There is a long tradition in poetry of ekphrasis—a poem based on a work of art, typically visual art but occasionally other mediums. The word comes from ancient Greek, originally meaning “a recounting” or, more commonly, “a description.” 

Some of our most famous poems are exercises in ekphrasis. Going all the way back to ancient Greece, Homer’s The Iliad contains an elaborate description of Achilles’ shield. Pieter Brueghel’s Landscape With the Fall of Icarus inspired not only the William Carlos Williams poem of the same name but also one of W.H. Auden’s most famous poems, “Musée des Beaux Arts.” Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and Browning’s “My Last Duchess” may or may not be based on real works of art, but the poems make their subjects feel as though they are.

I love using ekphrasis with students—it offers them a ready-made subject and generally steers them away from abstraction and toward concrete imagery as they work to incorporate what the canvas reveals. And in engaging with the painting, they engage their imaginations—what is happening in the artwork? What story lurks within the figures? What details might have escaped first notice that upon deeper inspection reveal a whole new truth about the work?

Ultimately, ekphrasis is an exercise in translation—transforming something visual (or auditory in the case of music) into the written word, a translation that often reveals as much about the poet as it does about the subject.

To that end, on a mild late-October morning, I took my class of fifteen Creative Writing students to The Satellite Gallery in downtown Lyndonville. Leaving the classroom is always a pleasant change of pace for student and teacher alike, but the journey down off the hill, across the practice fields, over the bridge, past the park, and onto Depot Street felt like its own little adventure. 

The Satellite Gallery is a gem—a clean, quiet space of brick walls and large windows that bring in lots of natural light on the corner of Depot and Church Streets. A passion project of retired local art teacher and adjunct professor Martha Elmes and current LI art teacher Elly Barksdale, the gallery opened in 2018. Each month, the gallery features a new exhibit, sometimes presenting the work of a single artist, other times highlighting a collection of artists and often a variety of mediums. The focus is almost always local, spotlighting creators from around Vermont or out-of-staters with local connections.

On this day, the class was in for a treat. October’s exhibit was titled Dreaming, The Way I See It. Featuring the work of twenty artists, the theme offered a collection of paintings, as well as some textile works, that embraced the surreal landscape of dreams—a perfect launching point for poetry and the imagination. 

Because it was morning, the gallery was closed when we arrived, but Barksdale had loaned me a key. It was a strange but also special kind of feeling having the gallery all to ourselves.

We spent about forty minutes in the space. Students moved between works, examining the offerings and whispering their ideas to each other. After selecting a piece, each set to work, taking notes on what they observed in the image or drafting their poem directly from what they saw. Some settled into chairs, others onto the gallery’s clean wood floor. Toward the end of our session, we regrouped to talk about their choices—what pieces grabbed them the most? How did they approach the paintings? The one-room gallery became its own kind of classroom. 

A light mood dominated the walk back to school, filled with chatter as students talked about their work. We spent the next class drafting and polishing our poems. (For my piece, I had chosen a masterful painting by artist Ann Young based on the opening lines from Dante’s Inferno, bringing things full circle—from poetry to painting back to poetry.) A few students had selected the same works of art, but overall there was a nice variety of representation from the collection. 

During the next class, students polished their poems, which we collected into an anthology. Most focused on the exhibit’s many paintings, including this piece by senior Elizabeth LaFleur based on Mardi McGregor’s Taking Flight that captures both the painting’s fairytale beauty and the transformative power of moving from adolescence to adulthood:

I can feel the stars breathing tonight;

their pulse is a quiet echo in my chest.

The sky stretches, wide and endless,

a sea of color that swallows my name.

My hair falls like liquid sunlight

down my back,

and the air trembles when I move.

I never knew silence could feel alive,

like the whole universe is listening

to the flutter of my heart.

The wings behind me, 

I used to dream of them.

Now they hum against my skin,

painted gold and black like courage

trying to remember what it means to be free.

Every memory weighs softly on my shoulders, 

the voices I loved, the ones that faded,

the girl I used to be.

But tonight, I am lighter than all of it.

When I close my eyes,
the world dissolves into color

lavender and fire,
fear and wonder braided together.
And I rise, not to escape
but to become something,

a whisper of who I was,
drifting toward who I’m meant to be.

Not every subject was a painting. Fellow senior Peyton McClintock based her poem on a quilt design by Rosalind Daniel called Festival Maxima. McClintock’s knack for verse that finds power and beauty in spare language proved to be a perfect match for Daniel’s artistry: 

Swathes of pinks

Pale 

Vivid

Like little tongues

Fold over themselves

Shivering in delight

Wiggling in the confines

Of their bone made tomb

Pale ribs form bars

Pushing 

Prodding

They climb up

The throat 

And out the mouth.

“I love seeing what the students come up with,” Elmes said. “And it’s always a treat to have LI students in the gallery. After all, it’s intentionally designed to be a community space.”

The Satellite Gallery emerged from a project Elmes and Barksdale undertook almost ten years ago. “Seeing empty storefronts downtown, we thought it would be nice to feature  local art in the windows, which got a lot of attention and positive feedback. Afterward, this location presented itself as a more permanent space, so in 2018 we established the gallery. Our goal was to encourage a creative economy and bring the arts downtown.”

With support from the Lyndon Downtown Revitalization committee, as well as some local banks, the pair were able to establish the gallery. “Our first show was a retrospective featuring the work of local artist Dorian McGowan,” Elmes said. “It was such a hit, we decided to keep going.”

For Elmes, the space has never been just a gallery. “It’s really a community space,” she explained. “We’ve hosted everything from music pop-ups supported by college interns enrolled in VTSU’s music industry program; to visiting artists offering classes in figure painting and pottery; to poetry readings and monthly writers workshops.”

The Satellite Gallery has a bright future ahead, with Elmes in the process of finalizing a partnership with Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury to give the space more financial stability and publicity. “It will be similar to the partnership they established with the Upright Steeple Society’s York Street Meeting House in Lyndon Corner,” she said, allowing the gallery to continue being, well, a satellite for local visual and performing artists—and students—for years to come.