Throughout the millennia, poets have been inspired by the visual arts as a way into reading the self and soul. This workshop will explore figurations of the soul through our numinous encounters with the visual. How can we create a dialogue with the visual arts that triggers an introspection of the self? Ekphrasis may have its roots in the art of description, but our focus will move beyond description into an enactment of Keatsian “soul-making.” Each poet is invited to choose a particular artist as their co-explorer on this journey, to create a sequence of poems in conversation with the works of that artist. We’ll read a selection of ekphrastic texts by contemporary poets that deploy various strategies for creating this ekphrastic moment.