I heart ekphrastic prompts, so I was pleased to see the Poetic Asides prompt today was to write  a poem inspired by one of three images, or one of your own choosing. I picked Michelangelo’s First Painting (The Torment of Saint Anthony). Apparently he painted this when he was 12, which is pretty darn cool. It was also his own interpretation of a similar engraving by artist Martin Schongauer, so kind of ekphrastic in its own right. Lots of amazing imagery in here, but it was something about a boy painting a “good guy” battling all those fierce “bad guys” that got me thinking this way:

Superhero Sketch

Picture Michelangelo at 12, on the cusp of manhood,

bored with school and daydreaming in doodles.

Sketching superheroes in beards and robes,

not steel-jawed or muscle bound,

but mighty all the same.

Ordinary men doing extraordinary things.

And he, learning the world like we all do.

Drawing the lines between right and wrong.

Struggling to stand tall,

even with all those demons on his back.

The NaPoWriMo prompt is also one of my favourites…poetry about food! I’ve written a few of my own in the past, but none as wonderful as “Peas & Barbies” by Catherine Graham, presented here by poet Lisa de Nikolits.