Reflections on the Project

I really enjoyed the project despite some difficulties I experienced with computers and other related technology. I must say I liked reading Imagist poetry and I learned about haikus which have always fascinated me. What I liked most about this project was that I really got to be an artist, I had a lot of fun exploring Gloucester, taking pictures and just noticing a lot of detail about my surrounding I wasn't aware of. I hope that this blog is also informative too, I researched things and hopefully put a lot of helpful information out there for people. Imagism and haikus have become my new favorite types of poetry mostly because after reading and studying many works of these kinds I have come to appreciate the artistry behind concise and condensed pieces of work. Haikus and Imagism in particular have given me a new look at what art and poetry can be.

Early Morning: An Imagist Poem by Amy Carpenter

Grey fog,
Misty tendrils of smoke

rolling...

creeping...

gliding...

across reality

Until...

The Wind shifts

and Reality alters

to fit the new.

My Imagist Photographs

Selected Works by Amy Lowell

A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M.

They have watered the street,

It shines in the glare of lamps,

Cold, white lamps,

And lies

Like a slow-moving river,

Barred with silver and black.

Cabs go down it,

One,

And then another,

Between them I hear the shuffling of feet.

Tramps doze on the window-ledges,

Night-walkers pass along the sidewalks.

The city is squalid and sinister,

With the silver-barred street in the midst,

Slow-moving,

A river leading nowhere.

Opposite my window,

The moon cuts,

Clear and round,

Through the plum-coloured night.

She cannot light the city:

It is too bright.

It has white lamps,

And glitters coldly.

I stand in the window and watch the

moon.

She is thin and lustreless,

But I love her.

I know the moon,

And this is an alien city.The day is fresh-washed and fair, and there is a smell of tulips and narcissus in the air.

Bath

The sunshine pours in at the bath-room window and bores through the water in the bath-tub in lathes and planes of greenish-white. It cleaves the water into flaws like a jewel, and cracks it to bright light.

Little spots of sunshine lie on the surface of the water and dance, dance, and their reflections wobble deliciously over the ceiling; a stir of my finger sets them whirring, reeling. I move a foot and the planes of light in the water jar. I lie back and laugh, and let the green-white water, the sun-flawed beryl water, flow over me. The day is almost too bright to bear, the green water covers me from the too bright day. I will lie here awhile and play with the water and the sun spots. The sky is blue and high. A crow flaps by the window, and there is a whiff of tulips and narcissus in the air.

(Note: Top featured photograph is by Terri Moody)

Works Cited: "Amy Lowell." Famous Poets and Poems. N.p., 2006. Web. 3 Jun 2010.

More Poems of William Carlos Williams

Nantucket

Flowers through the window
lavender and yellow

changed by white curtains –
Smell of cleanliness –

Sunshine of late afternoon –
On the glass tray

a glass pitcher, the tumbler
turned down, by which

a key is lying – And the
immaculate white bed

This is Just to Say

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

Works Cited: "William Carlos Williams." Poem Hunter.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Jun 2010.

The Leader: Amy Lowell

By the time Imagism as a movement had run its course, Amy Lowell was seen as its leader. Although Imagism effectively ended in 1917, its impact on the literary world was immense. Imagism was part of a larger movement known as Modernism and Modernism opened the door for more unconventional styles of art and poetry. Free verse, surrealism and other avant-garde styles became more popular as the century passed. And Imagism itself survived in amateur writings and readers like me who appreciate its clarity and beauty.

Works Cited: "Amy Lowell." Famous Poets and Poems. N.p., 2006. Web. 3 Jun 2010.

Free Verse! Free Verse! The Poems of William Carlos Williams

Metric Figure

There is a bird in the poplars!
It is the sun!
The leaves are little yellow fish
swimming in the river.
The bird skims above them,
day is on his wings.
Phoebus!
It is he that is making
the great gleam among the poplars!

It is his singing
outshines the noise
of leaves clashing in the wind.

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

Arrival

And yet one arrives somehow,
finds himself loosening the hooks of
her dress
in a strange bedroom--
feels the autumn
dropping its silk and linen leaves
about her ankles.
The tawdry veined body emerges
twisted upon itself
like a winter wind . . . !

Works Cited: "William Carlos Williams." Poem Hunter.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Jun 2010.