Blogging Around: 12-14-08

I decided to start off with my good ol' pal, JChoi. His blog was on his efficient and perservering task of poetry writing. His method of writing reminded me of how he writes in debate; however, I thought that was a deliniation on where he needs to lighten up. Poetry is much more flowy and free verse rather economic word choice.

"Hello Jon, Looks like I'm not the first to comment.I think this method you write about reminds me of how you are in debate rounds. You think of the most efficient means to an end and buckle down and power through to acheive that. It works great when you have only 2 minutes to write out that speech of yours, but for poetry I imagine it to be much more open to interpretation. There's not the need to follow the normal framework for most people. You can just relax a little bit more, and then you can always change your poem after the fact. Write what you have to say first so you don't overthink it. :)_Alyssa"

With Marika, I discuss a similar concept but in a different way. In the end, I believe it's a balance about how to write poems that are genuine with your emotions and dispositions while incorporating what is the more literary term.

"Marika,Your approach to writing a poem is what I imagine how I should be trying to go about my poem. It's very much your voice and efficient means of condensing yourself. God job. It's tough to find a balance so you aren't forced and sound stiff in your writing, while continuing with what's the more grammatical/literary piece. (The widowed image analysis you did probably was additional help).Keep it up chica,Alyssa."

Metacognition: Individual Poems

As I continuously rewrite my poem, I find myself running into the same obstacles. Mainly, does it make sense? Because I had chosen a "reoccuring image," the picture and setting can be crystal clear in my head. This means the obscure, shady descriptions I normally associate with poetry only make sense to me, the insider who already knows the story. Going about a rewrite, I had to try to put myself in another's shoes and perspective. I had to ask myself, would I be able to know what's going on the way this is worded? Would I be able to tell I am talking about frisbee's if I had no prior knowledge for example. This is something that all writers of any sort should do, but take with a grain of salt. I find it's a helpful question to ask, but can't be held against everyone every moment because one of my favorite parts about literature is the mystery and twists and room for interpretation. I would like there to be a medium ground for what makes sense to my audience while acheiving the more figurative sense that I normally keep in mind. In the end, that's what made it difficult. I have this one idea of how poetry is supposed to be formatted; In being more bold with my claims sometimes, I took a larger step out of my bondaries but still need to work on being striaght forward when need be.