THE TRUTH THE DEAD KNOW by Anne Sexton

Gone , I say and walk from church,
.....the stiff...................grave
letting the dead.................the hearse
it is Jun, .........................being brave

We .........to the Cape, I cultivate
myself..............................from the sky
where the sea..................like an iron gate
and we touch. In .................people die.

My darling, the wind........................
from the ...........water and when we touch
...................touch entirely. No one's alone.
Men kill for this, or for........

And what of the dead? They lie............
in their............They are more like.........
than the sea would be............. They refuse
to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.

Rhyming with abab pattern. *written for poet's dead mother
*Rula, this poem is for you

Please comment within the next few days on the first two revised poems if you haven't already. Thanks...........stan

Would ya'll prefer I post the original versions of the poems being rewritten when I comment on them or wait until all revisions are posted?..........stan

thanks for your input...........stan

Please don't forget to hit the "workshop" button when you comment on a poem. It gives that neat looking outline to the comments..........stan

Wes and Carrie's comments on rewritten poems ...........but not forever lol

Others can catch up as best they can. I intend to post one original per day so everybody will have ample time to comment of the original vs. rewritten version.........stan

TALL TREES BLEED RED by Julia Blacke

Sometimes, I cease life
to .............tall trees, as far as..........................,
then call upon memories,.........,........ and bare

Images of time..................;shifting symbols
of......... .........., but they will never know, or hear,
my thoughts so..... .........home.

It tears me apart standing here, in a land where waving........
thrash against... ....., that someday you'll be............,
a red romance, that ........bled into the shades of...........

And I try to ........ our songs in the whispering ........,
invoking storms of my heart like the ..... ... ..........,
And the ........ of red wine, as it ..... ..... .... your lips,
to where bones of the dead............. ... ........
and true love......... ............

Hi Carrie (lonelyhrtsclub13) this one's for you............stan

THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS by Langston Hughes (to W.E.B. Du Bois)

I've known rivers
I've known rivers ancient ..... ..... ........... and......... than the
flow of ........ blood in ........... veins.
My soul has ..... ..... like the rivers.

I.... in the Euphrates when .......... were young.
I built my ..... near the Congo and it ..... me.... to... sleep
I looked upon the ........ and raised the pyramids .... ..
I heard the .... of the Mississippi when ........ Lincoln
went.......... to New Orleans, and I've seen its.............
bosum turn .... ..... in the sunset.

I've known rivers
............, dusky rivers

My .......... has grown ..... like the rivers

Alidzain this is your poem

to Carrie and alid

test test

Another reminder that a temporary "fix" is in place. To reach page 2 one must go to the original title page and click on the link titled Page 2. Today March 11 is my birthday so I'm taking rest of the day off and will be back tomorrow...........stan

I came back on line today and 1st thing I did was check my messages and then enrolled you. Check you Private Messages for instructions for catching up. Welcome.....................stan

Is everybody back on track with knowing how to access page 2 on shop thread? If not holler here..............stan

I have completed my assignment bit will post it last so everybody can all laugh at the same time.

THE SOUND OF TREES by Robert Frost

I wonder about the trees
Why do we .... to........
Forever the .........of these
........than another noise
So close to our...........place?
We suffer them..... .. ....
Till we lose all measure of ........
And............. in our joys
And acquire a listening air.
They are that talks of........
But .......gets away;
And that .... no ...... ... knowing,
As it grows ........and older,
That now it means to stay.
My .....tug at the floor
And my head............ .. ...shoulder
................when I watch trees.........
From the window or the door.
I shall set forth for........
I shall make the ..........choice
Some day when they are in voice
and.....so as to scare
the...........clouds over them on.
I shall have .........to say
But I shall be...........

Wes this poem's yours...........stan

AUNT JENNIFER'S TIGERS by Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer's tigers................across the screen,
.........topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not .........the men....the tree;
They ........ .. sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer's fingers............. through her wool
Find even the ivory......... hard to ............
The ..........weight of Uncle's .........band
Sits ..........upon Aunt.............hand

When Aunt is dead her terrified hands will lie
Still ......with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the ...........that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and ............

