Conceptual Poetry

An interesting “Movement” that I came across recently is known as Conceptual Poetry. It comes off the tails of the Language poetry movement, as well as the Conceptual Art (which was largely text-based) that was prevalent in the 1960s and 70s. Like its counterpart in the visual arts, conceptual poetry is not meant to necessarily be experienced, but the idea behind the work itself is meant to stimulate the viewer/reader’s thoughts. For example: Kenneth Goldsmith transcribed every word of a single issue of The New York Times into a 900 page book. More interesting is Christian Bök’s Eunoia (the shortest word in the English language that contains all 5 vowels), a book length poem that is divided into 5 sections, wherein each section only contains words with that section’s allotted vowel (Awkward grammar appals a craftsman. A Dada bard /
as daft as Tzara damns stagnant art…). I’ve linked to the main poetry.org page in case anyone is interested in this.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22097

Non Fiction in Poetry

One of the most definitive qualities about my poetry is that all of it is non fiction. Although this can be very limiting at times, I have learned that my experiences and observation either result in creative non fiction writing, or if more abstract, non fiction poetry.

My creative non fiction writing, despite often being lyrical, never strays away from the truth, but instead uses lyrical methods to reinforce and strengthen the real life depictions. What I enjoy about poetry, however, is that you can stray away a bit more from reality, and, as a result, explore a bit more of the unsaid, the unknown, and the sometimes fictional nature of thought inspired by emotion, creating a sort of additional skewed depth that in the end actually sheds brighter light on truths.

Organized chaos

I think one of the things that this course has taught me is how to benefit from an organized type of chaos in my writing; bringing together old stanzas to create new pieces. Before taking this course, I had a number of different notebooks and folders filled with scraps of unfinished pieces I'd write (usually during my travels).

I'm happy to see a sort of structure come about in my work, actual pieces finally rising to the surface of my stacks of writing. The majority of my writing has been a result of traveling and meeting a variety of people, which often results in me quickly writing and then moving onto the next piece.

Revisiting these old fragments, along with revision techniques I've learned in class this semester, has resulted in me producing much more work than ever before, especially while in college.

Poetry Project

I am a bit nervous about my project that I have to do for class. I do like the fact that we have this project because this will help all of us become better poets. I belive that it is impossible to be the best at something if you don't learn the history behind it. So, by reaseraching these poets and making connections between their poetry and our own poetry, we will all resurface as better poets. For this, I am glad. The fact that I have to get up in front of the entire class and present my project, however, is a different story. I have no clue how I will do on my presentation. Hopefully my 8-10 minutes of spotlight will fly by (sort of in the same way this semester flew by) without a stumble or a single "um". The bright side is that my class won't have to come in during finals week! Good luck to everyone who has to do this presentation!

Frustrations with revision

I have been having some frustration with one of my poems. I have no particular rhyme scheme but there is some rhyme in it, many asked for that to be removed; or even changed. I really like having the small rhyme in it even if it is not through the whole poem. I honestly cannot even think of a word that would take the place of the word that ‘should’ be changed. I have gone through the thesaurus. It seems so impossible. I think that I am going to keep the rhyme there. Because a few liked it, and it is not crazy rhyming. I really like the other parts that I have changed in the poem. Tell me what you think:
Goodbyes
By Morgan Snyder
Lay her down, as her final rest.
Say sweet things, all about her best,
Well wishes to those who knew her.
Those who were closest to her.

Tears flooding the fields.
The Field is soaked with goodbyes
And what-ifs- or did we notice,
The did we notice the scars,
The bruises,
Could we have saved her?

Consoling all who fought to keep her alive,
And wanting the man who killed her
To die.
To die for what he did,
To make him pay for the crime.
But he supposedly loved her.
Damn him!
He didn’t love her.

Powder on her face,
To cover the scars of pain,
The pain he caused.
Flowers laid to wish her,
Red and pink Roses, Brown Eyed Susans, and Wild Flowers.
They will be better than all those flowers he ever bought.
Damn him!

Sweet memories and to embrace.
She was always full of grace.
Her laughter,
Her smile,
We will miss her a great while.
Good-bye.

