Notes on Ekphrasis

Creating poetry is more than just sitting down and writing “stuff” in a particular form. “Stuff” rarely materialises like manna, it must be found from somewhere.

Finding “stuff” to write about can be difficult. The notions of “writing what you know”, “write what you see around you” and “write from experience” are all good in principle, but when these sources seem exhausted, dry or repetitious and unchallenging, it can be useful to take a break and borrow material from somewhere else. I do not believe that everything should be written from direct experience and as a scientist, I would be peculiarly stunted if I started experimenting or theorising based only my own experience.

Other artists provide a useful source of material, usually “pre-sorted”. I suspect few artists create work from material they think unimportant, so looking at a piece of art gives an already considered source. I often chose paintings and photographs as a source, often for an exercise rather than with the deliberate intention to write a poem. Interestingly, I choose the work, I am not forced to a given work. I tend to approach this material in different ways, sometimes taking them at face value, sometimes with a more cynical eye. Sometimes my approach changes during the exercise.

The choice provides more than a source, it also provides constraints to the writing. The style of the source is often reflected in the writing style, for example, the impression of simplicity in Spencer’s “St Francis and the Birds” is reflected in the simple style of the resulting poem. Constraints may be subverted when the source acts as a catalyst to a wider ranging piece as in “So we all find the shore before sunset”, based on Turner’s allegorical “War.The Exile and the Rock Limpet”.

Although it is dangerous to mix sources, I find contrasting pieces, often in different genres, can provide a mid-ground that provides valuable thinking space. The poem “Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère, Édouard Manet, 1882″ was originally based not on the painting itself, but on Copolla’s film “Lost in Translation”. The painting provided the material, the film the constraints.

Sometimes it is not the image that provides the material, but the technique. My Marilyn poems are often based on photographs, but one in particular “The digital enhancement of photographs of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio” is based not on the image, but the enhancement techniques.

Ekphrasis has moved on since the days where it just involved detailed description of other artists’ work and this progress makes it a valuable resource for writing. By providing already processed material it provides constraints but also different approaches for the writer and even new ways of thinking.

Reading at the Thirsty Dog, Auckland

Poetry Live has regular performances and open mike at the Thirsty Dog on the K. Road in Auckland. I read three poems, “The Wrong Place”, “Callan in Black and White” and “The digital enhancement of photographs of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio”.

in the cinema stalls watching

I saw that distant look in your eyes
the type that says you are concentrating but not concentrating
on the screen
and I leaned over to say

but You said
it is always the same in these movies
two people meet
they strike an unlikely partnership
it develops an unexpected problem arises
the threat is somehow overcome developing into a final happiness

they are just stories

I said
but you must suspend your disbelief
and You replied there are no such things as belief nor disbelief
only indifference

the truth of the matter is the stories are all wrong
it is not the plot that carries us
it is the distant gaze
and the absence
the voice subtly breaking
that slight tightening of the grip
these are the real cast the real plotline
without these there is no syntax no punctuation
and we all live in a screenplay of progression and loss

and we all wish we were in the cinema stalls

watching

© Martin Porter 2011


This poem is also posted on the Take Flight Writing in Whangarei blog.

This poem is a hybrid poem. In part it is a dialogue, in part a list poem.

The origin of this poem is complex. It is, in some ways, a Marilyn poem. But it has many other sources, and somehow Marilyn Monroe has dropped out of the poem altogether. Certainly it has its origins in some of my earlier poems: After the Trailers, Callan in Black and White, The Fairy Fellers Master Stroke anr all unpublished and unread but influential. The mood of melancholy that I hope the poem presents can be felt in Cool (Sharks) and Pigeon Fanciers, published in this blog, and many other poems that I have written. The epistemological reflections can be traced back to poems such as Skin, published on the 52/250 A Year of Flash blog. The mysticism and other-worldliness can be found in many poems, including Pasifika Queen Mab on this blog.

But there are other sources on which to reflect. The poem was written shortly after I watched "Lost in Translation", the Sofia Coppola film that demonstrates disjuncture and bewilderment in a way in which I find all too familiar in the off-screen world. The whole suspension of reality of the cinema (or theatre or opera) based around idealised plots and simplified realities seems to be put under the spotlight in this film, quite the remarkable irony!

