NM Department of Cultural Affairs

Poetry Contest

poster for the 2027 Ekphrastic Poetry Contest

Are you inspired by the art and culture of New Mexico?

Let the artwork on display around the state serve as your guide for our poetry contest! The pieces of art in the image gallery below, each on display at a different institution operated by New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, range from photographs of life in early New Mexico statehood to cosmic depictions of the vast universe. Each piece of art on display contributes to artistic and cultural heritage of New Mexico in its own way. In celebration of National Poetry Month, we invite all New Mexicans to seek inspiration in the works of art on display below and express that feeling through ekphrastic poetry, also known as poetry inspired by works of art.

Rules

  • Contest runs through 11:59 PM on Friday, February 26, 2027. Winners will be announced mid-April, 2027.
  • Upload your poem by clicking the "submit" button below. Please respect our limit of one poetry submission per person.
  • Only complete submission forms will be judged.
  • Contest open to all New Mexico residents.
  • The contest will feature three categories: Kid (ages 9 and younger), Youth (ages 10-18), and Adult (ages 19 and older). Please select your category when you submit your poem.
  • Submissions will be judged anonymously.
  • Please only submit once per category.
  • There will be one 1st prize and up to two finalists awarded for each age category. Each winner will receive a pair of New Mexico CulturePasses and will have the opportunity to read their poem at a special poetry reading in the Spring.
Submit an Entry

Resource Hub!

Explore a variety of resources to help you get started on your poetry submission.

What Is Ekphrastic Poetry?

Explore Ekphrastic Poems

A short, accessible explanation and list with contemporary poems provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

How Can I Start Writing Ekphrastic Poetry?

Get Inspired!

Analogy, and Noise!

Ekphrastic Poetry Explained: How to Write Ekphrastic Poems

Perspectives in Writing Ekphrastic Poetry

How Do I Teach (And Learn About) Ekphrastic Poetry?

Ekphrastic Poetry for High School Students

Tips on creating engaging lessons for high school students from Marilyn Yung.

Art and Poetry

Informational handout designed for educators and writers by the Getty Museum.

Ekphrastic Poems - How to Use Language Arts to Hone Visual Literacy Skills

Tips on how teaching ekphrasis can strengthen students' visual literacy skills.

Lesson for Ekphrastic Poetry

Engaging, adaptable lesson for grades 5-12 from InsideOut Literary Arts in Detroit.

Ekphrastic Poetry Lesson

Designed by the Smithsonian American Art Museum for use with grades 4-8.

Ekphrastic Poetry - A Unit for a Creative Writing Seminar

An adaptable three-day unit for high school and college courses from the Washington and Lee University Collection of Art and History.

Image Gallery

Round coiled basketry tray in natural tan with a black woven design of the Man in the Maze: a small human figure stands at the entrance of a labyrinth that winds inward toward the center.

Man-in-the-Maze

Artist Once Known, Akimel O’Odham I’itoi (Man-in-the-Maze) Basketry Tray, ca. 1900, coiled basket made from cattails, willow, and devil’s claw. MIAC 1029/12. Gift of Michael Harrison, Courtesy of John and Linda Comstock and the Abigail Van Vleck Charitable Trust. Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (Santa Fe, NM).

Black and white photograph of Dorthea Begay, an older woman in glasses wearing a large round cluster brooch and a long silver necklace. She stands beside a wire fence with a flock of sheep in a corral behind her and open desert in the distance.

Dorthea Begay

“Dorthea Begay,” New Mexico, 1996. Photograph by Ann Bromberg. New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum 2015.027.6. New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum (Las Cruces, NM).

Multistory adobe building at Taos Pueblo under a deep blue sky, with small wooden windows, a turquoise door at the foot of a short staircase, and dry earth in the foreground.

Taos Pueblo

Taos Pueblo. Photograph Courtesy Historic Preservation Division, Karla K. McWilliams. New Mexico Historic Preservation Division (Santa Fe, NM).

Photograph blending a close view of cracked, crusted mineral texture in pink, purple, and white on the left with a winter scene of bare trees, a sidewalk, and a building on the right.

