Gogh painting from a static image into a multisensory dialogue, adding emotional layers and narrative depth that a frame cannot hold. While Van Gogh used color to express mysterious vibrations, poetry uses language to give those vibrations a voice. The Poetry Lab
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While scrolling through Google Arts and Culture, I discovered PoemPostcards, "a playful experience that allows the user to create an art-inspired and AI-generated poem using Google's PaLM 2 Model".I tried two different formats, haiku and elegy, AI-generated with Google tools.
Pale blooms reach for the sky
Branches dance in azure light
Hope on every bough
AI Generated with Google Tools
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Without AI's help, I created my own Ekphrastic PoemPostcard.
The above ekphrastic poem will be added to my Spring Seeds Grace April Padlet. I encourage my readers to create an ekphrastic poem, nature photo, music, or inspirational quote for the padlet gallery. Enjoy writing by blending art, poetry, and springtime!
Today, I read Diane Anderson, newtreemom's blog and found an interesting prompt from Ethical ELA's Verse Love challenge. Use the "first words" from a poem that inspired you.
As many of my poetry and writing colleagues know, I have been bewildered by a new way of living since my husband passed suddenly last April. Writing is my way of dealing with loss and so I try to find time each day to unfold my thoughts. This day started out with what a person in the bereavement phase of life calls a grief burst. You will find my poem starting with the first line of Rumi's poem,The Window, a raw piece of writing that opened my soul. I found the above image at Unsplash's free image collection. Then, I scrolled through blogs on love and loss and found a quote that reminded me that love is forevermore. "Love is the bridge between two hearts, and death cannot break a bridge built with such strong and lasting love." I share my poem with you. ⇣
LOVE AND LOSS
"Your body is away from me." (1st line of Rumi's poem, The Window)
Year two begins anew.
Everlasting love remains,
Tucked away in my heart
Unexpectedly, grief
"Gushes in", flooding
My soul with sadness,
Changing my perspective.
I pause in the warm sunlight.
Tears quietly stream down,
Like a rushing waterfall.
Another "grief burst"
Finds its way, uprooting
Years-old, seeded thoughts.
Your heartnotes sprout
Preserved in our gardens -
Forevermore cherished
With eternal love.
draft, CVarsalona, 2026
I listened to this love song.
I have always been intrigued by dandelions and their puffballs' ability to fly through the air with one breathe-in, breathe-out blow. This week, when I saw a perfectly ready dandelion to make a wish, I ran right to the ground and picked the "wish weed" (what I have called the dandelion for years). I photographed it before the seed heads spread across the lawn.
←Thank you, Poetry Sisters, Tanita, Laura, Mary Lee, Liz, Sara, Tricia, and Kelly, for inviting "PoetryPals" to write an Ekphrastic Poem for the Poetry Sisters' monthly challenge.
News of the Week: I happily checked my Spring Seeds Grace April Padlet and found five poet friends, Bob Hamera, Ramona Behnke, Joyce Ray, Denise Krebs, and Verreno Diane Anderson, who added their creative image poems. There is still time to add your original artistic expression related to the theme.
Click here to join our lovely host, Irene Latham, at her An Emily Dickinson Poetry Friday Roundup. Irene shares news on her new book,Some Starry Night,which "explores what might have happened if Emily Dickinson and Vincent van Gogh met in 1886 Paris. It's a re-imagining, as Emily never actually went to Paris or met Vincent. In actuality, she died May 15, 1886."
The Poetry Lab
