The Imagism Movement

This is the use of the image as the primary driving force behind your poem. Image driven poetry began with the Imagism Movement in the early twentieth century. The Movement began with poets such as Ezra Pound and Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) and eventually dovetailed into the Modernist Movement as exemplified by T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land", for which Ezra Pound was the editor.

There are three basic rules that the imagists followed:

1. Direct treatment of the "thing", whether subjective or objective.

2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.

3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of the metronome.

The most famous application of this concept by Ezra Pound was the poem: in a Station of the Metro,

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough

The concept, as exemplified in Metro, was to reduce a poem down to its most essential images, leaving out all the chaff that traditional poetry, especially iambic pentameter, seems so prone to include. This does not mean that most poems should only be two lines, but rather that poetry should not waste time or space.

The "Imagist" and "Modernist" movements began the path that eventually led to today's widespread use of free verse over meter and rhyme. While the Imagist movement itself was fairly short-lived and not widely embraced (Wallace Stevens famously commented that "Not all objects are equal. The Vice of Imagism was that it did not recognize this") it opened up the possibilities for poetry and influenced future movements such as the Objectivists and the Beats.

Desperation

The clock struck one
She opened up her eyes
Watched all around her
But nothing passed by
Wind came blowing
And trees bending down
She touched her face
Felt sweat all around
Fear seemed buzzing around her
And over whelming pain
Now it's late to look back
And now it's forever gone...
She can't beg time to go back
And to cure her wounds
Her throat has stuck
And eyes have swollen
To let the tears of memories pour
Dark history is like bad weather
If she had her way
She'd rather
Stand on a rock that seemed to touch the sky
She'd ignore his face if she sees him
And all that devastating lies
And now she hopes even more
At times to let everything fly
But still the clock shows one
Just a second has passed by.....

A.R. Ranasinghe
 

Pains of love

Dedicated to all those who are
suffering from the pains of love

I miss him, though I shouldn't
I love him, though I'm not allowed
I crave for him, though I shouldn't
I long for him, though I'm not allowed

Each phone call makes me feel
It's you,
Who's waiting there to tell me that
"I can't live without you"!
Every time I lift the receiver to say
That myself.
I'm confused and do feel sorry for myself!
And my mind asks
"Are you begging???!
But my heart says
"Let me beg, because I'll live no more"
But my dignity slaps me and says
"Then die"!
Is it the same with you my "ex""?
Are we both banished from the
Field of love????

Ish, who's suffering from 'Ishq'
 

Dearest Teacher

Amidst Roberosia trees
Once in a while blessed with flowers
Amidst the paths beside grassy lawns
Amidst the gilded dews shining
Amidst the shine of red bricks
I saw you.....
I hear you were saying one day
"That's life"

The lessons you taught
Which I scribbled down on papers
Have flown back with the time
Those paths blessed with nature
No more to be seen
While the golden memories are still divine
You have sailed far
You have reached the oasis
You have proved
Life is a gift to win
"That s life"

As the years pass by
We may never know
Where time will lead us to
But with the years passing by
You are shining above
As a guiding star.....
Above all Roberosia trees
Above all grassy lanes
Beyond the shine of red bricks

Being far away
You remind me
It is must to make this human life shine
Like a Roberosia tree....
Once in a while blessed with flowers....
The core of your lessons
Make me sail towards the oasis
And you will always be shining above
As my guiding star
As my dearest teacher
Throughout "that life"

Irosha Yasomi Gurusinghe
 

My broken heart

I wonder how,
My broken heart
Locked all the pain and sorrows inside
But still helping me
To keep my head up

I wonder how?
My tearful eyes
Talk so much
When my lips were sealed
But still say

All I wanted to say
I wonder how?
It was so easy
For you to walk away
When I was all alone
But still I'm moving on
With the dream you left

N.K. Dilani Nisansala
 

In your name

In your name, I have bequeathed my entire life
I love so dearly.....
You are my romance, my love
What state has love brought to you?
Even rose - garden appear to be the wastelands to me
My loved ones appear to be strangers to me
I'm forever lost in your memories
People think I'm crazy without you.....
Life is impossible to spend without my love
Love, that I can't get rid of ,
The bond of love cannot be broken
By the tears that flow from my eyes......
I saw you even among the moon & the stars
Yours is the name my heart whispers with every moment....

Sajith Wickramasinghe
 

Road to Gem City

Black letters in yellow background
Say "Road under construction"
Sign board doesn't elaborate
But, look what's going on
Ingiriya-Rathnapura Road

"Men at work ahead"
Barricades erected to caution
To be careful of excavated line drains
With busy workers and engineers
Slow, Slow..., Slow...
Slow down your speed

From bend to bend
Erecting culverts and side walls
What a precious job they do
For the nations convenience

Pay attention please!
For the roaring sounds of equipment
Hot asphalt paving ahead
Be ready, for a traffic jam

Wearing helmets and jackets
See. how your comrades toil?
Hot in and out
To provide you a happy journey

Upasena Kariyawasam