In 2024 I started writing short pieces of prose poetry about destroying of works of art. I started with paintings, then moved on to perfume, performance art, novels, music, even ideas. The goal of the poems was always the same: to depict the piece’s destruction, its erasure, or its unmaking.

Originally, these pieces were intended as background exercises for a larger fiction project— but recently I revisited them and was pleasantly surprised at how well they stood on their own. So I collected some of the best into this, Elegy Ekphrasis, my work of mourning for dead works of art, my studies for destruction.

As a gift to my friends and anyone who likes art and poetry, I have made this piece available for free both as a PDF and a print-and-fold zine template. It certainly goes some places. If you’re interested in Joseph Beuys getting his dick bitten off, erotic fanfiction from the 1970s, bankrupting Coco Chanel, and women who stick their fingers into oil paintings, consider giving Elegy Ekphrasis a read. I hope you like it.