Reader’s Record: Poets Companion: “Images” 1-21-10

Reader’s Record: Poets Companion: “Images” 1-21-10

pg85 “We are all hunted by images, both light and dark. You might remember the smell of honeysuckle, or your father’s cologne. A day in your childhood comes back, every detail sharp and precise, and you hear a shallow creek running over the rocks, your dog sniffling in wet leaves, your friend’s voice calling you. You can still see the face of your dead aunt, or cousin, can taste the meal you choked down after the funeral”

pg 86 “Magic. That’s what an image should do, produce a bit of magic, a reality so real it is ‘like being alive twice.”

pg 87 “ And he forgets his father’s warning, stands on the edge, looks down, \The grain spinning, dizzy and when he falls his arms go out, to thin\ For wings, and he hears his father’s cry somewhere, but its gone\ Already, down in a gold sea, spun deep in the heart of the silo,\ And when they find him, his mouth, his throat, his lungs\ Full of the gold that took him, he lies still, not seeing the world\”

Pg90 “I peeled my orange\ That was so bright against\ The gray December\ That, from some distance,\Someone might have thought\ I was making a fire in my hands\”

Pg91 “The more you practice with imagery-recording it in as much vivid detail as you can- the more likely it is that your poetry will become an experience for the reader, rather than simply talk about and experience”