𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫... 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐭
Read an exclusive new #ekphrastic or ‘after’ poem each new and full moon.
Subs are open Oct 1st–31st annually for the following year.
Why not also enjoy quarterly sister journal iambapoet.com?
Created and curated by @markantonyowen.com
afterpoetry.com
- From Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad's #ekphrastic poem 'Paper tiger': 'The café scene I am starring in is comical in hindsight. Coffee with a paper tiger. Quills, flaming arrows, stones, catapult into the air. A bouquet of hummingbirds discolours the sun.' afterpoetry.com/poem/feb-01...
- On the day nominations open for The Forward Prizes 2026, @afterpoetry.com is delighted to announce its three nominees in the Best Single Poem (Written) category. Best of luck to @philvernon.bsky.social, @hareontherun.bsky.social and @victoriaspires.bsky.social. 🥳
- From Hannah Linden's #ekphrastic poem 'Office': 'Again, a woman creeps towards a man with his pants around his ankles and even then he wants to be magnified to a hundred times his own size.' afterpoetry.com/poem/jan-18...
- A new feature comes to @afterpoetry.com: an A-Z poet finder! If you know a particular poet has appeared in the journal but can't recall in which year, this page will help you. All 100 poets (so far) are now searchable alphabetically by first name. afterpoetry.com/a-z
- Celebrating the 100th #ekphrastic poem on After... 'I am a knife. I cut meat. I am in a painting. I cut space. The form was dreamt before the fact. Mirror image, mirror act. Grooved in your life-line I lie in your hand; I am a sign in your mind ... ' afterpoetry.com/poem/jan-03...
- Final #ekphrastic poem of 2025, and a second consecutive outing for poetry inspired by the work of Frank Auerbach. 'For two years he has worked her rich in black and white, scraped her back to canvas, ghost and bone.' afterpoetry.com/poem/dec-20...
- Reposted by 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫... 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐭[Not loaded yet]
- What to do with scraps of light found in our battle with life's darkness. Victoria Spires makes this #ekphrastic poem from a Frank Auerbach drawing. 'Suggestible of something rending, something Far from abstract – the exquisite flash Of pain, as private teleology.' afterpoetry.com/poem/dec-04-...
- Rebekah's Wolman's #ekphrastic poem celebrates Pacita Abad's reinvention of her 'birthbody'. 'to imagine your self design your self assemble your self this collagebody construction of paper pulp scraps foil playing till dawn in the workshop' afterpoetry.com/poem/nov-20-...
- **CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!!** Today, @afterpoetry.com reveals which poems it will publish throughout 2026. Picking 17 poets from more than 130 submissions was no easy task – so well done to all who made it through selection. Are you in? Here's where to find out ... afterpoetry.com/index/poems/...
- Reposted by 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫... 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐭[Not loaded yet]
- Miscarriage is shattering. More so, losing hope of bearing a child. This @louisepoetical.bsky.social explores in her #ekphrastic poem after Kahlo. 'I embrace her longing as a shade of black that fractures the ivory, give comfort for her bone-shattered aching ... ' afterpoetry.com/poem/nov-05-...
- Reposted by 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫... 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐭[Not loaded yet]
- Poets, @afterpoetry.com's month-long annual submissions window is almost over. More than 115 of you have sent in your previously unpublished 'after' and ekphrastic poems – the highest number of subs of any year so far! Not sent in YOUR poem yet? Don't leave it too late ... afterpoetry.com/submit
- The rise and fall in a moving piece by Debussy is mirrored in Kerry Trautman's #ekphrastic poem 'When He Comes Back to You'. ' ... sea-water in halos around footfalls now returns to reclaim the land it soaked move anything you wish dry to higher ground afterpoetry.com/poem/oct-21-...
- Art ... or artifice? That's the question posed by @saccharinequeen.bsky.social's new #ekphrastic poem. 'A tour guide holds forth on body horror, the decayed viscera of industrial decline, yah de blah, but no, it‘s worse than that. It‘s revolting pretentiousness.' afterpoetry.com/poem/oct-07-...
