Lesson 2: Creating Imagery

Wild, Awed, Attacked
Following elephant tracks.
Wild went this way
Awed went that
Attacked went this way, that way and back.

Pacaderms pounding
Elephant trunks
Pounding and pounding
The horn and the tusks.
Follow and follow
If follow you must,
But when following elephants
Watch out for the big brown clumps!

I’m sure some persnickety poetry professor will cringe, when I say that without the “big brown clumps” there would be no poetry. A big brown clump is an image, and creating images is a powerful way to make words stand out.

An image is a word or phrase that appeals to our senses. It can be as beautiful as a ballerina in a blue skirt or as grubby as a dog digging in the dirt.

Here are four simple steps to writing an image poem.

Step 1: Choose an image. Anything that fascinates you. For example…

Spiders

Step 2: Make a list of words and phrases that come to your mind when you think of your image. For example…

Webs
Hairy
Dangle
Crawling
Creepy
Fangs
Eating Flies
Crunch
Itsy-bitsy
Long legs
Bug catcher

Step 3: Find playful ways of arranging your words into three or four lines. For example…

Step 4: Begin and end your poem with your original image.

Spiders
Web dangle fangs.
Creepy crawling legs.
Bug catchers crunch.
Eating itsy-bitsy flies.
Spiders

Not all poems need to rhyme. This poem plays with images without using rhyme. Also notice in poetry you don't have to write complete sentences.

Images can be heard as well as seen. If you want to hear more creepy images, listen to this poem called The Bogeyman Band.

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