May Poetry Challenge: Write an Ekphrastic poem

[Piscator]

Hi all - my challenge for May is to write an ekphrastic poem around the Phrase "Merry, Merry month of May", as performed by Leonard Cohen in the Live at London recording with an amazing solo by Javier Mas Even if you don't write a poem it's worth a listen.

The inspiration for this prompt came about from a friend/instructor's new Mystery by the same title, which launches in May. Beware, the earworm won't go away.

 

[Angeline]

Here are a few links that may help with this challenge:

What is Ekphrastic Poetry?

How to Write an Ekphrastic Poem

Note that this challenge asks you to use ekphrasis to respond to a line in a song, rather than a piece of visual art.

 

[Angeline]

And here's a direct link to the song the challenge references:

Who By Fire

 

[Winter_Fare]

Fingers masterfully swift
On steel
A prayer
Hooks in the heart
Strings pull

The mouth
Of this poet
Calls out the
Imperfect Names
We choose
One by one

Mourning the dead

Even as He
Hopes

 

[XShadynzX]

Deep rich tones
Bring out the words
That tell the story

keys pressed in musical meter
The master's skill and touch with
Voice as rich as molten chocolate poured over the soul

The sounds wrap around
Coloured red and orange
Fire burning warm and deep

 

[Tzara]

Resolution

In the merry, merry month of May,
while I lay drowning in despair
with water, water everywhere,
my god abandoned me to fate.

No sanguine cheer, just sheer dismay.
A barren life, much too austere.
I, muted, could not offer prayer,
condemned to my auto-da-fé.

Atonement I could never find
for actions rash and mean and blind
that I've embraced throughout my life.

So water, fire, drugs or gun,
with some such fatal, still device,
I'll leave things as they are, undone.

 

[29wordsforsnow]

(read instructions: from the bottom upwards)

dies  
 the fire
   by the lyre
   wise old man
    explains cause along
  a song whose refrains
contradicting worldviews  
 who's began the conflicting    
  cemeteries full of suggestions    
questions as old as the centuries  
  may the first cry with strings attached  
 hatched in the merry, merry month today​