Imagery Poems

“One is trying to record the precise instant when a thing outward and objective transforms itself, or

darts into a thing inward and subjective.“-Ezra Pound

Silence--a strangledTelephone has forgottenThat it should ring

Notice…

The point of the poem is to ruminate, to pause and consider 1 important image

The beauty and grace of haiku is that they are almost meditative.

Amidst all else in the world… We select 1 image and devote a poem to it.

We are meant to be in the moment with that item, thing, or element of nature. We are meant to reflect on our experience with that object

Structure

• Line 1…5 words• Line 2…7 words• Line 3…5 words

The simplicity of the poem is its greatest strength. The challenge is creating such a powerful emotional response from limited text… Again, the significance is placed on the image and our relationship to it

More Examples

Through the fingerprintson my window-cloudless blue sky.

Looking at the cloudsblue in the ice-windspace flows

• Haiku focuses on short bursts of words that describe spiritual and physical elements of a scene or an event…

• Imagist poetry does the same thing… just in a slightly longer format

so much dependsupon a red wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the whitechickens.

-William Carlos Williams

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox

and which you were probably saving for breakfast

Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

-William Carlos Williams

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.

--Ezra Pound

Direct treatment of the "thing," whether subjective or objective.

To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.