Writing Poetry and Writing About Poetry
I have to say creating poems and doing a poetry slam, has been so far my favorite assignment in this class, English 495ESM. I don't want to generalize, but I feel for many students, poetry is something that is dreaded. It is difficult to grasp a poem's meaning in the first read, second read, and even third read and it is much more difficult to create one. Though poems can often be the shortest pieces in length, they in my opinion create many more obstacles for a reader, than a prose piece. Rhyme and rhythm call for the reader to read it out loud and feel the words slide down the tongue and out through the lips. Then various readings are required to kind of grasp some sense of meaning (if there is even one). However, with the exploration of 'wrecking the first person' and the 5 minute write whatever you can assignment, creates a sort of liberty and ease to approaching poetry. Writing poetry and writing about poetry are two distinct things- one calls for your imagination...