Write something.

Now write it in a mirror for princes.

Now write it in a mirror for fools.

                                                 S. Yarberry

A Brief Background:

In Willam Blake’s later life, he started producing a body of work known as the “Visionary Heads” for a fellow friend, painter, and astologer. These portraits were done between 1818-1820 between the hours of about 9:00pm - 5:00am. Alexander Gilchrist, the famous biographer of Blake, wrote:  


“Varley would say, ‘Draw me Moses,’ or David; or would call for a likeness of Julius Caesar, or Cassibellaunus, or Edward the Third, or some other great historical personage. Blake would answer, ‘There he is!’ and paper and pencil being at hand, he would begin drawing, with the utmost alacrity and composure, looking up from time to time as though he had a real sitter before him.”

The most famous of these works — which you may have seen — is Blake’s “The Ghost of the Flea:”





The Prompt:


Like Blake, I invite you to partake in a seance, a lyric seance. Instead of demanding, “Draw me Moses!” I am saying to you, “Write me Blake!” I hope you will say, “There he is!” and start fashioning your poem “with the utmost alacrity and composure, looking up from time to time as though [you have] a real sitter before [you]” in the room. Look up, and watch for Blake to appear in front of you. Call him forth, if he is being nervous to show himself. If you’re able to write sometime between 9:00pm and 5:00am, see what the night brings.

Whether you write yourself a “Visionary Head” in the style of Blakean portraiture or take the lead from written Blakean portraits, such as “Blake” by Lucille Clifton, “Blake” by Linda Gregg, or “Blake Does My Yard Work” by Colin Criss, your poem should spotlight Blake either as an interlocutor or as the focal subject of the poem.

I have made copies of Gregg and Clifton’s poems available HERE, since these poems are not online. You can read Colin Criss’s poem “Blake Does My yard Work” in Issue 15 of Tyger Quarterly. Enjoy! Write!