The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake is another more conscious source of ideas for this poem. Particularly referenced is the chapter based around Alfred Prunesquallor's reaction to the death of Fuschia Groan in Gormenghast, a passage I found thirty years ago and still raises the hairs on the back of my neck.

Discussions with the poetry group in Whanagarei have also contributed to the construction of this poem. Particularly influential was a discussion about the role of punctuation in poetry, particularly the capitalisation of words at the start of lines, but also the use of punctuation. Here, I have used capitalisation in an attempt to impose my own structure abd omitted punctuation partially to allow the reader freedom of interpretation, but also to allow an ambiguity in the structure as well as in the language used.

Function of a Muse

A muse may be used as a starting point for creative work, but may also provide a support around which the work might develop. The work might be about the muse, but often the work provides the frame around which the work develops, rather like the supporting structure in an espaliered fruit tree. The support shapes the work, but does not provide the tree. That is the function of the tree.


One of my favourite examples in history is Charles Dodgson's muse, Alice Liddell. Alice provided the framework for the quite remarkable weaving of philosophical conundrums and mathematical concepts which otherwise would have been well out of the reach of many adulds, let alone the many children who enjoy the Alice volumes. It would seem just one golden afternoon on July 4th, 1862 spent in the presence of his muse was sufficient to trigger a cascade of imaginative writing from the Oxford mathematician. This is not typical of his normal writing, quite unlike such works as "A New Theory of Parallels", a treatise about Euclidean geometry.


Dodgson's friendship with Liddell is subject to some speculation. The use of a muse need not be so close or even first hand, and this is reflected in my use of Marilyn Monroe. I have not met her, am not likely to in this part of the multiverse, and I cannot even claim to possess much knowledge of her life or art. Sometimes I will catch a snippet of information which acts as the start of a poem and sometimes the poem already exists in some form and the little knowledge I have provides a discipline and form to the work. Occasionally the concept of Marilyn intrudes into the work, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not, perhaps because the concept has proved useful and old habits are hard to be rid of and perhaps because I have come across another article involving Marilyn that is sitting in the back of my thoughts.


Although I do not have a good understanding of how a muse functions, I am still happy to use a muse, knowing I am surrounded in other artists who use the same mechanism to provide great work. I am certainly not going to ignore a tool with such a great pedigree.

Some notes on the Marilyn Poems

The Marilyn poems are a sequence loosely based around artifacts from the life of Marilyn Monroe.They are not poems about Marilyn Monroe, nor do they necessarily reflect the historical record. They are examples of creative writing, or perhaps can be seen as exercises of "poetic license". The poems are written to investigate certain notions - "a dripping tap" examines loneliness and sexuality, "Arthur driving his wife home" is based on a photograph and explores ambition, motivation, "Marilyn does not Travel in the Back Seat of a Car" investigates imagined futures. Some of the Marilyn poems tackle unusual topics. "The digital enhancement of photographs of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio" explores a mathmatical concept - binary arithmetic - in the unusual context of a partnership and "Marilyn and the Physics of David Deutsch" examines multiple possibilities in time, or multiple universes.


The Marilyn poems have been written over a long period - the first were written in 2004 and there was a long break when no Marilyn poem was written, lasting from 2007 to 2009. Because the poems are not primarily about Marilyn Monroe, the poems are not written at any particular time.

Marilyn does not Travel in the Back Seat of a Car

Marilyn does not Travel in the Back Seat of a Car
Dallas, Nov 22nd, 1963.

What fun it was,
what heart wrenching fun.

To be in the car
with all that excited noise,

cheering, the crowd straining
for a glimpse,

she loved the adulation,
even second hand.

Then all of a sudden, high drama.
How she loved those situations,
the melodrama, the ambition,

it was never real,
it was all acting,
wasn’t it?

She would never cradle his head
in her lap, as the car sped away.

She would have her place,
usurped by the other woman,
she would have her vengeance.

Of course she never fired a shot
(then again, nor did he)

but she was there, she was there
and, as sure as hell, you could feel her

straining to reach out to him,
to pluck him from her arms,

knowing that she had won.
knowing that they were in the same place.

