2023 National Poetry Month Ekphrastic Poetry Contest

For this year’s National Poetry Month Ekphrastic Poetry Contest, SAMA partnered with local poets and other art institutions to invite you to draw inspiration from artworks for ekphrastic poems—poems that describe and expand on the theme of an existing piece of visual art. The artwork that SAMA selected for the contest is Armorial Hanging, a richly embroidered tapestry from the Spanish colonial era.

Armorial Hanging, ca. 1771, Viceroyalty of New Spain, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, North and Central America, Cotton and wool embroidery on linen ground, natural dyes, height: 93 1/8 in. (236.5 cm), width: 90 1/2 in. (229.9 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by the Lillie and Roy Cullen Endowment, 2011.14

The poems below are this year’s winners in the youth and adult categories:

2023 Youth Winning Poem

An Armorial, A Hanging on the Wall

Lions, roaring, Birds, soaring,
Life is stirring in the hanging on the wall

And, Words, written, Stories, knitten, 
Woven into the hanging on the wall

With, Lines, twisting, curving; Shapes, morphing, mixing; Symbols of age, pride, 
Designed in the hanging on the wall

Creatures, roaring, soaring, 
Stories, written, knitten, 
Symbolism, age, pride,
In the hanging does it lie

- Claudia Hanssen, age 11

2023 Adult Winning Poems

Holding Fast

Spirits of the Ben‘Zaa
inhabit every stitch criollo fingers
embroidered to honor Spanish viceroys. 
Channeling ancestral formulas,
brown hands imbued Oaxacan marigolds
with pinches of pomegranate
to release rich yellows.
Ground red cochineal from clumped white insects 
growing on nopal in Teotitlán de Valle.
Sweated hard days in Cerro de Añil
to distill indigo blue.
Indigenous colors have held fast,
connecting generations of Mexican artists.

- Jean Hackett

Oh, What Tapestry Are We!

Stitched together like the wool, cotton, linen,
we see ourselves in the fiber. Without ripping 
more than 250 years of patterned flowers, 
two-headed eagles, it’s impossible to unthread 
what’s been needled, to undo what’s been dyed. 
Instead, we must not look away from what draws 
our eyes to the escutcheon, can make one question 
the charges, images: two lances crossed, a man 
coated in metal, blessed by an angel, a plated knee 
bent before a crucifix, a bascinet removed
for prayer. But there’s also a cluster of stars,
a rose, a tiger, a tree, keys to unlock the castle. 
The longer we look, the more we find.
A coat of arms is meant to be seen.
So, too, us all—richly textured, unfinished.

- Jonathan Fletcher

Shared Blood (A-94)

Together under every sky, through the heat and the rain 
My brother, my blood, the same look in those eyes
I love you,
As deep as our color runs
The jewel in the center of our soul shines 
Sends away the darkness
You’re so strong where I can’t be
Two parts of the same creation
I would break the earth for you
My heart beats heavy in your chest
When you hurt it hits me
When you try and hide, you drag me with you
And when my mind is out in some far, dark, jungle 
Your mind knows where to find me
Shows me solid ground, shows me my roots

- Diego Ray Hernandez