New Ekphrastic Project: Kay Sage's "In the Third Sleep"

From 2010 to 2014, I curated a blog where I invited poets to write ekphrastic poems responding to, and titled after, Arshile Gorky’s 1944 abstract expressionist painting “They Will Take My Island.” You can look at the project here.

Then, from 2015 to 2018, I did a similar thing challenging poets to take on J. M. W. Turner’s Romantic painting “Sunrise with Sea Monsters.” You can visit that project here.

Now, I'm inviting selected poets to respond to Kay Sage’s 1944 surrealist painting “In The Third Sleep.” The parameters are simple: the poem must be called “In The Third Sleep,” and it must respond to, engage with, or build on some element of Kay Sage’s painting, but it should not merely describe her painting. Beyond that, the poem can take any form. Visit the new Kay Sage project here. 

Kay Sage's “In the Third Sleep” is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, and you can visit it online here.