© Martin Porter 2010

Arthur driving his wife home from a shopping trip - contempory notes

The following notes were written as commentary for the Jersey Arts Trust.

"This poem is based on a photograph of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller driving home in Arthur’s convertible showing Marilyn looking back at the camera while Miller is driving away from the photographer. What particularly caught my eye was the contrast between Marilyn’s smiling face next to the back of Millers head. Coupling this with our knowledge of Marilyn’s future life produced this poem.

I wrote this poem after a long spell of writers block, during which I produced little work of reasonable quality. It has turned into the first of a sequence of poems, mostly inspired by other photographs, but also contemporary writing, of Marilyn."

Arthur driving his wife home from a shopping trip

Arthur driving his wife home from a shopping trip

The face is unmistakable. Headscarf,
lacy trimmings on the shoulder strap
may give away the era, but lets be clear

it is the cupids bow, the cheekbones,
spreading into a Y,
the straight ridge of the nose
arched darkly pencilled eyebrows,
spreading into a Y,
mascara’ed eyes balancing the open mouth
caught as if in osculation
and the only-slightly-visible
creases across the brow
that makes her unmistakable,

a lady, still young, yet not so young
enjoying a time of happiness in her life of strain
her blond hair held in place by that scarf
but with one lock neatly whipping out of place
as the windscreen rips the air to shreds
past sunshades on the sporty car
driven by her husband,

Bespectacled and tousle-haired
Fag in his mouth in a so-cool style,
Obviously the modern intellectual,
(Bespectacled),
Driving his trophy car
Ten years too young for him,
Driving his trophy wife…

No that is too cruel.
They are happily in love. Roslyn
lies in the future,
with the arguments on set,
the make-believe
the fall-apart
the birthday songs
the dying…

© Martin Porter 2004

This is the earliest of a sequence of poems based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. "Arthur drives his wife home after a shopping trip" won the second prize in the Jersey Evening Post writers' competition in 2004, and has had public readings at the awards ceremony at St James Centre, Jersey and for National Poetry Day the Bach in Whangarei, New Zealand.

The poem is based on a photograph I saw on the cover of the Sunday Times colour supplement. I had suffered a period of writers block and I used the monochrome image of Arthur Miller driving Marilyn Monroe in New York as a tool for creating a poem.

The poem initially appears to be a straight-forward description of Marilyn Monroe as a passenger in the car, but by the third stanza it is becoming increasingly value-laden, with the fourth stanza taking an even more cynical look at Arthur. The fifth stanza pulls the two together again, and pulls back from the brink of open criticism or pity, with its suggestion that happiness may be due to ignorance of future events.

The first four stanzas of this poem had a short gestation period and developed more or less as they were written. The fifth stanza was written at the same time but was subjectes to considerably more polishing, with research revealing that all was not well on the set of "the Misfits". (Although written as a vehicle for Marilyn by Arthur, their divorce occured less than a year after the film was made.) Perhaps the implication that this was a step on the ultimate path to disaster is unjustified, but this is a piece of creative writing based on history, not a catalogue of historical events.

For me, the poem brings up several issues that were not always intended, but which I developed as they became clearer as the ideas were written down. The tensions between age, sex, types of fame, beauty and brain give the work an uneasy feel and an implicit violence, as does the deliberate choice of verbs in the third stanza. I have tried to give the poem an ominous atmosphere of happiness before a time of disintegration and seperation - the halcyon day before the storm at night.

Remember the poem was written almost as an exercise to tackle writers block. Photographs and other images offer useful reference points, but I find they need to engage with my imagination to create real inspiration. Here, two major characters linked and yet very different have given me the impetus I needed.

a dripping tap - photograph reference

"a dripping tap" refers to Marilyn in New York. This is, in part, a reference to a photograph that can be found here.

a dripping tap

a dripping tap

Marilyn in New York

…elongated,
necking to almost wasp waisted thinness,
‘till it releases the elegant gem, splitting sunlight
into a blaze of red green blue gone
and impacts with ear jarring sound, leaps up again,
beautiful, as a spreading crown and
ebbs away.

