Image-In This! Or NotWe've all heard the rules of imagery...
Image-In This! Or Not
We've all heard the rules of imagery before--be concrete, be unique, be sensory, be partial, be specific and I've posted blogs on this before both here and on my Goodreads Restop blog: Wordy Wanderings Rest Stop, So, to cover new territory, I'm going to offer my final poems for National Poetry Month a. In May and b. without a focus on imagery.
Because I'm a fan of looking at things from various angles and "showing the other side of things" knowing that few things have only two sides, here is an article from the American Academy of Poets that suggests we should move beyond concrete imagery: "In Praise of Abstraction".
But to keep concrete imagery in the mix, I'll also share an article on imagery. Here's an article that looks at imagery in the work of the poet and playwright Garcia Lorca: The Imagery of Garcia Lorca
Now back to other forms of poetry. As we see in the work of ee cummings who famously brought the issue of sound, visuals, and abstractions to the forefront in modern poetry, imagery is not a requirement for poetry that could rely on experiential elements of abstraction vs. imagery.
To look at how this can work, I'll approach a subject in terms of imagery, then in terms of abstraction. Let me know which you prefer and why? Keep in mind, they will both be initial drafts that may lead to very different poems in the end.
(28 of 30)
A Desk
Images of an office supply store exploding come to mindYet that would not account for the books, piled spine inspine out, genre graphicto text book graphitethe gray dustwords boundinspiration for discussionsticky note pockedquestion mark riddledpile of unfilled papersadvising,accumulating,unpaid bill that I cannot account forCoffee cup ringed with pen marksbut hosting only highlightersa pair of scissorsand memories of the pens that marked itWhere are my notes for the lectureI have to givein an hour?
And now once more in abstraction!!
(29 of 30)
words withering waiting for a station in linea memory of location a unleashing from the pagedogeared, shuffled, marked, stickiedread, reshuffled recalledbound by glue by eyes that scanfollow the dotted lines of allusionshighlighters unusedpens off to parts on knownwoodgrain printed on plastic glued beneath the weight of daysweeks semesters of appointmentslectures advising lunches with a half-lifecomputers with letters worn to memorydrafts written revisioned repeatedsubmitted rejectedwaitingfor meto findthem beneath the pile
Better 2 days late then never, right?
wrytingechallengea dozen doubled days plus fivea poem in a shell each nestedin advicewrapped in articleslinkedletterslinesimagesideasset not in timenor placenor rhymebut in fluxflexibilityfermentingwaiting for the aging processto proclaim ita heady bouquetor vinegar fitfor naught
We've all heard the rules of imagery before--be concrete, be unique, be sensory, be partial, be specific and I've posted blogs on this before both here and on my Goodreads Restop blog: Wordy Wanderings Rest Stop, So, to cover new territory, I'm going to offer my final poems for National Poetry Month a. In May and b. without a focus on imagery.
Because I'm a fan of looking at things from various angles and "showing the other side of things" knowing that few things have only two sides, here is an article from the American Academy of Poets that suggests we should move beyond concrete imagery: "In Praise of Abstraction".
But to keep concrete imagery in the mix, I'll also share an article on imagery. Here's an article that looks at imagery in the work of the poet and playwright Garcia Lorca: The Imagery of Garcia Lorca
Now back to other forms of poetry. As we see in the work of ee cummings who famously brought the issue of sound, visuals, and abstractions to the forefront in modern poetry, imagery is not a requirement for poetry that could rely on experiential elements of abstraction vs. imagery.
To look at how this can work, I'll approach a subject in terms of imagery, then in terms of abstraction. Let me know which you prefer and why? Keep in mind, they will both be initial drafts that may lead to very different poems in the end.
(28 of 30)
A Desk
Images of an office supply store exploding come to mindYet that would not account for the books, piled spine inspine out, genre graphicto text book graphitethe gray dustwords boundinspiration for discussionsticky note pockedquestion mark riddledpile of unfilled papersadvising,accumulating,unpaid bill that I cannot account forCoffee cup ringed with pen marksbut hosting only highlightersa pair of scissorsand memories of the pens that marked itWhere are my notes for the lectureI have to givein an hour?
And now once more in abstraction!!
(29 of 30)
words withering waiting for a station in linea memory of location a unleashing from the pagedogeared, shuffled, marked, stickiedread, reshuffled recalledbound by glue by eyes that scanfollow the dotted lines of allusionshighlighters unusedpens off to parts on knownwoodgrain printed on plastic glued beneath the weight of daysweeks semesters of appointmentslectures advising lunches with a half-lifecomputers with letters worn to memorydrafts written revisioned repeatedsubmitted rejectedwaitingfor meto findthem beneath the pile
Better 2 days late then never, right?
wrytingechallengea dozen doubled days plus fivea poem in a shell each nestedin advicewrapped in articleslinkedletterslinesimagesideasset not in timenor placenor rhymebut in fluxflexibilityfermentingwaiting for the aging processto proclaim ita heady bouquetor vinegar fitfor naught
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Word Wanderings Rest Stop
A few words on writing and wandering and where the two weave together.
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