imperious advice

don’t go swimming
in  moon-stained seas
if you do
watch out for monsters skimming
waves and diving
deep below your feet
only to emerge and eat
them
however feel free
to find which shape
you want to be
but don’t assume
you can compare
with the stars and the moon
stay grounded

Kim M. Russell, 7th April 2026

Image by Davide Sibilio on Unsplash

This Tuesday at the dVerse Poets Pub, Dora is hosting Poetics in the imperative.

She reminds us that ‘in poetry and prose, the imperative mood dissolves the barrier between the assumed persona and the reader by its direct address of demand, instruction, or persuasion’, and goes onto explain the three grammatical moods of the English language, which describe the way a verb is used.  She comments that ‘the imperative mood or voice can assume a full spectrum of tones, from argumentative to ruminative to cajoling, depending on the manner in which we employ them’.

She has given us examples of the imperative in poetry, from Dylan Thomas, William Shakespeare, John Milton, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Richard Siken, Wendell Berry, William Carlos Williams, Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Hull.

Our job is to write at least one line in the imperative mood in our poems.

24 thoughts on “imperious advice”

  1. Advice it would pay to heed, I think, Kim, especially deep diving in “moon-stained seas.” Grounded by earth’s boundaries and mysterious, treacherous waters, this poem surely soars, imperiously so. 🙂

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