April 26, ekphrastic. This type of poetry is some of the first that I ever appreciated and wrote on my own. Back in my undergrad, my poetry mentor and professor introduced me to Anne Sexton and her collection TRANSFORMATIONS as well as the poem below. I adored the idea of taking something well known, like artwork, and using it for poems. Ekphrastic asks the writer to look deeper and even beyond the edges of the frame, to incorporate what they see and what they feel as the artwork comes to life before them. Vincent Van Gogh is one of my favorite painters and his style of artwork always felt poetic to me, seeing the world through a slightly distorted and disorienting lens. I will always love his artwork Starry Night and I think this poem by Anne Sexton pulls so much from the work. They should always be placed together.