Workshop: Poem as Photograph

The Poem As Photograph (After Steve Kowit)

I. Opening Frame

Poet and teacher, Steve Kowit, believed that photographs are invitations to see—to slow down, to notice what we normally skim past, and to enter a moment with humility and curiosity. A photograph is not merely an image; it is a doorway into story, memory, and emotional truth. In his book, In the Palm of Your Hand, he explains the goal is not to “explain” the photograph but to let it provoke a poem that moves beyond the frame.

Key principles:

  • Start with what is literally visible.
  • Let the image open into narrative possibility.
  • Use sensory imagination to inhabit the moment.
  • Avoid sentimentality and cliché.
  • Let the poem turn—surprise yourself.
II. Guided Observation

Kowit’s pedagogy begins with concrete detail. Before any interpretation, practice what he called ruthless noticing.

Begin by listing:

  • Objects, textures, colors
  • Gestures, postures, expressions
  • Background elements and “accidental” details
  • Light, shadow, spatial relationships

Push past the obvious. Kowit often said that the poem begins where the easy noticing ends. Avoid leaping too quickly to meaning. Keep description anchored in the visible world until the page feels crowded with detail.

III. Entering the Frame

Once the surface of the photograph is fully observed, the poet should inhabit the photo.

Consider:

  • What might have happened just before the shutter clicked
  • What might happen just after
  • What sounds, smells, temperatures, or textures exist beyond the frame
  • What emotional undercurrent hums beneath the moment

Now the method becomes generative: the photograph becomes a trigger for narrative, memory, or invention. Follow the detail that “tugs” at you. Trust intuition as a compass.

IV. Ethical Imagination

Kowit was deeply attentive to the ethics of writing about real people. He warned against flattening them into symbols or sentimental props.

Reflect on:

  • What you cannot know about the subjects
  • What assumptions you might be making
  • How to approach the subjects with humility and specificity
  • How to avoid moralizing or easy emotional conclusions

This step keeps the poem honest and grounded.

V. Drafting the Poem

Now begin to shape a poem that begins in description but refuses to remain static.

  • Start with concrete detail
  • Let the poem widen into memory, narrative, or emotional insight
  • Allow a turn—an unexpected shift in tone, perspective, or understanding
  • Avoid summarizing the photograph
  • End in a place of complication rather than closure

Surprise yourself. The turn is essential.

VI. Read Aloud & Reflect

Read your draft aloud. Reflect on:

  • What detail opened the poem
  • Where the poem surprised you
  • What you discovered by slowing down and inhabiting the image

This reinforces Kowit’s belief that craft emerges from attention and generosity.

VII. Exercises
Exercise 1: Ruthless Detail

Choose a photograph. An old family photograph would be perfect. If you don’t have
one or more that are suitable, you can use one of THESE.

List several concrete details about what appears in the photo. No metaphors, no interpretations just physical details.

Tell us some things we could not know from looking at the photograph. Keep going until you cover something you have just realized, discovered, or thought you would never share or reveal even to yourself. Work on this poem until the emotions have become clear, like you were watching a Polaroid snapshot slowly develop. Your goal is revelation.

Exercise 2: Before / After

Write two short paragraphs:

  • One describing the moment immediately before the photograph
  • One describing the moment immediately after
    Then draft a poem that begins in the photograph but moves toward one of these imagined moments.
Exercise 3: The Three Part Poem

Choose a person in the photograph.
Write a stanza that describes them purely through visible detail.
Write a second stanza in which the photograph becomes alive, like a movie director just said “action1!” Include other senses, smells, sounds, textures.
Write a third stanza in which you, the poet, enters the scene and interacts with people and objects in the photo. Hug someone, shake hands, tell someone something you wished you had said.

Here’s one of my own poems that demonstrate the three parts of the poem in this exercise.

A Sharpshooter’s Last Sleep
(after a photograph by Alexander Gardner:
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – July 4, 1863)

He lays on a mattress of hard earth
as if he has fallen asleep, one knee bent,
arms resting comfortably by his side
as he might have lain at home in his own bed.

Leaves of a mulberry stir in the morning breeze.
Traces of black powder smoke still sour the air.
The sounds of battle have faded, so now
there’s only the call of a mourning dove.

I kneel down with my ear close to his,
I imagine I hear his mother’s voice
calling him to morning chores before breakfast,
a call that will not rouse him today.

Also, Try these poems insprired by photographs:

Photogaph: Ice Storm 1971 – NatashaTrethewey / https://voetica.com/poem/8312

Portrait Of My Father As a Young Man – Rainer Maria Rilke / https://allpoetry.com/Portrait-of-my-Father-as-a-Young-Man

From a Photograph – George Oppen / https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/28951/from-a-photograph

Fifth Grade Autobiography – Rita Dove / https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51664/fifth-grade-autobiography

Mementos, 1 – W. D. Snodgrass / https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42795/mementos-1