Poetry Conferences

I had my conference with my poetry professor yesterday. It went well, it was only supposed to be a 15 minute conference and we talked for over a half hour on the concepts of poetry as well as where I am at.

I have grown a lot over the past semester as far as poetry skills. My professor has seen that, and is surprised that I am a beginner. In my poetry, my strengths are mood and tone, and my subject matter is usually strong.

My weaknesses are my eye for poetry. I have some more work to do before I can get to my class mates level of reading and understanding poetry. This comes from a lot of practice both reading and writing poetry. I guess when it happens I will know.

Another one of my weaknesses is writing a complete poem. I understand this, but because my “eye” is not fully developed I do not know how to do this. One way to look at this is that it is not more than just the content of the poem, but the “sub-text” or the poem underneath the poem. This is something that I haven’t broken through to yet.

On the bright side, I have written a few complete poems in his eyes, such as “Grandma’ Cigarettes”, “Wild Flowers” and “Prescriptions”.

I am saddened that there is not a Poetry 3 course. I am afraid that I may not be able to develop my skills if I am not constantly exposed to poetry. I guess one way to do this is by buying books that contain great poetry and continuing to read and reread them in a way that I may be able to fully understand them, and of course, I need to keep writing. Another thing working for me is that the BFA in writing program has decided to let students take courses up to two times. This means that I will be able to take Poetry 2 again. My professor has advised me to wait until I am a senior to take it again, this way I will come in with more writing experience and hopefully a better knack for reading creative writing. I will definitely take his advice, and will be waiting in anticipation to take this course again.

Incorporating Imagery with Emotions

Yesterday I posted my poem that focused on using imagery and descriptions. This next one is also a prose poem. The last poem seemed to have almost too much imagery. For this one, I tried to make a balance between the two, letting the imagery blend with the emotions that the narrator is feeling.

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She knew that she had surpassed the point where innocence turns corrupt, naivete becomes aware. Her footsteps walked along the same leafy path, now void of the excitement and colors it once was enchanted with. The knowing lake crept out from behind the branches, and there she stepped upon the old grey stone, which was no longer a mountain for a king. The sun was rising slowly over the horizon, and each unveiling of truth the light revealed bore tears that bit her core with the realization of her blemished existence.

Trying New Things

Most of my poetry has been rather void of imagery and scenery, focusing more on emotions and actions. Recently I’ve been playing around more with poetry, and trying to see if I’m capable of writing poems that are full of descriptions. The following is a prose poem that I wrote a couple days ago.

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Scowering paths untraveled under leafy canopies that shade treasures below, her eyes search wildly for the small brown heads of the hidden delicacies. She creeps softly, watching footsteps that crush the green foliagewhile clutching the handle of her pale as if it were a child, waiting to be filled to the brim with nourishment. Her eyes sharpen as she shrieks, feeling the soft quiver of excitement flowing down her arms, extending into each precise pluck of the leathery morrells a top the cool giving earth.

The poem is inspired from an experience from childhood. My family owns about 80 acres, most of which is forest. My family used to pick morrells, which are pretty hard to find, being brown in color they blend in to the forest quite well.

I am not sure how well written this poem is. I almost think that I used too much descriptions, but that maybe because I’m not used to them a lot. I hope that they work in the style of the poem. I am hoping that it flows well, but it is always so hard to judge your own work. I think that I am going to work shop this poem this week. Everyone in my poetry class is very talented, and the feed back is always very good. If it passes by them I’ll know that I did a good job. If not, I am sure that they will give me advice on how to make it better.

If anybody on line would like to give me advice or comments, that would also be appreciated. If you have the time, let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.

Student Achievement Day

I participated in Student Achievement day on the 16th. My writing poetry 2 class did two sessions for the day called “Poets Corner”. It went alright, but we didn’t get as big of a turn out as we would have liked. That was partly due to the fact that Poet’ Corner wasn’t advertised. For Student Achievement Day, the campus gives out guides with each presentation going on, and the times for each session. They forgot to put us in the guide, so not a lot of people knew we were doing anything.

