Today we discussed some of the fundamentals about poetry and I received a glimpse into all the various tools that a poet has at his disposal. I've never had anything personally against poetry but seeing that whiteboard made me nervous. Honestly poetry is really intimidating as is and knowing that I would have to write my own poem only made it worse. Yes, there are many fantastic poets and even countless many more poems in the world but I always end up thinking, "how could I ever create anything that good"?
I truly believed that anything I created for class would be terrible but at the end of class today I was kind of okay with it. After seeing that TED talk I realized how much fun poetry can be because it is a simple way of expression. The poet in the video was obviously skilled but he used so many of the tools written on the board with ease that it honestly comforted me a little. To name just a few, I recall him utilizing changing tempos, allusions, juxtapositions, non sequiturs, and that is just what I remember off the top of my head. His speech got pretty excited to write a poem because I know I will be given plenty of time to play with the craft and if I got that much enjoyment out of listening to a poem I can only imagine how the poet felt creating it.
English so far has been being a pretty good segue into poetry and the two videos that we saw today got my thoughts racing. The TED talk got me pumped to write my poem and then the second video made me realize that life is a little like a living poem. There are patterns, sequences, moments, and things that all portray beauty just like a poem. As I sit before my laptop typing away; my brain began flashing memories of moments from the day. The feeling of an electric toothbrush vibrating across my teeth. The moment I took my first step outside only to be greeted by a harsh cold breeze. The moment while I was daydreaming in class and realized that it was Monday. The very next moment when I realized that it is Tuesday and that I am an idiot. The feeling of having to tie your laces three times in a single day. The feeling of jumping into your comfy bed. These seemingly random events are all real moments from my day. If I had never watched the Moments video I definitely would view a list of events like that completely irrelevant to poetry but now I realize that some of those moments are what shape beautiful poems.
This also leads me to another revelation I had after English class today. Before the Moments video I felt that I could never be a good poet because I didn't have anything to write about. I am a fifteen year old boy living a fairly posh lifestyle whose biggest concern of the day was losing his poetry book. I know nothing of love, or loss, or fear, or tragedy because I've never experienced these things in a grand way. However, after class today I took away one very important lesson. I could try and write a poem about love and fail or write a poem about what I know and have it be awesome. I think I'd choose the latter just because I ultimately want to produce something that I can be proud to show off. I learned a lot today. I learned that A. mockingbirds are bad-ass B. that A. actually has a poetic structuring that we like to hear C. that a great way to make ice cream seem nasty is to put a picture of poo before it and finally D. that anyone can be a poet and that poetry is everywhere.
I truly believed that anything I created for class would be terrible but at the end of class today I was kind of okay with it. After seeing that TED talk I realized how much fun poetry can be because it is a simple way of expression. The poet in the video was obviously skilled but he used so many of the tools written on the board with ease that it honestly comforted me a little. To name just a few, I recall him utilizing changing tempos, allusions, juxtapositions, non sequiturs, and that is just what I remember off the top of my head. His speech got pretty excited to write a poem because I know I will be given plenty of time to play with the craft and if I got that much enjoyment out of listening to a poem I can only imagine how the poet felt creating it.
English so far has been being a pretty good segue into poetry and the two videos that we saw today got my thoughts racing. The TED talk got me pumped to write my poem and then the second video made me realize that life is a little like a living poem. There are patterns, sequences, moments, and things that all portray beauty just like a poem. As I sit before my laptop typing away; my brain began flashing memories of moments from the day. The feeling of an electric toothbrush vibrating across my teeth. The moment I took my first step outside only to be greeted by a harsh cold breeze. The moment while I was daydreaming in class and realized that it was Monday. The very next moment when I realized that it is Tuesday and that I am an idiot. The feeling of having to tie your laces three times in a single day. The feeling of jumping into your comfy bed. These seemingly random events are all real moments from my day. If I had never watched the Moments video I definitely would view a list of events like that completely irrelevant to poetry but now I realize that some of those moments are what shape beautiful poems.
This also leads me to another revelation I had after English class today. Before the Moments video I felt that I could never be a good poet because I didn't have anything to write about. I am a fifteen year old boy living a fairly posh lifestyle whose biggest concern of the day was losing his poetry book. I know nothing of love, or loss, or fear, or tragedy because I've never experienced these things in a grand way. However, after class today I took away one very important lesson. I could try and write a poem about love and fail or write a poem about what I know and have it be awesome. I think I'd choose the latter just because I ultimately want to produce something that I can be proud to show off. I learned a lot today. I learned that A. mockingbirds are bad-ass B. that A. actually has a poetic structuring that we like to hear C. that a great way to make ice cream seem nasty is to put a picture of poo before it and finally D. that anyone can be a poet and that poetry is everywhere.
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