What I have Learned in this class

I have learned a lot in this class. I have learned that revision is a necessary tool for any poet and any writer. I used to absolutely hate to revise a poem or even a paper. But I have gotten the chance to grow in that area because of this class.
What I find when I am writing and revising is that I at times will revise a poem many times before I am satisfied with it. I like to please those critiquing it so that might be why. But, it is teaching me to revise my work. It has shown me that it is perfectly okay to struggle with how to reword things, but it also teaches how to use other words to describe something without coming completely forward with it. I have learned also to add more imagery to my works to allow the reader to see what I can see in my head. I learned that it is sometimes better to get too wordy and cut some of the words out than not have enough words.
This class has taught me a lot about revision

Working with my Muse

I often find it very liberating to work with the muse, especially when I find something that helps spring

a poem to life. When working with my muse, I try to zone everything around me out, unless its the object of attention. At times it does get frustrating if I can not lock into a zone of thinking without thinking. I usually revert to memories or feelings when working with my muse. Or turning an object into something more. I tend to write from experiences. But often I have a lot other ideas. Ideas that just flow out of me. It's something I can't control, it just happens. Its pretty amazing.

There are times that it is scary because I don't really know how to really handle it if it is a really deep thing. I don't know where the deep things come from. I don't have any idea what so ever. It's pretty cool when something is breathed from your heart.

Music as Poetry: A Comparison

I'm not sure about the other classes but for our class this was one of those earlier debated topics in the semester. Does music count as poetry? That is very simplified and everything but the basic points brought out in the debate were such that lyrics in music generally do not have enough to make for a good poem by themselves. It is agreeable that most music wouldn't cut it. I agree after reading much more poetry this semester, I can see how the two differ. But I still think some artists are more artistic than others and some music out there just has those great lyrics. So I have chosen a song to post that I think shows both great lyrics and great (but simple) music. Also, instead of choosing a song from our culture I have chosen a Canadian band that is not as well known here, this way we don't have the cliché example of say "stairway to heaven" (but another good example none-the-less).

The other half of this post is for people to comment with lyrics of songs they think show poetic form. Try to show poetic language and techniques such as enjambent in the lyrics by breaking them in to stanzas and lines. I will post my example below, you do not need to have a video (it is optional) but post the lyrics for the song at the very least and lets see how they look without the music.

"Left & Leaving" by The Weakerthans

My city's still breathing (but barely it's true)
through buildings gone missing like teeth.
The sidewalks are watching me think about you,
sparkled with broken glass.
I'm back with scars to show.
Back with the streets I know.
Will never take me anywhere but here.

The stain in the carpet, this drink in my hand,
the strangers whose faces I know.
We meet here for our dress-rehearsal to say, "I wanted it this way"
wait for the year to drown.
Spring forward, fall back down.
I'm trying not to wonder where you are.

All this time

lingers undefined.

Someone choose

who's left and who's leaving.

Memory will rust and erode into lists

of all that you gave me:
a blanket, some matches, this pain in my chest,
the best parts of Lonely,

duct-tape and soldered wires,
new words for old desires,
and every birthday card I threw away.

I wait in 4/4 time

count yellow highway lines

that you're relying on to lead you home

Emotional Drain

This is my first really creative class I have taken during college and I have to say I am drained. Today I was relieved I could sit and listen and just be. I have found that this class makes you shut down my mind to the point when I turn it back on I need to figure out a way to collect myself and my feelings in a net. It's like trying to repack something though, it never seems to fit in the original package. It's an uncomfortable feeling to say the least.

Long Poems

I've always written short poems. Most poems I write are barely 100 words, but lately I've been reading a lot of longer poems and it has made me think of writing longer poems. I've written some long poems before but I feel like after revising them they end up being a lot shorter. I think part of the problem is that I can't seem to stick with the same topic or idea for very long and if I try to write a long poem I feel like I'm forcing myself to write things I don't want to. I know that my poems don't need to be long to be good and I know that short poems can be enjoyable to a lot of people but I always feel like my poems could or should be longer.

Interpretation

Something that I don't enjoy about a lot of poetry is the highly interpretive aspect of the genre. Granted, many authors and poems tell you exactly what the piece is about. Obviously, though, this is not the case for all poetry. The poems that I have to disect line by line with a tight and focused lens are ones I lose patience with. Even when I have an idea in my mind, it is oftimes completely wrong. I want to know what's being meant for sure, and I don't want to spend ten minutes reading a stanza of four lines, trying to figure out what is going on. Although I can understand the appeal to some readers, I am not one of them. I lose focus and let my mind wander, and before I know it I'm at the end of the poem and have no idea what I've just read.

Reading Poetry in Workshops

One of the things I really like about Professor McCoy's poetry class is how each poem is initially read twice, once by the author and once by a reader. In other creative writing classes, sure, I have read my work out loud. This is common. But I really like having a second person read my work out loud, which I've never really experienced in a workshop. It's interesting to hear how someone else reads my work in regards to tone, line breaks, and punctuation. This can change how I view my own poem, and, I think, make it better for revision. I think this would be beneficial in other workshops as well.

