By Barb Edler, 10 February 2026

I’m writing all the time, but I can’t always find what I want. I think for this reason, I wrote two different versions of an ekphrastic poem inspired by Grant Wood’s New Road.

This morning, I was finishing a version of an autobiographical piece that was to focus on art. I love art and have no talent when it comes to painting, drawing, etc. In my memoir I shared how I had one of these poems selected for the 2025 Lyrical Iowa. One of their categories is an ekphrastic Grant Wood poem. I faintly remember looking for a poem I had shared with the Grant Wood Country Chronicles, but I most likely couldn’t find it so I decided to write a new one for Lyrical Iowa. Sure enough, when I looked at the two publications today, I discovered that I did indeed write two different poems about the same painting. “Sojourn to Solon” is the original poem that was published in the Grant Wood Country Chronicle.

Sojourn to Solon
After New Road, 1939

beneath a breathless palette of blue
we travel a new road to Solon,
five miles from curvy crossroads
embraced by cultivated cornfields
where dueling windmills sing hello,
laughing with delight at our airborne
flight into emerald valleys below-
summer's honey breeze tickles our hair,
blesses our sunny faces and
the perfectly paved road of gold

Five More Miles
Inspired by Grant Wood's New Road

beyond Grant Wood's rolling hills
an exciting city life awaits,
beyond the stalwart windmills,
beyond--Grant Wood's rolling hills,
white homes, red barns that my fulfill,
but a new road to Solon offers thrills-
five miles beyond these foothill
an exciting city life awaits

"Five More Miles" was third honorable mention. Need I say more? I wished I had found the original that day I tried to write for Lyrical Iowa. Here's hoping to devise a better way to keep track of my poetry.