Image Poem!
Short Stories April 21st, 2008Long awaited (I think), at least the Image Poem arrives.
The assignment was to create a poem composed of images. Lots of images. They are supposed to communicate an emotion and a theme. I’m kind of worried about mine because when it was submitted for peer review, the desired emotion wasn’t really identified. I only made a couple of edits to it, but I hope that they clarified the emotion more.
Regardless: I hope you enjoy. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.
| Guiding Light
The trees sway in invisible wind The darkness moves - The coyote howls in mourning. Muffled shouts The beacon is off. Armed statues wait in the alley All hail – and stop The beacon is off |
April 21st, 2008 at 9:59 am
Well, I like it. The sense I got from it was fear/dread as someone approaches the dark shoreline. Was that your emotion?
April 24th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
lonliness… I also have a little bit of a sense of desolation, possibly just a hint of despair. But mostly loneliness…
My favorite line is “watching your every lack of move;” it just somehow sings to me.
I’m not sure I understand the whole thing, some of it would probably need to be explained to me… like the wild beads line: it doesn’t bring anything to mind for me.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
The emotion I desired to create was desolation and despair, or dread perhaps. Loneliness is definitely a part of that; I’m glad that came across to Dad.
The idea of the poem itself is supposed to emphasize and consider that humans may be (and, in some cases, are) tied to some higher power that they use as a “guiding light”, and without it we get lost. I started with primitive images to create a Naturalist tone - Naturalists enjoy emphasizing that humans are no better than animals as they are.
April 26th, 2008 at 6:42 am
It’s very interesting to me that the idea of the poem is that humans are tied to some higher power to guide them, yet to illustrate it you’ve conjured images of it’s absence: (”the beacon is off” and the “sun’s reflection is missing”). That you have successfully conveyed the loneliness (or desolation, despair) that results from the lack of a “guiding light” does indeed remind of us the need for such a guide and the lost state humans are in without it.
I still feel a little lost with some of the imagery, like the beads and the “brown bag fever glowing white.” Just not sure what that means….
April 26th, 2008 at 10:36 am
The former is just an odd word for ‘eyes’, ’cause they got kinda beady. Beady eyes.
The latter is suggesting that the man holding them up is having a very bad case of alcohol overdose, at its worst (’glowing white’).
It was weird. I know.
April 26th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
No, that’s not weird at all! That’s excellent! I should have gotten the reference in both cases, now that I do it’s even cooler… nice poem!