What the Pages Know by Ryan T. Pozzi - Rattle: Poetry Image: “Green Wood Birds” by Stephanie Trenchard. “What the Pages Know” was written by Ryan T. Pozzi for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, April 2025, and selected as the Artist&...

I’m on Rattle.com this morning with my entry for their April 2025 Ekphrastic Challenge.

tinyurl.com/RyanRattle

I’m only a very occasional poet, but Stephanie Trenchard’s piece struck me and I felt moved to respond.

#Rattle #AmWriting #Poetry #EkphrasticChallenge #WriterLife

For #promptcombo and the theme of #attachment – here's a piece I wrote several weeks ago for the #EkphrasticChallenge run by Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social

Thanks to Ronnie Smith @rfsmith.bsky.social for hosting

The image is by artist Sara Bell @sbsartistrees.bsky.social

For #ekphrasticchallenge Day 13 & @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social
#haiku
JZ13
Beautiful winter
Dazzling crisp snow on the ground
Bare branches waiting

SEB13
Waterfall colours
Kaleidoscope plants look on
Aqueous rock song

SK13
Love like a soft fruit
Red tenderness green for life
Colours of passion

JZ11 Terror in her eyes For the beholder of fear Do not test your luck SEB11 The bear and her cub The tree and her fireflies Watching the city KZ11 At macro level are we binary ? Twists of code defining every moment There was a recombination it created you I loved every element These days even the spleen & the rage because there must have been a reason The only code I’d cut is what meant you walk away..

Scary face painting a woman has dark rimmed eyes and a mouth with large white teeth painted across the whole of her face her lips inside are dark and unseen..her eyes hold endurance hardship & intensity

A beautiful painting of a sumset over mountains. The sky is yellow and mauve. The mountains are green. Central is a yellow city in the distance. On the left is a tree with a bear and her cub. The ground is cross section. There are roots surrounded by underground hearts as if Gaia is holding the love and nurture. There are yellow balls of light holding bear’s attention, fireflies dancing the evening away..

There are three pairs of green twisting stems one pair stands over the other two. They are cut. The lower two pairs each have one strand that connects to the top twist pair. It looks like some kind of genetic recombination. The background has beautiful colours, light blue yellow and white at the bottom rising to patterns and patches of dark blue and red and orange higher up.

For #ekphrasticchallenge day 11 two #haiku and an instinctive response to JZ 11. I missed the 2nd batch with the JZ10 to JZ15 download so look & write now.
Host @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social

#poetry

Beautiful pastel colours. In the foreground there’s a mauve flower kisses by a red poppy rouge next to it. Central is a blue poppy seed head, as if both tempting & dangerous..

2 yellow poppy flowers bright against a pale aqua green background and with beautiful mauve & purple hues in the sky.

Flaming red flower on a yellow background. There is a dark robust stem like a trunk and green fronds at the base.

#ekphrasticchallenge
#haiku
#poetry

Host @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social

JZ10
Poppy temptation
Come share your dreams with my taste
At least love my form

SEB10
Poppy reverie
A summer day fantasy
Languid in the heat

SK10
Vibrant passion flame
The ardour inside nature
Bursting from the green

Ice edging over a dark blue cliff as if the water underneath is frozen too, or straining towards the pull of gravity

Watercolour Yellow Ladies Slipper delicate against the deep blue sky on brown healthy earth..

Rectangle colours like two cards held at an angle. The first is green. The second is red and yellow along the length of the card , with blue halfway along the yellow band. In the 2nd card at exactly horizontal is an eye staring at a small brown animal with a ziggy tail. The background is red and brown.

For Day 9 #Ekphrasticchallenge hosted by @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social 3 #haiku #poems #poetrycommunity

JZ9
Perilous angle
Light on the edge of descent
Gravity on hold

SEB9
Delicate flower
Serenity inside noise
Poised for reflection

SK9
Predator watching
an eye of intensity
colourful changes

Red Maple leaf tree with a bendy brown trunk underneath a yellow sky and earth

Blue sky and ferns on a deep slope

Silver moon disc with patterns like topography from a distance on a dark space time background

JZ8
Red leaf Maple Tree
Rouge stronger than the sunlight
Swallowing photons

SEB8
Fern in the winter
Brown fatigue and surrender
Awaiting new light

KZ8
Moonheld in the sky
Soft patterns of composure
Held by the photons

#ekphrasticchallenge
#haiku

A yellow sunset painting. The ground is in cross section underneath the surface. There are three trees in silhouette (one on the left & two on the right) separated by tall grass and weeds. Their roots are visible in the cross section underground showing a network. Crows are scattered in silhouette sitting on the bare branches. Serious conversation is going on.

A clever rectangle room kind of shape on a red background, as if you are looking from one open end of the room. The lines and colours are different and trick your eyes into thinking what is in front is at the back and what is at the back is front. I think the genre for this art is “trompe-l'oeil”.

