Poetry is both an abstract and concrete way of expressing one’s thoughts, emotions, and ideas. It is like a raindrop falling into a puddle. It is one drop that becomes an entire pool of them, together making it larger. You see the poem itself, but behind it, it’s a much larger picture. There is so much time, thoughts, mistakes, and improvements that went into creating the structured poem. No one truly understands a poem as much as the poet does. The poet creates the poem based off of their knowledge, background, current or even past emotion. It takes more time for the author to begin the process of constructing the poem than it takes the audience to read it.
Poetry is a piece of the poet. It is something that speaks to them in a way, but it also speaks to the audience. Poems are constructed with poetic aspects that make each one unique. If a person calls a poem, a poem, I feel that it makes it poetry. For a poem to become a poem, the poet must desire it to be that style of writing. Poetry is poetry if the author chooses for that to be its purpose. Poetry can come in many forms, from many different people, with different opinions, different backgrounds, and different stories to tell. Without the poet’s consent, their writing cannot be called a poem. It is up to the writer to portray their composition in the way that they’d like.
In order to be a poem, it must consist of some type of meaning. It must have something meaningful behind it. Even if the poet wrote about a time they were eating a cookie. The poem still has a sense of purpose, because to the poet, that moment was significant enough for them to either remember or choose to write about. It makes a poem even more powerful when it is shared for others to view. The poet is sharing a piece of their life with others, that makes it so much stronger. Besides meaning, it should have emotions, or thoughts behind it. Something that mimics the poet as a person. Something that gives us an idea of who they are, it shows a portion of them. The poet may not choose to indicate themselves directly, but throughout the creation, there will be something that shows you. It may even be the title itself.
Personally, this is my point of view coming from looking at other poet’s poetry, and my own. In my poem, I Noticed, the meaning behind it, was to give others a perspective on what it was like to be a young African American child, then mature to notice things you see corrupt with society now and reflect on them. I chose to write it because, at that time, that is what my heart and mind were set on. In my set of Twelve by Twelve Poems, I decided to talk about personal experiences. Personal memories, with strong emotions and details. These poems were all about me, and my life, but I still chose to put it out for everyone to see. I shared it with others and asked for feedback. Another thing that makes poetry so strong. Receiving useful feedback and making those necessary improvements. I shared those poems with other people because I chose too. Lastly, because the entire set of poems are about myself, they strongly give a sense of who I am as a person. Each one includes a different aspect of my life, little snippets for the audience to be drawn by.
Over the semester, from the poetry I read and wrote, I learned that no two people are the same. Everyone is unique and shows their creative minds in their own way. Yes, some people have poetic views in common, but each one sees something in their own perspectives. About poetry, I learned that it is all different, it comes in many forms, and that it can be simple, complex, or both at the same time. Poetry is its own genre but many different materials fit into it. About my writing and myself, I learned that I’ve grown much stronger as a writer. I learned that I enjoy writing, it allows me to express myself, and I learned that my pieces are mine. I can be inspired by another’s work but they will never be the same, and that is incredible to me. The most difficult thing for me, in the beginning, was discovering the topics I wanted to write about, it later became easier once I understand that poetry is what you make it. The easiest thing for me was sharing my work with others. I am already a talkative person, but sharing my work with my peers, friends, family, and teacher, allowed me to feel that I was sharing portions of myself with them. I truly enjoyed this class, and I’m taking a lot away from it.
SaNaya's Poetry Blog 