Ekphrastic Poem in Looking at Appalachia Project

V. C. McCabeJune 12, 2018June 12, 2018News, Poetry1000 year flood, 2016 flood, Appalachia, appalachian poets, appalachian writers, Call & Response, Call and Response, ekphrastic poem, ekphrastic poems, ekphrastic poetry, elk river, For Want of an Ark, Looking at Appalachia, Photo, Photograph, poems, poetry, poetry news, poets, Sam Owens, v.c. mccabe, vcmccabe, vcmccabe.com, writers, writing, wv, WV floods, wv poets, wv writers

My ekphrastic poem, “For Want of an Ark,” is the first collaborative work published in the new “Call & Response” series by the Looking at Appalachia photography project, which has been featured in The New York Times and National Geographic.

My poem was inspired by my own experience in the “1,000-year flood” of Elk River in June, 2016 and by the image it is paired with for this project–Sam Owens’ photo of a flood survivor sorting flood-damaged photographs on her roof. The photo originally appeared in The Charleston Gazette shortly after the flood.

Photo by Sam Owens

Poem by V.C. McCabe

Published by V. C. McCabe

V.C. McCabe is an Appalachian poet and the author of Ophelia (Femme Salvé Books, 2023) and Give the Bard a Tetanus Shot (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2019). She has edited for Barren Magazine, the New International Voices series (Ice Floe Press), and Frontier Poetry. Her work appears in ekphrastic exhibits and journals worldwide, including EPOCH, Poet Lore, and Prairie Schooner. Her website is vcmccabe.com. View more posts

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Published by V. C. McCabe

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