- **PUSHCART PRIZE NOMINEES ANNOUNCED** Please join @afterpoetry.com in congratulating K Roberts, @corinnaboard.bsky.social, Suzi Feay, @arainbowpoet.bsky.social, Matt Cariello and @victoriaspires.bsky.social on their nominations for the next edition of the @pushcartprize.bsky.social.
- The window is open, poets ... come on in. #opensubmissions #poetry #afterpoetry #ekphrastic #ekphrasis
- Reposted by 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫... 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐭[Not loaded yet]
- It's nearly time again ... If you've been looking for a home for that 'after' or ekphrastic poem, @afterpoetry.com is the place for you. Submissions reopen tomorrow – October 1st 2025. You then have the entire month to send in your poem for a chance to feature in After... in 2026. Good luck! 🤞🏼
- Sculpture as movement frozen. Dance as light captured. This new #ekphrastic poem by @duntruner.bsky.social has it all. 'I saw her dance again there, enfolded in negative space, I saw again that hip-spun pause of lofted breath.' afterpoetry.com/poem/sep-21-...
- The title of John White's #ekphrastic poem deceives. Is it about office life? Or just life? 'We floated, avatars of the open plan, by night rehearsing in the snooker dens each with a cue trained over a pack of Bensons like an extension of him, holding a heron ... ' afterpoetry.com/poem/sep-07-...
- Art on art about art retelling a myth – @nberlat.bsky.social's #ekphrastic Icarus poem goes deeper. 'Breughel was right about suffering but not like Auden says. Icarus isn’t the man whose suffering is forgotten. There he is in the painting. There he is in the poem.' afterpoetry.com/poem/aug-23-...
- In @clattermonger.bsky.social's new #ekphrastic poem, Rodin's father making his son making his father gives cause to write of his own father. ' ... I tried to paint you, to present you as a single plane, but find it best to sculpt your head so I can live among you.' afterpoetry.com/poem/aug-09-...
- Art is more than what we hang, hear or read. As Ennis Rook Bashe shows us in this new #ekphrastic poem, it can also be what we play. 'Tachycardia: moth-wing heartbeat, lantern-golden eyes. I think I could break him the way fishhooks wouldn’t ... ' www.afterpoetry.com/poem/jul-24t...
- There's a warning to us all in Matt Cariello's #ekphrastic reimagining of 'Beauty and the Beast': beware of what you want ... ' ... But see – she trembles that the beast is gone when all we ever wanted was a corridor lit with torches forever.' afterpoetry.com/poem/jul-10-...
- Roger Hare's new #ekphrastic poem 'Jerusalem Syndrome' cleverly fuses art with religious psychosis. '... you will mock your own tears, the removal of sky from above your head, the emptying of all you thought required to be filled ...' afterpoetry.com/poem/jun-25-2025-roger-hare
- A literal and figurative flight of fancy up next on @afterpoetry.com, with @helenlaycock.bsky.social's #ekphrastic poem 'Grand-Mère en Ciel'. 'I pull her in my wake, barefoot, threshing flames of barley, and she wings my hair with a fan of lavender, calming me ... ' afterpoetry.com/poem/jun-11-...
- New #ekphrastic poem from Patrick Wright on @afterpoetry.com takes us into the art of darkness. ' ... a town like this is void though one pulse of a deer’s heart makes it a plenum. A full spectrum will reveal itself only when you’ve pledged to cease hurting.' afterpoetry.com/poem/may-27-...
- With a new #ekphrastic poem a little over 24 hours away on @afterpoetry.com – and a new font to improve readability – here are two tutorials to help you get the best from the journal when enjoying it on a mobile device. First, did you know you can tap on the moons to go through poems in date order?