This rhyming poem is for emeka.

are awaiting Wesley........hint, hint...............stan

While on a walk in the woods
Thunderstorm
Snow fall
Early spring
At a funeral
At the beach
Waterfall
At a concert
A hot day
A very cold day
Wind
Darn'd car won't start
Moonless night
Summer evening
New love
Lost love
*Don't get your heart set on any of these yet as your partner (yet to be assigned) will have to agree..........stan

While on a walk in the woods
Thunderstorm
Snow fall
Early spring
At a funeral
At the beach
Waterfall
At a concert
A hot day
A very cold day
Wind
Darn'd car won't start
Moonless night
Summer evening
New love
Lost love
*Don't get your heart set on any of these yet as your partner (yet to be assigned) will have to agree..........stan

I will assign one pair of partners per day so that the shop will not have to digest so many poems at a time. The first partners are Serendipity and raj.

Ya'll take your time in coming up with a poem. We all expect something exceptional from one another in this final(?) part of the shop...........stan

The poetry from the teams let's discuss the types of imagery and how using them all can result in exacting imagery without inserting too much imagery. There are 7 types of imagery. We'll begin with Visual imagery which describes what we see. An example would be : I look through a dusty window. A bad example would be :
I look through a blurry dusty window which impedes my sight. So let's each come up with a good use of Visual imagery and one which is overdone and post it on this shop thread............stan

Due to Rula's request (as well as their different styles) Rula and Wes are the next pair.
Today we'll discuss a second type of imagery : Auditory which is what one hears. That's pretty self explanatory I think so instead of writing a few lines just using auditory, let write some in which both auditory and visual are used Ex :
I saw the leaves colored so bold
as they shivered in the breeze
each had a story untold
in quite rustling before time of freeze................yeah the meter's pretty bad lol. But by combining these 2 types imagery one can often paint a clearer picture than by using just one

Since some members haven't participated much lately and one member hasn't participated at all, the choosing is become more difficult. Also with there now being an odd number of active participants somebody will be left without a partner. Since I consider this pairing of participants and their resultant poems to be one of the most important parts of this shop I don't think it fair to ask another to bow out. So I will bow out of the pairing instead.
Today's pairing will be China Blue and emeka.

Now onward to the next type of imagery : Tactile - this is how something feels to touch. So let's try a 3-4 line stanza which includes all three types imagery discussed so far. My example
I saw a far off poplar tree
from which a squirrel was scolding me
as cold wind chilled my old bald pate
and coarse wool coat began to grate

The reason for going over the 7 types of imagery is pretty simple. One of the ways to help Not overuse imagery is to use a mixture of different Types of imagery .
The towering white barked polar slowly shed its golden leaves.....almost all visual
the tall poplar's autumn leaves rustled against its smooth bark....use of all 3 types imagery so far discussed (plus one we haven't discussed) gives almost the same description without seeming too crowded with imagery

I agree with Rula about the lack of auditory in your stanza..........stan

Very good stanza. A good example of how blending imagery can help keep something from being too "flowery".............stan

types of imagery are very tightly related. These are also types which studies indicate are powerful in how they can trigger memories. Being so they are also powerful means of conveying imagery. These two are Olfactory (smell0 and Gustatory (taste). I slept badly last night because I was dream haunted so I am too tired to come up with a sample verse but I expect these two forms are self explanatory enough that ya'll can write a few lines using both of them as well as at least one of the other imageries we've discussed..................stan
PS If anybody is having problems with the co-written poems just holler

previous glitch didn't appear until the comments passed 300. Thus I expect we'd have to pass 600 before another page is needed. I don't anticipate that happening. As to others being AWOL I suspect it's not a glitch, but the real world intruding on their time...........stan

We seem to be having a few problems with formerly active participants going AWOL. If you have already been assigned a partner but can't get a response from them please go ahead on your own but wait at least a day before posting your poem..........stan

It is beginning to look like my idea of pairing people up is not working out well. I may just get each person (who hasn't already started a co-write) post a poem of his/her own. But I'm putting off that decision until Wednesday.