Muse

In the beginning of the course I was unsure of what was meant by the word 'Muse'. Now that I have been writing more often, I know what it means to get in tact with your Muse. It is a lot easier for me to write about different things without thinking about it. When I first started writing poetry I found it hard to write without rhyming, and because I was unable to get myself out of this habit, it made it hard for my work to sound unique. It sounded more like I was looking for words to fit into something where they didn't fit. Now that I have started to 'free write' I can see that I am improving and my work is starting to make more sense. I like the fact that I can actually get more in depth with both my poetry and my emotions. I can keep writing about certain subjects without going off into crazy tangents.

Rhyming In Poetry

As I look back through my notes, I see that many of my poems have rhyming, especially the ones from the start of the semester. I thought that my poems that didn't rhyme had no rhythm and didn't sound good. I also thought that rhyming didn't "constrict" me, but it made me more creative. I felt that if I had to end the line with a certain word, I would be forced to come up with something creative for the rest of the line. I used to think that I wasn't creative at all and was not capable of coming up with interesting things to write about, which is why rhyming helped me expand on what I wanted to say. Now, I look at my rhyming poems and am able to keep the same idea that I had, and take out the rhyming. In the end, rhyming did help me come up with creative things to say, but now I can remove the rhyming and still have a great poem.

Workshopping

At the start of workshop, I was skeptical about the critiques I would receive. I wasn't sure if the comments made would really help and give me new ideas. After I read my poem, I realized that the feedback the class gave me was extremely helpful. I find that sometimes my poems follow a similar trend; with line breaks, descriptions, etc. When the class commented, I was able to expand my poem with new ideas and helpful tips.

Marge Piercy Reading-Jackie Loveland

Last week, for English we had to go to a poetry reading, where Marge Piercy read her poems. At first I was enjoying them and thought they were really good, but as she kept going through them, they started to get boring and I lost all the interest in listening that I had. At first she read her poems with excitement, but halfway through she herself seemed like she didn’t want to be reading them as much anymore and lost all the excitement in her voice, and just became very boring and dull. As for her poems, I liked a lot of them. My favorite one was My Mother Gives Me Her Recipe because I found it very funny. This poem talks about how her mom was telling her how to make a cake, but instead of handing her a written recipe, her mom was just telling her what to put in it. It was funny because the mom would say things like “Take some flour. Oh, I don’t know, like two-three cups”, “Did I say you add milk? Oh, just till it feels right” and “I forgot to say you add baking powder”. All these things also reminded me of when my grandmother use to try and give recipes to my mom because she never knew the exact measurements and she would always have more things to add in that she forgot once she got to the end.

Revision Process-Jackie Loveland

Now that I am starting to revise my poems, I truly see how much I learned throughout this course. When I was reading through some of the first pieces that I wrote during the year I actually started to laugh about how different they sound to the ones I wrote towards the end of the year. Now that I know that poetry it not just about rhyming and that rhyming is basically not even encouraged at all, I have a whole new look at poetry. The first thing that I started to look at in my old poems, were how I can break the lines up to make the poem sound better. I also found it shocking how different the poem sounds and how sometimes the meaning changed once I added in line breaks and pause in order to revise some of my poems. Another thing that I learned is that I actually do like poems without rhyme a lot better. I even started to take a lot of the rhymes that I did have in my poems out and I feel like the poems just flow together nicely now. I feel that when I tried to rhyme, a lot of mine lines were forced just so that the last two words in the lines would rhyme. Once I took out the rhyme, I felt like the poem gain a lot more imagery and emotion.

Connecting with my muse-Jackie Loveland

Throughout this course, I have always been trying to connect with my muse. Even though it took me a while to figure out what worked the best to help my mind relax and think freely, I finally figured it out. I’ve learned that when I am just about to fall asleep at night, while listening to music, I tend to think about emotions and imagery the most. Once I figured this out, I started to write down some of the things in my mind and some of the things that I was seeing in order to give me a start of a poem or a topic. By having these ideas written down, my mind starts to think of other things that can relate to these things or things that actually go with them. For example once I was listening to the song “All or Nothing” by O-Town, and it remind me of something that happened to me two years ago, and all my feelings from that time just came back to me, so I was able to write a poem that was inspired by those feelings. Besides listening to music, and just thinking, pictures also help me to write poetry. When I look at an image usually some of the first thoughts that go to my head are what does this remind me of, does this remind me of a place that I have been, does this remind me of an object that I own, does this remind me of a certain time in my life and the answers to these questions usually help me to think of something to write about.

