Whether you’re a poetry lover or not, you’ve probably heard of Ezra Pound. He is, arguably, one of the most influential poets of the 20th century. In 1912, Pound cofounded the modern poetry movement called Imagism. It was a response to previous movements, which were more romantic and symbolist.

Imagism was the first of the modern poetry movements of that century and I love it because of its similarities to contemplative photography. It advocates for clear and concise expression of visual images through free verse. It’s language is sensory rather than abstract, exact rather than vague. Imagism offers new ways of seeing ordinary, everyday things and lets these things “shimmer.” Imagism condenses things to their essence, using common rather than decorative language. It grounds a visceral, real experience in words. In other words, it tells you what is happening now without interpretation.

I’ve been learning about imagism through the fabulous, free online course, called ModPo (On Coursera). ModPo is run through the Kelley Writer’s House at the University of Pennsylvania and led by the delightful poetry enthusiast and professor, Al Filreis, along with a brilliant group of TA’s (teaching assistants). Through their close readings of poems from the last century, poets and non-poets alike come to a better understanding of modern poetry and it’s history.

With imagist poetry, there is absolute freedom in subject matter. In other words, everything is a worthy subject. The poet Wallace Stevens exemplifies this tenet in his 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Here’s the 13th.

It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing and it was going to snow. The blackbird sat in the cedar limbs.

The poem could be about anything – a blackbird, your partner, a rock, a musical performance. And, it could be about looking in any number of ways. 13 was the number chosen by Stevens, but it could be 3 or 23 or 103. There are an infinite number of ways of looking at something because each moment is always brand new. My favourite imagist poem from ModPo is this one below.

The key to the poem are those first words, “so much depends upon.”

“So much” implies a lot or just about everything! “Depends upon” implies foundational, conditional, original, or necessary. What follows is a juxtaposition, a visual image of a red wheelbarrow beside white chickens, with space between them. Nothing is in isolation. Everything is relational. And so much depends on our seeing that. When we photograph like imagist poets, our images become visual poems.

Be amazed every day. Join me and others beginning November 1st for 30 Days of Perception. Learn more and register here.

How would you respond to this phrase “so much depends upon?”