It was still fun, and it was my first actual poetry reading. My professor is encouraging all of us that went and read some work to put it in our resumes. Seeing as how this is my first reading, it will also be the start of my resume, which is kind if exciting. I think that it would be pretty neat to keep on attending readings. I enjoy reading poetry, and would rather like to build myself a resume.

Speaking of poetry reading I have another one coming up soon. My work was accepted by the Rivers Meet, so I am going to get my work published as well as be invited to read my work. I think that it is coming up this month, so I need to be sure to take that off from work. It seems that there have been a lot of events going on in the arts department lately. It’s nice to take part in the on campus community for a change.

Rivers Meeting

I got a letter yesterday from the B.S.U. Rivers Meeting, which is the campus art and poetry festival. Two of my poems got accepted for their poetry book! They accepted my poems “The Shadow”, and “The Family”. I am really excited, and it makes me feel more a part of the writing community on campus. Aside from classses, I haven’t gotten involved at all on campus. Since I am from the area I just do the regular things that I did before going to college, which I guess in some ways has hindered me from being engaged with campus activities.

They also invite the submitters to read their work, which I might do, although I usually tend to get stage fright when reading my work, especially if there are a lot of eyes on you. I think it might be fun to read though.

If I had to choose between the two I would probably choose to read “The Family.”

My daughter enters
the haze clears
She beckons
mom I’m here
No tears
only stares
she reaches
stops herself
“Yes dear”
My voice trails
stale bitter
raspy slurred
She frowns
clenches
tries to say
I love you
turns around
shuts the door.

Poetry

So I got back into the normal sway of things. I missed my lab yesterday, but went to today’s section to make it up. I’ve been working on more poetry for class. Most of my poems are rather depressing, so I want to try to work on poems that are uplifting, or atleast hopeful. I tried writing a haiku today, but I am not very good. I think that you need to be philisophical in order to write haikus, and I am just not in the mood to contemplate things that deeply. I attempted to write a haiku about a nutri-grain bar that I was eating this morning. I am not sure if it is a haiku though.

One thing that has been frustrating me is that I don’t really know what a hykoo is. I though that I knew the definition, but all the one that have been read in class don’t seem to follow the definition. Maybe it’s just because poetry is a pretty class, or maybe I was just wrong about what a haiku is.

After failing at haiku, I wrote the following poem to distribute for the workshop on Tuesday.

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A six year old blond girl was held up so she could reach the handles of the fooseball table. With each block she was praised by the bellowing voice above her. She came out a champion, and was hoisted through the air around the crowd of friends and relatives.

Soon afterwards the man that held her up passed away, leaving the family broken and confused. The girl now had to reach the handles on her own. One day she would learn how to fly without the help from spirits.

It’s Over

Spring Break is over. Time to get back into the regular sway of things. I’ve really enjoyed the time off and the extra sleep, so hopefully it won’t be too hard getting back on track.

I have stories to read tommorow and a midterm to study for, not to mention my everyday classes. Then I also have poems to read and comment on.

On the bright side I don’t have to work tommorow, so if I work hard and focus on my tasks, I will be able to get them done. The tasks themselves aren’t particularly hard or complex, just time consuming. The most time consuming part will be reading the short stories for my writing fiction class. I’ve started them, but have a lot more to read. For each ten page story I need to write a ten sentence critique, which isn’t that much work.

I am done with the reading for American Literature, so now it is time to reveiw the past readings thus far. This is what I did last semester, and it helped a lot for the short answer segment of the exam. We are given quotes and then asked to cite the work, author, and significance of the quote.

The poetry critiques are not due until class on Tuesday, so I am not too worried about getting those done. Plus, I have plenty of time between class to work on them.

I can do this, I’m motivated, and ready for class to start!

Songwriting

So I must admit, it’s always been a dream of mine to be a singer. I love to sing, I love hearing other people to sing, I just love music in general. I used to write songs when I was a teenager. I think that the poetry classes that I’ve taken relate to music. The rhythm in poetry is similar to the rhythm in songs. Songs, however, rely more on notes. Poems rely on the actual rhythm of the words. For my writing poetry class I tried to turn the following song chorus into a poem.