Workshop Reflection

This has been the first class where any of my writing has gone through an actual workshop. Before going through this process, I was skeptical as to how much it would actually help my writing. After the first workshop, I was pleasantly surprised. I will admit that I was a little nervous to take criticism from a whole class of people that I didn't really know. I was particularly nervous about the students majoring in creative writing. It ended up going a lot smoother than I thought it would. I really liked how respectful everyone was, and I could tell that their criticism was only meant to help me. I was surprised to see how much doing a workshop can actually help. Without having input from other people, it was hard to see the mistakes in my work, and how some of the things I wrote could be confusing. Everyone's input helped me to drastically revise and make my poems better. Without the input from an entire class, I find it much more difficult to revise and make big changes to my poems.

A Time to Reflect...

This semester has gone by so fast, that I haven’t had a chance until now to realize how much writing I have done, and how the quality has improved. I’ve always loved writing from a young age (especially poetry), but besides a class at summer camp I’d never taken a poetry course, or had a real poetry workshop. It was extremely nerve-wrecking, because of all of the genres of literature, poetry is the most personal for me; the thought of reading it out loud, having someone else read it out loud, and have to listen to so many different opinions made me very apprehensive. Even though I’m relieved that workshop is over, I kind of enjoyed all of the feedback, and this makes me want to share more of my poems with even just my friends, instead of keeping them locked away without a chance to improve them. I’m very happy that I took this class, because it’s not only something that I enjoy, but it helped me to expand what I would consider to be things “within my element”; that’s what college is all about.

How it is to be hyper- conscious of revising a peom

When I am writing, I write what my heart is telling me to. I tend to become attached to the work, and at times do not want to revise it. Workshop has forced me to be okay with revising the work to make it better.
I usually just write and don't have a form to my writing which poses at times problems when I revise.
I really have learned a lot about revision through the process of workshop, and to cut the fat and reform works to something more. It is a useful tool to edit, even within essay papers for other classes.
It is important to learn revision, because it’s to help make it better, and not to tear apart a work. I felt that as a middle school student, but now as a college student, I understand the process. I am grateful for the process as well. It has truly helped my works.

Improving My Writing

I have been looking through my notes from class and reading poems I have written for my notebook when I realized something. I had been so worried at the start of the semester because I didn't think I could write a "poem". Everything I wrote sounded like a story with a beginning, middle, and end. I thought I would never be able to be creative and write something worth sharing. As I read over my old poems I made corrections, changed wording, changed syntax, etc and realized that I have come a long way. Poetry is now something that I am capable of writing. Through all the lessons, free writing, and learning how to find your muse I realized that anyone is capable of writing and enjoying poetry.

Spoken Word Poetry

I've never been into spoken word poetry, but a friend of mine has been pushing it on me lately so I can't help but talk about it.

This all started when I told my friend I was taking a poetry class. He told me he liked poetry and we talked about it for a while and then he brought up the name Saul Williams. I had never heard of Saul Williams and I didn't know what to expect when I searched his name on Google, but when I hit the enter key I was surprised to find a lot of Youtube videos of his spoken word poetry. I was surprised for two reasons, one, because I didn't know he was so popular and two, because I didn't know what spoken word poetry was. So after a while of going from video to video listening to all this poetry I felt, for the time being, that I had a pretty firm grasp of what spoken word poetry was. For those who don't know spoken word poetry is exactly what it sounds like, people reading their poetry but they usually have a beat or music in the background like a song would.

I was glad my friend showed me this because it expanded my horizon of poetry knowledge, but it also expanded my musical knowledge. I think that the mix of poetry and music just makes people think of normal songs where people sing to the music, but I thought it was interesting to have the music with just speaking because the music can help set the mood easier than writing about it and I think it helps get the natural rhythm of poetry into the person's ear better.

So overall I wouldn't say that I love spoken word, but I think it's an interesting idea. What do other people think of spoken word poetry?

Background story, muse work

Making a poem out of muse work is harder than I thought. I honestly thought that it would be easy to just make my story into a poem but it's a little bit harder. I have to use adjectives, metaphors, and other forms of poetry to make a great poem. My poem "Blue Birds" was a poem about my relationship with my friend. I thought it would be easy to just describe ourselves as birds because we are similiar in so many ways and we are kind of animalistic. However, we are not like tigers or elephants; we're like birds because we are peaceful when we are together. We complement each other in so many ways that we are able to glide over the Earth and look at our life and situation in a different way. I and he can only be together when we are in the air. Our relationship can't really be known, just as two birds who fly together and are both sapphire colored. For me to describe that in a poetic form is a little bit harder than I expected. I am used to rhyming so much that I was writing my muse work in rhymes as if i was writing a poem. This is something I need to change, because I am not fully interacting with my muse like I should. Hopefully, I am able to use the critiques in class to better perfect my poem without losing my own sense of writing in the poem.

