Ekphrastic Poetry Bringing New Meaning & Depth

Guest Post by Madhuri Palaji

In the Dark, Soft Earth by Frank Watson is a book of poems about love, nature, spirituality, and dreams.

The specialty of the book is the amazing paintings from historic to contemporary presented in it. There are paintings done by Lenoir, Kandinsky, Dali, Somov, and many more. Some poems are inspired by these paintings, though not all.

Each poem is unique and deep. There is a beauty in the way the author has woven the words. I have seen most of the paintings in the book in some art books and exhibitions but when I look at these paintings after reading the poems, I feel like I’m seeing the painting for the first time. The author has brought a whole new meaning and depth to the art. It’s like the author has translated the painting and colors into words.

There is one poem named “Vanished” where the author says:

there was no fish
that day
but even worse
for the fisherman
there was no sea

This made my heart clench, literally. How true, given the kind of world we are living in right now; there is major destruction happening all around and we are left with too little to fix.

In The Dark, Soft Earth has many wonderful poems which I have read again and again because they make so much sense. The magic, love, pain, dreams and hope in the book give a whole new meaning to the way we look at life!

In the Dark, Soft Earth by Frank Watson. Independently Published, July 2020.

Reviewer Bio: Madhuri Palaji is a writer and book reviewer from India. Her book ‘Poems of The Clipped Nightingale’ is available on Kindle. Find her at http://www.theclippednightingale.com/