Poetry Reflection
During the Poetry Project, different things inspired me for each poem. When I wrote the nature poem I used observation notes. Specifically, I used the observation notes I made later in the afternoon. It was kind of dark outside but I could still see most of the plants, trees, and houses from my backyard. I started to think about what it would feel like if I was the only one in the world left at that time of night (besides of course everything not human). Thinking about this a little bit more and adding exaggerations to my observation notes, I wrote my nature poem. When I wrote my list poem, I used my experiences fishing with my Grandpa and sisters to develop a theme and use realistic descriptions. In my social concern poem I drew on my imagination and didn't really use any inspirations from the outside world as for as the characters and their thoughts go. However I used settings from 1800's Europe. In my found poem I used the prose from my seasonal essay I wrote earlier in the school year as inspiration. My relative poem used my new little sister Lily as inspiration because it took a lot to get her and mom home with the rest of my family. The free verse I wrote was inspired by watching the Diamond Jubilee in Britain on television and listening to my Dad talk about it. Self portrait was made, by definition, about myself and my different sides. For every poem inspiration was used to create them.
Each poem I wrote centered around a specific theme. In "Somewhere Never Seen" the theme was what life would be like if it were left alone and how it would appear to an outside bystander. The comparisons to human activities (i.e. mourning, snickering, etc.) was supposed to help with human perspective on the scene. In "First Day" the theme was the first fay of summer. The transitioning senses in the beginning are supposed to show how I change my mindset on the first day of summer break. In "Divisions" the theme is how class division can affect attitudes and the way others are were treated badly in society because they are not the same class and continue class warfare without an end. Each generation plays off of the previous one's beliefs. In "Unearthly Life" I wanted to describe a vague scene with the theme of a girl just standing among so many things that she doesn't even realize are happening. I think the most fun I had with any of these poem's themes was "Lily". The theme is how funny she is and basically mirroring all the questions I would ask her if she could speak but obviously can't because she is a baby. Both my extra credit poems and required poems used themes that interested me.
In the process of creating this website I learned some good lessons and tips. One of these things was to save every single poem to a written document on my computer before logging off. Thank goodness I did not have to learn this the hard way because I accidentally deleted my glossary page on the very first day the project began. Another of these tips was to not brainstorm if you have an idea that you really love and want to start writing about right away. Personally, my favorite poem that I wrote was "Divisions". I was kind of excited when I finally got my ideas for a social concern poem because I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write about prior. I decided that I wanted to think the poem through because I thought the more thorough I was the better it would be. In this is a very good rule. However, the more I thought about the poem the more I thought I was taking reality and perspective away from the characters. When I read it to myself it sounded like I had written it which did not sound right all. I threw away that copy and wrote it without really thinking about it and I think it came out better in the end at least improving a little bit. I learned that thinking out poems don't work for me well. Another thing I learned was that I find it difficult to rhyme without sounding childish and cheesy. This resulted in my choice of using end rhyme only in my self portrait because I wanted a little variety in my poetry. The Poetry Project helped me to further examine my own tendencies in writing that I didn't really notice and how to make it improve.
While writing I encountered styles that were relatively easy for me but also some that were exactly in the opposite. One of these was making themes evident to the reader. I think that sometimes I know what I'm writing about and how it is supposed to be understood, but sometimes I forget that others are not inside my head. I found that one of my conference partners also realized this and commented on my theme being hidden because I didn't fully explain characters. This was for "Divisions". I tried adding some more details on the character's lives to add more depth to the poem. Something I found easy was writing the poems that didn't follow any standard syllable counts or line numbers. I think that I write best when I don't have many restrictions but I think I use deeper thought when I really do have to pay attention to the details and standards. Another step that I felt was difficult was actually coming up with the ideas. Because I was trying so hard to come up with ideas, I skipped around with writing the actual poems but later I felt disorganized and at the last stage of making sure I met all of the expectations on the final checklist I had to pay a little bit more attention. Altogether I found my strengths and weakness with poetry during this project.