   Trip

Trip up and catch yourself but you can’t,

ever know the things I did not mean to do it,

trip up and catch yourself,

trip up and catch yourself,

loves bent but trust me I never meant,

to fall and hurt you again and again,

trip up and catch yourself.

The song relies so much on notes that speaking it does not do it justice. This is why I could never work as a poem. This concept at first frustrated me, turning me off from trying to write poetry. It wasn’t until fall semester was over that I truly appreciated poetry. Surprisingly, this did not come from my Poetry 1 class, but from my college writing and British Lit classes, with Dr. Gurney. His explanations of the poems and meters made me sea poetry in a new light. Poems are music with out notes. They rely on rhythm, flow, beat and meter, much like music.

I think that I’ll keep writing songs as well as poetry. I’m not going to try to turn and songs into poems anytime soon. Some things are just better left alone.

Addictions

 Hearing the other poems in our workshops has it’s ups and downs. Most all writers can’t help but feel vunerable around other poets, especially ones who seem so confident in what they are doing. I know, I may be sounding cliche here, but we really are our own worst critics. This may be one of the factors that pushes me more toward the idea of pursuing a career as an editor or a technical writer. That and the fact that I have some of my fathers ideas in me, pushing me more toward what’s “realistic”. Then again, if all writers thought this way, we wouldn’t have any books and poems to read, of movies and tv shows to watch, not to mention the enjoyment of the rest of the fine arts.

I wrote the following poem about the moral decay of todays society and how it is affecting america’s youth. I’m not sure that it flows well yet, and it may be revised a couple of more times bedore I feel comfortable with it. I think that although it is somewhat depressing it does have a positive message.

Addictions

Society weighs down-Enabling trends and behaviors, transforming creativity into hair, booze, and eyeliner. The would be activists scream for more as the pornification of our nation reaks havoc on my psyche. Overwhelmed, my scalp burns from chemicals and my eyes squint from mascara as I try to pretend that I’m not phased.
It’s a mess that I repress.
I look around to see smart women downing vodka and dreamers burning brain cells and wonder if it really matters. 
I’m drowning in this falsified world that I created for myself as I turn from my past and hesitate toward the future, wondering if I’m too jaded to change.

 

Prose Pieces:Understanding The Writing Process

We’ve been writing prose pieces about the process of writing a poem in my Writing Poetry class. The professor has been giving some good advice about going deeper into the writing process to fully develop the poem.

Wildflowers was the first poem I wrote during Poetry 1. I had never really written poetry before, and didn’t know where to begin. So I just started writing. I started writing about memories, about my feelings, and about my mother. Most of the words I wrote I didn’t use, but after writing all these things the following poem came out.

Wild Flowers
Katy Gehrke

I remember the wild flowers in mid-summer,
the faint sweet scent of silky blooms,
red, yellow, and blue, into a colorful bouqet,
picking only the best and brightest,
each one with precision and care.

I remember the run back,
eager to see your proud face,
a smile for our hard work and effort,
the only prize we could have hoped for,
victory smelled so sweet.

The summer’s always brought flowers,
Yet they lost all enchantment.
What ever happened to happiness with simplicity.
I remember staring at the wilting petals,
hating them all the more.

You left us that day,
no more smiles no more tears,
the flowers disappeared,
no longer crowding our kitchen table,
dying slowly with each day.

I wonder if their are flowers where you are.
do they take you back in time,
remembering your children,
so eager to impress and please,
wishing to forever keep the enchantment.

It has been years, and yet I still smell the flowers.

The image of the wild flowers I used to pick when I was a girl led me to to remember the feeling that followed. I tried to give colors to the flowers to make the image more real. I used the words precision and care to let the reader know that the little girl was very eager to please her mother. Each stanza represents a different event following the picking of the flowers. First the happiness that entailed pleasing my mother. The second represents the withering away of the happiness. The third is the disapearance of the flower and how that left me feeling. I cut the final stanza out of my revised poem, because I thought that it was not needed and was a topic that is diffucult to explain. I left the last line though, adding a touch of finalty, and reminiscence.