Sunday, June 1, 2025

William Carlos Williams The Red Wheelbarrow

 so much depends

upon


a red wheel

barrow


glazed with rain

water


beside the white

chickens


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He's using WORDS. To create a MOMENT. An IMAGE. And the image has more space and resonance than just the words you're reading

it's like


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Those lines there work together to suggest a larger space. That's why in the poem so much depends on the things he's describing. It's a space for you to sit in and be there. 

And you're a cool person who thinks about the emotional resonance of looking at a red wheelbarrow next to some chickens after it rains. You're just present. Haven't you ever had a moment where you were really really present? If you haven't, you gotta go do that. As soon as possible. You gotta find a way to make it happen. I'm telling you. William Carlos Williams is telling you. So much depends upon it. You gotta be present.

Albert Camus said there were 4 conditions for being happy. Life in the open air. Love for another being. Freedom from ambition. Creation.

Top of the list. Right there. Life in the open air. That's the Red Wheelbarrow! The poem is describing life in the open air. How could it not be? Rain? Chickens? Wheelbarrows? Ain't gonna find that in no not open air. No way.

This stuff's not hard you just gotta yammer on it and have something you believe all the way down.

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