Musework so far

Well, i am out sitting in the lunge before the class goes over my second poem, which is a rhyming one. Hopefully the class doesn't dislike it, cause other people who have read it have said that they liked it a lot, despite the rhyming. i feel that a rhyming poem is a nice breath of fresh air every once in a while. Sometimes i feel that non rhyming poems, although great, can be tiring to read non stop.

For example, i believe it was Sara Marsh's poem that we read that i enjoyed a lot because it was well written and easy and flowing to read. All the other poems were interesting, but something with a rhythm is very soothing to the eyes and mind on occasion.

My Muse Experience

Since I've been in college, this has been the first course where I have been able to write without having a particular purpose in mind. My first experience with using my muse was actually a little bit awkward. I didn't know what to write about so I started out by writing a story without really tapping into my subconscious. The first couple times, I could not break away from having some sort of structure in my writing. It took some practice, but by the middle of the semester I was more able to write whatever came to my mind. Looking back, I actually find it quite liberating to write about whatever I want. In other classes I have always hated writing essays, but in this class I can write a lot without worrying about the content. I am happy that I took this class because it really opened me up to writing in a different style.

Cold Reads

I always choose to remain silent while my work is being critiqued in a workshop. This has been instilled in me from other creative writing professors. I think the best advantage to this is that it allows me to get a "cold read" from readers. What I mean is that by remaining silent, I allow critiquers to tell me their initial and unbiased impressions. By interrupting them or revealing what I meant, their critique may change dramatically. I want to know these initial impressions, because it reveals flaws in areas of my work that I may not have noticed and that need to be reworded, better described, or made more concise/clear. I'd suggest others to try this out, as I think it is extremely helpful.

Wallace Stevens, Paganism, and Poetry: Is it the Reader That Gives A Poem it's Meaning?

In doing my work for the presentation project, I stumbled across a really interesting factor in a lot of poems by Wallace Stevens. First of all, we know he was a poet from a long time ago. Where we're standing there is hardly a theme of religious tolerance, but back then...it was surely worse.

To me, his poem "Sunday Morning" gives a bit of an air of arguing Religion. It offers up themes in the poem that suggest towards ancient Paganism. That's just what I got from it. But, in doing a bit of digging, I found out others, even non-Pagans, had the same sort of view about the poem.
As Academic Help Says:

"Sunday Morning" offers one of Stevens's first substitutes for Christianity: natural religion, or paganism. Stevens said very little about this poem after writing it, other than to note in 1928 that "the poem is simply an expression of paganism" and later, in 1944, to indicate that Hi Simons was correct in assuming that the poem suggests "a naturalistic religion as a substitute for supernaturalism".

And for me, in reading his works in the book "The Palm at the End of the Mind," I tended to keep picking out little details that suggested towards Paganism.
This isn't to say that I think Stevens was a Pagan.... I have no proof, and of course he's not around to ask.
But it made me wonder if it was just me, and my experience projecting my thoughts and opinions onto the symbols and language present in a poem, or if they're actually there as intended by the author.

My favorite verse is "II"
"Why should she give her bounty to the dead?
What is divinity if it can come
Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,
In pungent fruit and bright green wings, or else
In any balm or beauty of the earth,
Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?
Divinity must live within herself:
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch.
These are the measure destined for her soul." -- Wallace Stevens, 'Sunday Morning'

Most of this stanza I can relate in some form or another to Earth and Paganism. *
"Shall she not find comforts in the sun,/in pungent fruit and bring green wings, or else/ in any balm or beauty of the earth,/things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?" Being some of the most powerful symbols to me. I see them to mean a point I've been...Questioning the main, culturally impressed aspect, and then finding out for myself what works...slowly of course.
*(Paganism, in any shape or form, is an earth centered religion...there's no ifs, ands, or buts. The most BASIC principle of any Pagan tradition is Life is of the Earth, and the Earth is why there is life.)

On the other hand, someone might take this to be an issue of sustainability -- especially if the issue is extremely dear to their heart. Someone else might think it a test of strength between someone and nature. Who knows?
I figured it would be a good question to think about. Is poetry written to be symbolic? Is it symbolic because it resonates with us on seperate, deeply personal levels? Did the author intend for us to reflect our own beliefs onto a poem?

