EKPHRASTIC POETRY

from the greek, Ekphrasis

is the production of poetic (written) responses to visual artworks.

A loose definition can be found here: http://www.puddinghouse.com/ekphrastic.html

I came across the term when I was googling the guest poets at last week's Rhizomic Poetry Party, Jenni Nixon and Louise Wakeling.

I totally relate to the idea that you can produce fantastic work off the back of another's work.  As Barthes put it in his Pleasure of the Text, "To be with one (text) and to think of something else: this is how I have my best ideas, how I best invent what is necessary to my work."

The DiVerse Poets group in Sydney seem to be doing a lot of it - check out http://diversepoets.blogspot.com/