What is imagism in poetry? Simply put, it is using clear visual images in a poem.

This is a poem I made for a poetry contest.  The poetic style that I wanted to employ at first was imagism. I tried to use visual images in my poem. However, readers often commented that it is hard to imagine. Probably, it’s because the poem’s inspiration is E.E. Cummings particularly his poem grasshopper.  E.E. Cummings is known for his non-traditional style in which he employed creative techniques such as enjambment which is a complete contrast to imagism. In employing imagism in this poem, I could have used a simple language, the ordinary language that we use so that readers can easily grasp my ideas. However, since I wanted to go beyond the traditional, I thought it would be ok to tweak it a bit.

It was a challenge to create a poem that will give the reader a clear visualization of the combination of words that you used in the poem. There is always a danger of misinterpretation. I guess this is the challenge in imagism in poetry. You have to give a clear visual image of whatever is in your mind if you are the poet.  Ezra Pound is a significant poet who led this modernist movement in poetry.

Peak Season

  by ABQ

Lo and behold!  come another sky 

 just as high as the grandest palm  tree  I used to pass by. 

It’s brilliance mars  the  eyes, the onlooker’s view

of the dome which mirrors the nude universe, the material world. 

Ssshhhwooos! I sip the air, the sweeping wind boils.

 It smashed the glass where I used to check  my bright doll eyes, and pouted lips    

 before the shutter counts.

Come, the peak season of the boat

the dome is still, watching the struggling feet  of mice, & snakes that bite,                                           

listening to the resonating cries of both the newborn and the aging gals, the greedy 

and the sinless simpletons,  

for the domes are high, the skyline is against the sky,

the flatline is hard to qualify. So here we are,

in the years to come by,

h

a

n

g

i

n

g upside down.

What image is formed in the poem above? What image can you imagine after reading the poem? What is the poem about? Do you think it is challenging to do imagism in poetry?