Scan Select 2

Scan Select 2, Nicholas Deamer. Photograph, archival print, 48 x 33 ½ in. Part of the New Mexico Arts Art in Public Places Permanent Collection. More Info: This artwork can be viewed on the 2nd Floor of the Bataan Memorial Building in Santa Fe. New Mexico Arts (Santa Fe, NM).

Dark volcanic boulders covered in lichen and carved with petroglyphs, including a checkerboard pattern, a circle with a cross, and small figures, with a spiky yucca plant at the upper left.

Taos petroglyphs

Taos petroglyphs. Photo courtesy of John Taylor Montoya. Office of Archaeological Studies (Santa Fe, NM).

Lithograph of an astronaut in a spacesuit walking on the lunar surface in front of an American flag, with a lunar module in the distance and a partial Earth in the dark sky.

First on the Moon

Robert McCall, First on the Moon, 1973, First Edition Lithograph on Paper, 22.5 x 30 inch. In the Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Space History. Donated by United New Mexico Bank of Alamogordo, 1989 (89.014.002). New Mexico Museum of Space History (Alamogordo, NM).

Illustration of a phytosaur, a large crocodilian reptile, lunging out of blue water toward a group of startled, beaked Placerias on a red riverbank under a sunset sky.

Phytosaur attacking Placerias

Phytosaur attacking Placerias. Illustration by Matt Celeskey and Mary Sundstrom. New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science (Albuquerque, NM).

Black and white photograph of a young girl with dark hair looking up at a carved statue of Santiago on horseback, draped in strands of beads, inside a church in Chimayó.

Child looking up at Santiago/Saint James, Chimayó

“Child looking up at Santiago/Saint James, Chimayó”, New Mexico, 1996. Cary Herz. Photograph, negative number (HP.2024.14.19). Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, New Mexico History Museum. New Mexico History Museum (Santa Fe, NM).

Detail of a painting of a woman with dark hair pulled up, wearing a loose white dress slipping off one shoulder, set against a soft swirling background of pale blue, lavender, and gray.

La Luz

Ouida Touchon, La Luz (detail), 1999, oil and acrylic on canvas. Collection of the Taylor-Mesilla Historic Site. Photo by Tira Howard. Taylor-Mesilla Historic Site (Mesilla, NM).

Assemblage in an ornate silver and gold tin frame with scrolled and pointed flourishes, holding a collage of a woman in a jeweled headdress surrounded by planets and moons.

Ariel’s Wish

Cynthia Cook, Ariel’s Wish (2003), tin, glass, leaves, bottle caps, wood, tin, glass, leaves, bottle caps, wood, 22 x 14.5 x 1.75 in. Gift in memory of Petra Romero Ipiotis (Grandma Pat). National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum Permanent Collection, 2008.5.1. National Hispanic Cultural Center (Albuquerque, NM).

Wooden coffin carved and painted as a Pan American 727 jetliner, white with blue and red stripes, the Pan Am globe logo on the tail, and landing gear, shown in profile against a light gray background.

Coffin Airplane

Coffin Airplane depicting a Pan American 727 jetliner. Seth Kane Kwei, Coffin Airplane, 1975, wood, organic, synthetic, glass, 106 1/2 × 81 × 29 in. Collection of the Museum of International Folk Art. Gift of Vivian Burns. More Info: This artwork will be included in the exhibition The Art Underground: Fantasy Coffins of Ghana, on view at the Museum of International Folk Art through September 5, 2027. Museum of International Folk Art (Santa Fe, NM).

Platinum palladium print of six worn, rusted metal objects arranged on a pale background, including a bottle opener, a flattened tube, a buckle, a strap fragment, a razor head, and a narrow blade.

Metal Objects

Joan Myers, Metal Objects, 1984, platinum-palladium print 8 1/4 × 6 5/8 in. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Gift of Joan Myers, 2017 (2017.5.17). © Joan Myers. Photo by Blair Clark. New Mexico Museum of Art (Santa Fe, NM).