The continual noise has awoken her, so
Marilyn moves to the faucet where
another drop has begun to swell. She watches
as it slowly builds from tiny pimple to
full grown boil, sees her own reflection in
its full grown curvature, looks
as the imaged phantom tumbles
into the sink.

She knows Arthur will return home soon and
the steady fall will be no longer hers.
In the shining chrome she sees herself reach forward,
her own distorted hand now hides her body,
and she withdraws to stare again, sighs, looks up
to see if she is there, still in control, still in the centre, and
the drop emerges, elongated…

© Martin Porter 2005

"a dripping tap" won the Jersey Arts Trust Channel Island Writers' Competition 2005 and is published in the Channel Island Writers' Anthology 2005.

"a dripping tap" was inspired by my fascination with the marriage of Marilyn Monroe to Arthur Miller. It incorporates elements of an earlier poem based on the observations of raindrops striking the windscreen of a car.

In the Judge's report, Linda Rose Parkes wrote "Ambition doesn't show itself in the choice of the subject; very often it's in the common, the everyday, where an exciting strangeness is lurking when we look more closely. But where the subject is large - say in the evocation of the grand emotions and those contexts - then the voice of the poem is circumspect and careful not to turn the volume up so loud that it's difficult for the reader to find the silence to listen and feel within its framework. Martin Porter chose a pedestrian image, a dripping tap in a well documented life, in order to offer a glimpse of an interior landscape in its loneliness and isolation."

"a dripping tap" is a poem that developed over a long period but took only a short time to sketch out. Polishing to produce the final product took place over a few weeks and was helped by my participation in an innominate group of writers in one of their monthly meetings. The earlier poem "Driving Rain" was written six years before in 1999, and "a dripping tap" is one of a sequence of poems based around the notion of Marilyn Monroe (rather than the reality), that I started writing in 2004. The earliest of that sequence "Arthur drives his wife home after a shopping trip" won the second prize in the Jersey Evening Post writers' competition in 2004.

It has been commented that some of the imagery in the poem is closely observed. The first stanza reflects this close observation, but not as consciously as might be imagined. Much of the imagery here may be unusual to note for many, but coming from a background based in the physical sciences, the formation and necking of a liquid drop, the crown splash caused by a drop of liquid falling into a shallow resevoir and the refraction of light into its component colours by a droplet are all familiar experiences, as are the distorted images in the convex chrome reflector of the taps or faucet.

Other observations that have been made are based around the notions of beauty and sexuality. The growth of the drop from tiny pimple to boil and the distortions of the reflections are deliberately juxtaposed onto this notion of beauty, illustrated by the wasp waisted thinness of the neck of the drop. There are also hints of an artificial, or assumed, beauty in adornment-based phrases including the crown, the jewel-like colours reflected from the drop which I hope would be associated with the expense of diamonds, reinforced by the "elegant gem" and the slightly more extended artificiality of the "shining" surface layer of chrome. There are hints of the fragility, or deception, of this beauty in the way the word "beautiful" is ambiguously linked with the phrase "ebbs away" by the use of punctuation - yes, the comma is deliberate, the phrase "imaged phantom" and the way the image is hidden by a hand.

What of those grand emotions? Perhaps we are all ordinary and all extraordinary in our own way. I have tried to convey a sense of ennui and dissatisfaction with fame and celebrity in this work. A dripping tap seemed to be a perfect illustration of how boredom due to repeated action strikes even the rich and famous.

Interestingly, and unexpectedly, I have found that the poem has created some of its own mystery. Although mentioned only briefly, I failed to realise the significance of the role Arthur Miller would play in the creation of an oppressive atmosphere hinted at in the poem.

In her judges report, Linda spoke of a "fierce respect for language". In this poem, the language has worked hard with single words often performing several tasks, phraseology having to shape an atmosphere and give structure to a piece that seems to have lost its beginning and end in a continuous cycle and the punctuation providing a framework despite having to be deliberately sparse.

This is a poem I return to time and time again. I assume it is one of the better poems I have written, but I cannot know that with any certainty. It isn't deliberately complex, but it ends up exploring some difficult concepts, challenging my notions of satisfaction, happiness, relationship and celebrity.