About the Poetry Shapes
Language Takes Shape
In a poetry shape, the words become the picture. You see the image first, then read what it is made of, and often find something you didn’t expect. The relationship between words and images may help you recognize something in your own experience.
How to Read a Poetry Shape
- Look at the shape first. What does it remind you of?
- Then read the words. What do they say that the shape does not?
- Notice where the two meet. That is often where recognition begins.
The bear may have a convincing act — but it is not what it seems.
The Language
Language can shape awareness through image, figure, metaphor, and symbolic form.
Throughout Scripture, poetry, and parable, language carries meaning beyond direct explanation. It does not only describe reality; it also shapes how reality is recognized and understood.
The same is true of the language you use every day: the images inside your words shape how you see your own experience.
Image · Poem · Reflection · Conversation
Every Figure brings these forms together, each doing its own part of the work:
- Image opens recognition.
- Poem gives it language.
- Reflection allows the experience to continue. The Journal →
- Conversation extends it into ordinary life. Presentations & Workshops →