Nope, this isn't specifically a question of religion or faith. This isn't even a question of Poetry Language, in general. It's of the Reader's mind when it comes to Poetry, and really thinking about what the words mean to us.

So far, So good..

I have to say that I once scared of workshop, have changed my mind a lot. I went once.. and things are definitely not as bad as I thought. Workshop seems to flow a lot better than when we first started off. I feel like every in the class respects peoples opinions are really like the feedback we're getting back. I think that this workshop is a really good way to end the semester and get everyones feedback on the writing we all have worked so hard on.

Frustrations with Intentions

Yesterday I tried to write a sonnet, but failed. Accessing my muse while trying to write with structural intention is very difficult for me as I have not mastered the techniques of rhyme, rhythm, meter, etc. I suppose I could access my muse first and then mold what I create to the form necessary of a sonnet, but it still remains a daunting task. It is hard to distinguish my writing from that of free verse poetry and that of psychological free association, as I do little more than spit out my imagination. Bob Dylan said, “I consider a poet to be anyone who doesn’t think of himself as a poet,” but this seems paradoxical. It seems to suggest a certain level of tragedy as only a true poet is so wrapped up in his own self misery to be unable to see any positive within his persona. It seems then that distinctions of who is and who isn’t and what is and what isn’t poets or poetry are subjective to individuals, just as the world is subjective to individual’s perceptions and likewise what poetry they create from it.

Purpose vs Use of Poetry Writing Classes

I want to preface this post by saying that this is not a “attack” on our poetry class, but rather an examination of poetry classes in general. Because this is my first time sitting for a poetry class created with the intention of learning to write poetry, most of my reasoning and examples derive from our current class.

Classes that focus on poetry in traditional English courses are usually intended to instruct students on the styles and types of poetry through reading and critical writing of poetry. However, this class focuses on the students’s writing of poetry based from instruction and reading of poems. This distinction raises the question of what the purpose of establishing such courses is. Is it intended for students of creative writing poetry courses to garner a deeper understanding of the poetry language by attempting it ourselves, or are theses courses geared towards aspiring poets who would make poetry a career? It is possible that the courses were established with both goals in mind, but it should be noted that the odds that a future Auden or Dickinson is currently an adolescent blogging among us now is slim. The use of the class is clear, it provides an avenue of imagining and understanding of poetry that is not available only as a spectator of the craft, and the emotional release of feelings through language is a positive cathartic activity. I wonder if the “dream” underlying the creation of the course is for students to shed their identities as learners of the art and to become teachers through beautiful models of poetry they create.

working with workshop

My first workshop/critique was last week. I wasn't nervous when I got to class, but when I started reading my poem I began to get extremely nervous. I find that most of my class is pretty quiet, there is a select group of people that are willing to speak out and say what they honestly think. I was appreciative of the responses, for the most part. I think it is definitely helpful to get honest opinions. However, as a girl below me wrote, some of the advice did contradict other advice. I didn't mind that, I paid more attention to the advice I felt would work better with my personal style. Something that did bother me though-- a few of the comments on the poems handed to me. Comments which were, at least, unnecessary like one I received that said, "passive aggressive much?". Hopefully workshop will not only help me to take criticism in a better light but to also learn to give it more constructively than offensively.

View on poetry

Poetry is a form of art that allows people to express themselves, let out their feelings, or just describe a moment in time or a place. Poetry is my way of letting out what I am truly feeling on the inside. My emotions aand opinions are put onto paper in a creative way that allows a reader to feel and see what I am going through. In essence, I believe that I can improve my writing through practice but I enjoy the way I write. Writing free writes in rhyme is something I truly do enjoy. However, I think sometimes it holds me back because I don't listen to my muse at full capacity. At other times, it allows me to think of a new idea that I would have never thought of because I need to match it with the rhyme in the previous line. Each poet has their own form of writing and each reader has their own interpretation of the poem, which allows the art of poetry to be so influential and helpful to not only the writer but the reader as well.

Workshop

The concept of workshop is really amazing and I think is very beneficial. I like to know what people get from hearing or reading my poetry. If the message I am trying to portray is clear. The process can be a bit nerve wrecking at first, but it definitely one of those feelings short lived and will surpass. The only thing I find hard is the fact everyone critiques based off of personal styles, opinions, and such. It’s hard to incorporate all those good suggestions and create a masterpiece. During my revision I found myself having to pick and choose certain suggestions that I wanted to use to fit the poem. In the end I hope that it comes out better than the first poem and holds the same message with better understanding and clarity.

One workshop down..