- Reposted by 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫... 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐭[Not loaded yet]
- There's a face in @amantineb.bsky.social's #ekphrastic poem 'La Gioconda' which, like the Mona Lisa's, you can't take your eyes off. ' ... In our incomplete house of tongues, from such sacred clay and embalmed scars, your beauty's skinned into an ancient prayer ... ' afterpoetry.com/poem/may-12-...
- Do not pass up the opportunity to read tonight's thought-provoking new #ekphrastic poem by @philvernon.bsky.social. 'No pasarán: they shall not pass – shall not by passing take away the hope – the slender chance.' afterpoetry.com/poem/apr-27-...
- Extraordinary #ekphrastic poem up now on @afterpoetry.com, as Suzi Feay writes of bone made ceramic. ' ... Glass is a fluid that will flow Slower than marrow, DNA or any Beam in your house of meat.' afterpoetry.com/poem/apr-13-...
- Today's #ekphrastic poem – 'Prophets', by Max Wallis – draws on Ginsberg's 'Howl'. 'All these dead and not-so-dead befores! All this that stood and fell and despite it all: saw their cities extend into the fever pit of men. And in doing so Hell became.' afterpoetry.com/poem/mar-29-...
- Remembering the warm-hearted, talented and quietly spoken poet @ivordaniel.bsky.social, who passed away recently, and much too soon. With love and deepest sympathy to Ivor's family and friends. He will be missed, dearly. afterpoetry.com/poem/may-30-2022-ivor-daniel
- This evening's #ekphrastic poem on @afterpoetry.com is ideal for an eclipsed 'blood' moon. Read Phillipa Trelford's serendipitously titled 'Selene'. 'Sea and sky merge to azurite, her face pearlescent in a night-lined box. She welcomes glimmering, the evening star.' afterpoetry.com/poem/mar-14-...
- Treat yourself to new #ekphrastic poem 'Red Hills with Flowers' by @corinnaboard.bsky.social – her first publication of 2025, and her @afterpoetry.com debut. 'There are no flowers on Mars. Flowers like sunsets or sunrises, freshly cut, red as wounds.' afterpoetry.com/poem/feb-28-...
- Look out for a new #ekphrastic poem on @afterpoetry.com from 9pm BST, as @corinnaboard.bsky.social makes her debut in the journal with a piece inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's 'Red Hills with Flowers'.
- New #ekphrastic poem is ready to read at @afterpoetry.com – @swhoffmann.bsky.social's 'Sundays at Second Baptist'. ' ... at Second Baptist, well-mannered and well-dressed, we joined the choir in singing 'Softly and Tenderly' – we, who had no knowledge of tenderness.' afterpoetry.com/poem/feb-12-...
- Next #ekphrastic poem up on @afterpoetry.com is K Roberts' deft blend of mood and style, 'The Gilded Age'. ' ... await her lifted hand, soft-spoken word and pouring of rich order, recompense for hours whiled away unseen, unheard in the reliquary of her innocence.' afterpoetry.com/poem/jan-29-...
- First up on @afterpoetry.com for 2025 is a powerful #ekphrastic poem by @jackbedell.bsky.social – 'Sungazing'. 'Each hammer blow echoes around his studio like spots of time, memories of his grandfather walking the streets near Hiroshima ... ' afterpoetry.com/poem/jan-13-2025-jack-b-bedell
- Reposted by 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫... 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐭[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫... 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐭[Not loaded yet]
- *FORWARD PRIZES 2025* Congratulations to these @forwardprizes.bsky.social nominees for Best Single Poem Written: @georgiahilton.bsky.social – We are not gold @esloudon.bsky.social – Y Tu Mamá También Suchi Govindarajan – Hope is a thing with chemicals Your poems will be formally submitted soon.
- Happy New Year to one and all! Thank you for making @afterpoetry.com so successful over its first three years online. Be here from 9pm (GMT) on January 13th for @jackbedell's #ekphrastic poem 'Sungazing'.
- A smart poem that deals deftly but honestly with a traumatic personal experience.
