A few years ago, when I was beginning to foster and nurture my love for creative writing, I began to fall back in love with poetry for the first time since high school. One of the ways in which I interacted with the Zelda community was on Tumblr.com, where a plethora of fantastic artists shared their works. I began to reblog their work and add poetry I wrote in the moment inspired by it, partially to promote and celebrate their work, and partially to give myself a bit of a writing challenge.

I later learned that writing poetry inspired by art has a long-standing history, evolving from ekphrasis (the act of describing an image with words). Once a way for art to become more accessible, ekphrasis evolved into a way for the poet to interpret a work of art, to interact with it in a deep, soulful, and inherently collaborative way. What was an instinct for me as a blossoming writer was the same instinct that poets began to have in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The following collection of poems are my attempts to recreate the eerie. Images included are done so with permission of the artist. Poems inspired by art that was not given permission stand on their own with a link to the original piece.

 

By Green I Grey

The above piece of art is by Tumblr user mochiwei. It was created for the Atelier Hylia Blood Moon Tomes zine.

The artist was inspired by the 16th century artist Caravaggio, in particular his work entitled “Narcissus,” and used the dichotomy between Link and Dark Link in Ocarina of Time to recapture the creepy duality of the original.

By water’s edge a silver sight is born

With bleeding eyes, perches like a storm

Drown’d in black, streak’d in greys not worn

Naught a ripple to disturb the water’s graceful norm

Closer still I beckon, to thou in mirrored nigh

I plead to break free, to seep into thy

 

The Epitaph

The piece of art that inspired this next poem can be found on Tumblr.

It was created to mimic a still-life painting from the 16th and 17th centuries.

If death is where I rest thine head

Then where shall I lift it?

When life is something hence unknown

And survival is thy epitaph

Then where shall I lift it?

It cannot be just that love

And survival is thy epitaph

Nine years is far too little

It cannot be just that love

Nine years is far too little

When life is something hence unknown

If death is where I rest thine head

 

In Time

The above piece of art is by Tumblr user Judithan-xing

Locked right into fates eternal

Clutching hopes of love infernal

‘Til like wolves I live nocturnal

And curse this never-ending diurnal

 

Rest

The piece of art that inspired this next poem can be found on Tumblr.

Sometimes I think

Of bones and how

beyond the clothes, the skin

That’s all I am inside

 

Chosen

The above piece of art is by Tumblr user ezdotjpg.

Fingers crest upon my bones

And smiles crack along the cheeks

Of smoothly chiseled blocks of stone

To good I clutch, for good I’m trapped

 

In The Ripples I Started

The piece of art that inspired this next poem can be found on Tumblr.

Smiles back at me

That part of me I see

That makes me think that we

Are something I’ve set free

 

Pale Moonlight

The above piece of art is by Tumblr user arrythmiacomic (aka Luck).

When I met them

I wondered

If they thought I was one of them

When I left them

I wondered

What else I was before

 

Nothing To Fear

The pieces of art that inspired this next poem can be found on Tumblr.

You say you’re in a nightmare

But why would you want to leave?

If you have the power to make it a dream

Why waste your time being afraid?

We don’t bite

 

The Sleeping Swordsman

The above piece of art is by Tumblr user whispyart.

Yes…

Yes

That’s it

Sleep

Sleep away

I’ll take

care

Of You


Do you enjoy a good ghost story around this time of the year? Have you got any Poe stories of your own? Let us know in the comments below!

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