Today I work shopped my first poem, and I have to admit, it went a lot better than I had predicted it would in my mind. Once I got over the daunting task of reading my work out loud, I felt more relaxed. I was very pleased with the critiques that everyone had. Many people liked what I had come up with, and many had similar thoughts of areas in which I can build upon and improve. The only issue that I have is as I read through all of the critiques I couldn’t help but notice that some of the contradicted each other. How am I supposed to know which way to go? Do I delete that line? Do I change the title? I suppose that I have to use my best judgment, but aside from that I am very happy with how the workshop went. I hadn’t showed that poem with anyone before this morning, and I’m just very pleased that it was so well received by most of the class.

Workshop

I am slightly nervous for class tomorrow. My poem is one of the poems being work shopped, and I’m not sure what to expect exactly. I’ve been in Playwriting and Creative Nonfiction workshops before, and even though Creative Nonfiction is very personal, poetry is by far the most personal for me. I’ve been writing poetry since second grade; sometimes it is to describe a beautiful scene, or to tell a story, but most of the time it has something to do with my emotions. Sometimes it’s event that has happened, or other times it’s just my thoughts that are running wild. The poem I submitted is pretty personal and dark, so I just hope that people in the class appreciate it. Everyone is pretty nice, so I don’t have to worry about it being torn to shreds, but it’s still scary. I know I should have a positive attitude though, and think about it in the sense that by being work shopped my poetry will only improve; it is interesting to get feedback from so many different people.

Mixed feelings

It is so hard to put your work in the hands of others for workshop. I use a lot of lies and secrets in my poetry. Everytime I read outloud I have mixed emotions. I am always afraid that no one will understand what I am trying to say in my poem or that everyone will understand me, thus figuring out the secrets that I put in my poem! It is one of the most thrilling/scary things ever!

Workshop

My poem is next up for the workshop and I am so nervous... Just because it is more emotional and personal, I am afraid it isn't going to mean as much to other people as it does to me. As in, to others it night sound like crap, yet I'd blinded by the feelings not the words! So hopefully I will find out what, if anything, needs to be fixed, and hopefully I will agree with it. =P

Muse

Accessing my muse has been an invaluable key for unlocking the front door of my imagination. In my opinion, Muse work is not poetry. Instead, Muse work is more of a “psychedelic”(for lack of a better term) projecting the inner workings of one’s internal onto the external environment, that environment being the paper being written on. When a persons imaginings are first expressed as words on the written page they are naught but raw materials or unpolished language. For the words to be constructed as poetry they have to be organized from their raw form into the polished form of poetry. Distinguishing Muse work from poetry is key to understanding how to create poems. One must understand that the initial expressions of thoughts on a page is but the first step to creating poetry, not the only step. I have stumbled with this distinction early this semester, but I feel I’m coming to understand the contrast.

She's the First!

One of my best friends attends Syracuse University and participates in probably every organization they have on campus. One of the groups she feels most strongly about and I really like the idea behind it, is called “She’s the First”. It’s a national non-profit organization that funds education for girls in developing countries. I found this link on her Facebook page and thought some of you might enjoy it. It employs the help of the social media phenomenon Twitter and wants the participants to respond to the question “If the world was your classroom, what would you teach a girl?” in 140-characters or less. The reward of the competition is having the ten best versus published together and sold on e-cards. All the money raised from the e-cards will go directly towards funding a girl’s education in Sudan. All too often college students wish they could help out others who are less fortunate but will claim do they do not have to financial means, so here’s your chance to help, in 140-characters or less! http://www.shesthefirst.org/2011/04/twitter-poem/

Workshop

I found everything that was said in work shop last class to be very informational. Things that I had not even thought about were brought to my attention and I feel that is very important when thinking about revisions. It is very hard, however, to read your work in front of a group of people not knowing how they will feel about it or what they will say. But the reaction that I got was very positive and I am grateful for that. I look forward to more work shops!

Muse

After being in this class for almost a semester I've noticed a few things about how my mind works and how I use my muse to write. In the beginning of the semester it wasn't that hard for me to use my muse because I have no problem just writing a bunch of non-sense on a page that really has nothing to do with anything, but I did have to prepare myself to sit and write and I had to have a kind of quiet environment to access my muse. After getting used to writing using my muse I've found that I don't go into such a trance when I sit down to write whatever I am writing, things just pop into my head and I can stay focused fairly well. I've also noticed that I can write with noise happening in the background and I've gotten into the habit of listening to music while I write poetry, which is something I don't think I could have done before.

Has anyone experienced something similar to this? Does it feel like your muse is just kind of part of your thought process now?

