A Lesson in Witchcraft

Sometimes when I’m reading through poetry both assigned by class and not assigned, I find that I diagnose them based on my own opinions on what poetry should be. This isn’t so that I can dismiss anything as being non-poetry, but there are just some types of poetry that resonate with people more than others. For me, I love imagery, and a poet that can paint a scene that I can mentally see clearly is a poet that I’ll enjoy. I also really love stories, both hearing and telling.

H.D. and Zack Strait are two poets that are very good with their imagery and painting the picture in the reader’s head. I found a lot of similarity between H.D’s poem “Pear Tree” and Strait’s “Another Moon”. In Strait’s poem, he tells a story that describes a few images so well that I can see them clearly, though I’ve never seen the same sight in real life as he’s describing. Here are a few well-imaged lines from Strait’s poem:

With its soft surface of bluebells

But there it was, spinning so close to the earth…

So I pulled our red ladder out of the garage,

And climbed to the roof

I stood up and imagined I was balancing, the moon on my head

I really like this narrative imagery style presented by Strait. I can imagine this happening, and follow along with the visual in my head while the story is being told in a poetic style. For me, this is just a great method of sharing your views with other people. Storytelling is such a great tradition, and when you add the style, rhyme, meter or any other part of poetry with it, it’s so captivating.

H.D. has this same captivating style of imagery, as shown in her poem “Pear Tree”. Here are a few well-imaged lines of her poem:

Silver dust, lifted from the earth,

Higher than my arms reach…

No flower ever parted silver, from such rare silver…

O white pear, your flower-tufts, thick on the branch,

Bring summer and ripe fruits, in their purple hearts

Just the way that she describes these flowers, which is something she uses in most of her poetry, paints a picture in my head that makes me appreciate nature, though I’ve never seen what she’s describing in-person. That effect is one of the greatest styles of poetry, to me. It’s so amazing how people can use words alone to create an image in someone else’s mind without them even seeing the visual in real life. It’s so hard to explain, it’s like some type of voodoo, witchcraft magic. 


Suggested poetry blog of the week: http://bestnewpoets.org/blog/