Blog Entry Nine: Concrete Imagery

Looking at the "revisions" of your Horoscope poems as well as your Formalist poetry, it is clear that we  ALL really need to work on developing our ability to create CONCRETE imagery. For the most part, it appears that we are all a tad too married to abstract language. The problem with abstract language is that it lacks specificity and, when relied upon too much, it reduces one's poetry to cliches because it is so vague and generalizing. For that reason, I want you all to practice the art of using more concrete language. Remember, word choice is key to poetry, and choosing specific and precise concrete language as opposed to vague and abstract language is a good place to begin improving one's poetry.


So, for our ninth blog assignment, I want you to start simply by finding someTHING to describe. Try to avoid doing this exercise with people, because when writing about a person it is very easy to slip into abstract descriptions that are meaningless in the context of poetry. Pick something concrete--an object of some sort. When writing about your subject, avoid abstractions like “beautiful,” “good,” “ugly,” and “happy.” Use descriptions that contribute to the character of the place or object. The windowsill isn’t just red; it is warped and peeling. The journal isn’t just on the nightstand; it is unwrinkled but covered in dust.


I want you to write a list of at least five solid and well-wrought concrete observations about your subject. If you are struggling, consider each point capturing one of the five senses. "It smells like," "It feels like," etc. 


Then, I want you to add five more observations that imbue the object with "intellectual" observation--realizations about the thing that shows that it is being observed by a thinking person. Think of it as augmenting the object with your thoughts. In that regard, I want you to take aspects of your concrete observations and consider what they could mean--what they could symbolize.


In the end, you should have a list of ten concrete observations about your object all of which use unique, specific, descriptive, lush, and concrete language to describe it and make it mean something.

Due by Thursday, March 15