Group 2 Workshops

So I was totally nervous today, practically hyperventilating about reading my poem in front of everyone. I'm just glad I got it over with and that people liked it. I thought I was going to be the only one who thought it was funny, and in the end I think I'm glad I took this class. The workshops do help to hear how others interpret what's written, and its good to hear it read from someone else. I'm not sure how I'm going to revise this, or if I want to, yet. I'm glad everyone thought my doughnut poem was funny. Above all I thought people would think I was a little nutty because I wrote about a doughnut. But that's fine, too. :)

First workshop poem

So I decided to write my first workshop poem instead of submitting an old one from class. As I was writing it all I thought about was is it too corny, or, does it make sense, or, what is everyone going to say?! I think this poem took me the longest to write because for one I couldn't enter my muse because I was too worried about what I was writing. I usually have no problems writing, I took a creative writing class in high school and fell in love with it. We critiqued each other and read all of our poems aloud, every single poem we wrote. But, I feel like the poems were much more structured, like my teacher told us the type of poem to write for each class where as this class its much more of a free write which is really throwing me off. Hopefully by time the next set of workshops roll around I won't concentrate so much on trying to make it perfect the first time around..

Todays Workshop

I have to say, I actually really enjoyed today's workshop activity. I thought it was kind of cool to see what everyone else is saying about the poems that i commented on as well. People made some interesting points, and I thought it was cool to see how, through everyone's point of view, a poem can become that much more structured or have more emphasis put on a specific point or theme. I am pretty interested to see what people say about my pieces this week. whether there's something i can do to make it even better, or just interesting insight or take on the poem that I had not originally thought of.

Hope you guys don't like things that are a bit prosy.

Day One of Workshop

Day one of workshop was a bit scarier than I thought it would be. People were very to the point if they liked your poem or not. I suppose everyone has their own opinions but I feel like its just going to be embarrassing when I go and someone picks apart every part of my poem telling me if it makes sense, or, doesn't make sense. Do poems even really need to make sense? Especially when using your Muse like we are told to do all semester.. my muse makes the most random things come out on paper that sometimes, make no sense but I didn't even think it really had to? Today in class we discussed how someones poem didn't really make sense and it just made me think of all this, what if mine doesn't make sense? Does that make it a bad poem? Some people wrote very in depth, really showing emotion and I am not sure I want to do that to share with the class. Actually, I don't even believe I am that creative to do so. This whole workshop stuff seems way too intimidating to me right now, hopefully since I do not do mine until Tuesday my nerves will settle and I will feel better about sharing my poetry to the class.

workshop :/

I have to admit I am so nervous for people to finally read some of the poems I have been writing. I feel like everyone else is able to find their muse and be creative and original in their own way, but I cannot. I feel like I write about the same thing, which is the weather, and I don't know if that is okay, but it is something that is constantly on my mind. I'm really not looking forward to reading my poem outloud on Thursday and for people to make comments on what they think. Of course, I am going to appreciate whatever advice I get, but I just don't want to be embarrassed...I suppose everyone gets a feeling of nervousness before sharing, but I am beyond that point. I feel like my work isn't good enough for people to even comment on. I mean obviously I know I'm not a poet and most likely wont be, but I just want to know that I'm doing this right. However, I did really enjoy the poems that were shared today! Everyone's were so different and I think that little by little we are learning more about each other by reading how and what people write about. I applaud Jenny for going first today because that must have been horrifying! I hope that I receive good advice and comments and can improve my poems for my portfolio. Please don't rip me to shreads! :)

Zooooombiiieeeeeees!

Travel light, I must warn, for we have a long way to go. It spread much further, further than you know. Do you want to become one of them? I don't think so, so take the brim of this blade, and hold tight the gun. A shot to the head, that's it, just one. A single bullet will do the job, we cannot afford to waste. They move quick, feel no pain, and surely love your taste. Hurry now, we must hide from all the sick. They're angry now, and they can hear, but we can't afford a lick. I hope, My Friend, you are immune, to the blood that they spread. I don't think you want to become like them, become the walking dead.

The Workshops

I'm really nervous about the workshops coming up these next few weeks. I think part of the reason that I'm so afraid is that I'm submitting Muse Work, so it's not really going to make a whole lot of sense for one. Also it's really unrefined, being Muse Work and all, so there were a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes. Finally, I feel like people might not like what I have written, or that they might not react the same way I did when I wrote it. Although, letting my works be seen by everyone in the class might help with the revision process. I've been having trouble coming up with how I should go about fixing my poems, so maybe after watching a few other people's comments will give me an idea on what I might want to do.