Sunday, July 10, 2011

Day 40: Shakespeare's High School Poetry...

Sundays are one of my favorite blogging days because I'm a writer and I love writing poetry.

But my writing needs to be perfect to me. Maybe that's a flaw, but it's important to me. So although this is not how I intended for this blog to be - where I put off entries until the following day - sometimes it needs to happen because I'm not one to just throw something together for the sake of throwing it together.

So when I see that it's 11:38 p.m. and I've been working ever since dinner and the dog still needs a walk, I need a shower, my work bag needs to be packed for tomorrow, etc. I realize I won't be able to take the time I properly need to write today's fun poetry style that I've never done before. So look for it tomorrow after I've gotten a proper night's sleep.

......

And it's tomorrow. Or today, rather. This week's poem style is Shape. Also known as a Pattern Poem, a Shape poem is one whose shape refers to its subject.

After doing this exercise, I have realized that I have a love/hate relationship with this type of poetry. I love it because it challenges me to think of different words to use and different ways to get across the same type of concept.

But I hate how horribly constrictive it is. I wanted to use certain words a number of times, and became frustrated when I realized that I couldn't because it didn't fit into the pattern. I'm a writer. Words are my tool and I hate when I can't use them the way I want to.

There's a reason I like free verse best - because I don't end up with a cliched poem in a cliched shape with simplistic language to make the words fit like the one below. Patting myself on the back for deciding against writing a love poem in the shape of a heart. Gag.

Plunging Skyward

I
do
truly
believe
that what
does go up
must
then
fall
just
because how
else can we
know what
true joy
is
?

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