In the mean time there is another very important type of imagery to discuss and practice with : Organic. This is a type imagery which describes an internal state such as anger or hunger or such. This directly describes the emotion or state of the writer An example
The peace of my morning walk
in which I'd failed to even stumble
was brought to end by hunger's stalk
and subsequent old stomach's rumble

Ya'll give it a try with 2-4 lines. ...............stan

Organic imagery is meant to describe the inner state of mind or physical well being of the protagonist. Perhaps I should use a well known poet for an example . So, Poe's "the Raven" :

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door-
" 'Tis some visitor." I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
only this and nothing more."
See the way he described both the physical and inner weariness of the protagonist? This is Organic imagery.....stan

The last type imagery is called "Kinetic" . This is imagery which describes motion (or lack thereof) or tension. Again, in Poe's Raven above this is exemplified by the rapping and tapping .

All these types of imagery can be used together to even better effect than singly and by using more than one type imagery we can more easily avoid over use of any one type.

I have decided I made a mistake in trying to assign partners for the final shop poems. I suspect the time zone differences carry a great deal of blame for this not working out. But whatever the cause may be I am going to allow those who haven't already begun a collaborative poem to write a poem on their own. DO NOT post your poem until I announce your turn. I am going to tell 2 people per day to post . I hope this will keep any one poem from being over looked. It's midnight now and I'll post first two names in about 10-12 hours............stan

Any teams which have already begun their co-write may continue on if they so desire. To those who haven't or to those who wish to abandon any co-write I will allow individual poems to be entered.
As already stated I will pick 2 people per day to submit their individual poems. But instead of doing this each day, I'm going to do this every other day in order to give more time for both writing the poems and for each poem to gather comments. As usual, post the poem on stream with "imagery shop" beside title.

First to post poems will be Rula and raj. If either of you are wanting to continue with a co-write let me know ..............PS Everybody is doing great and I apologize for the delay caused by my assigning partners............stan

I guess you are all aware that the site crashed for a few days. It is up and running now but still not at full strength. So in order to decrease the strain on the temporary solution which is presently in place I ask ya'll to not post any workshop related material either here or on stream until Sunday. This will give us all more time to work on poems anyway lol.......stan

Since site went off line again, let's delay until Wednesday before proceeding with shop work..........stan

I expect by now everybody knows that trying to put some type formula to determining what the right amount of imagery is is difficult if not impossible. One thing to keep in mind though is that the "right" amount varies with the subject of a poem. What might sound like the right amount in a love poem might be too much on a poem dealing with....say....politics. Also the type of imagery can vary from subject to subject. A poem about a painting would likely not employ much taste or audio imagery. Just a few things to keep in mind about general as well as the amount of imagery,

**Due to recent site problems, let's all go ahead and post any poems written for the shop as soon as they're completed. Just don't forget to put "imagery workshop" or some such beside the title so it can be easily found on stream..........stan

Let me thank you for making this shop such a joy to have run. I apologize for the loss of momentum which apparently was caused by site problems but I think there was still enough accomplished to give everybody new perspectives in their use of imagery in their poetry.
To any who still want, feel free to post their final poems on stream. But there is no need to feel obligated to do so.
I will leave this thread open about one more week so ya'll can offer ideas on how this shop could have been improved...........stan

My computer was actually down for a few days recently and i guess I missed seeing your submission. It is my intent to comment on All final submissions. So let me hunt yours up and see what I can do as far as commentary...........stan

I will be closing this shop down in a couple of days. If you have thoughts to add either here or on any of the poems now is the time to do it. I'd like to thank you all for joining in and hope ya'll enjoyed this execise. Also i welcome tips on how I could have done better...............stan