A naked woman sits on a rectangle grey stone or cushion. She has beautiful curves. Her dark hair falls down her back and is tied with a red band near the end. She has a hairband and is surrounded by green nature.

For Day7 #ekphrasticchallenge & host
@thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social
#haiku
#poetry

SEB7
Crows in the sunset
A parley with conviction
The roots listen in..

JZ7
Vision of colour
Deception with light and mind
After is before

SK7
Hour glass her curves
An invitation to treat
Naked intention

Cityscape painting, red skies and foreground, grey tower blocks in the centre distance. The landscape is blurred, black, red and white. There’s a red beam left to right fading to a white slicing along the middle of the towers which appears to explode on the right.

White ducks and ducklings swimming right to left on pale blue water. You can see their yellow beaks and eyes..

A shallow river edged by trees. The colours are soft pastel . There’s are rocks in the water and someone has made an artistic cairn

For #Ekphrasticchallenge hosted by @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social Day 6

JZ6
Jazz across metal
Red rage burning the machine
Order of chaos

SK6
White ducks on water
Ducklings escorted with care
Such pride in their tribe

SEB6
Cairn in the water
A statement of intention
I am nature too

#haiku

A beautiful yellow sunset landscape with a dark horizon line 2/3rds up the picture. The yellow sky is reflected on water. The blurring is dreamy and peaceful.

A tree in a beautiful deep blue sky standing on a hill surrounded by bubbles. The ground is in cross section. Roots are visible. There are two hearts pumping love into the tree above ground.

A colourful curvy woman with a long plait of dark hair stands facing away from you. Her right arm is extended and holding a large heart like a balloon floating on her palm. She has a colourful top, bare midriff and colourful hoops on her skirt. There is a broken branch at her feet.

For #Ekphrasticchallenge host
@thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social
Day5 #haiku

JZ5
Monet impression
Curves like the fluid of life
Fire in the sky
SEB5
Bubbles catching light
Heart of Gaia feeding roots
Silver moon on bark
SK5
Woman and her form
Grounded with curves of feeling
Holding heart sans sleeve

SK4 5 women in colourful identical clothes and long pony tails viewed through a portal with a grill

Pale blue naked woman facing away leaning elegantly on a pillar of earth and sky as if waiting. Her hair is tied up. There is a delicate necklace or collar around her neck

SEB4 Frozen plants by cold frozen water. A fern unaffected is visible

For the #Ekphrasticchallenge hosted by @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social #haikus for day 4 #poem

SK4
Raven hair tied back
Barriers to connection
Together unique

JZ4
Her beautiful form
A submission of intent
Fulfil her desire

SEB4
Fern by the water
Ice under transformation
Moss kissing cold stone

Ekphrastic Challenge 2025. Day Three. Please join Debbie Ross, Matt Guntrip, Saraswati Nagpal, Alan McGinn, Anish Gupta, Phil Hyde, Donna Faulkner, Francis H Powell, Judy Smith , Sheikha A, Rituparna,... SK3 SEB3 JZ3Jz3Eyes of DefianceNight gathers at her feet, murmuring secretsonly the forsaken understand.She moves like prophecy, carved from silence,a shadow against the neon glow of a world unrave…

Although it's hard to squeeze the time 😰 I'm enjoying the #ekphrasticchallenge set by #wombwellrainbow
There are some fab poems being put on the site so check them out..
thewombwellrainbow.com/2025/04/03/e...

SEB3 A tree in pink blossom. The underground is cut showing roots surrounding a foetus. The hue is brown..

A powerful dark punk gothic image of a woman behind a spikey face mask. Her long dark hair is braided. The painting is black & white with blue hues. The woman is staring right at you in a most powerful way from underneath her straight fringe. Her eyes are surrounded by exotic eye liner accentuating a sense of power.

A colourful image of shapes and colours with sharp angles. Central is a 3-D shape right angle triangle as if Pythagorus was still here pointing the way to clarity…

For #Ekphrasticchallenge & host @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social day 3 art & #haiku #poems

SEB3
Rooted in the womb
The holder is in blossom
Love will bring new life
JZ3
Eyes of intention
Gothic prowess and power
Dare to admire her
SK3
The hard and the soft
Sharp angles of intention
A step at a time

SK2 Balloons floating a basket

SEB 2 Empty nest in branches over a rope. A magical silver birch-like trunk has a flock of birds reflected from the sky

JZ2 Magical small rock pillar with trees reflected on still water against a red sun in the sky

SK2
Flight for the hopeful
Risk management strategy
Multiple balloons

SEB2
Miracle of flight
Fabrication of a home
Echoes of success

JZ2
Land of rising sun
Peace in wisdom of water
Reflecting the truth

#ekphrasticchallenge hosted by bsky.app/profile/thew...

#poetry
#writingcommunity
#art
#Haiku

The new #ekphrasticchallenge is a #painting by Manolo Millares. What kind of #poetry of #flashfiction can this #artwork inspire you to write? Selected responses will be published a week after deadline. www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrast...