Interpretations and Sensory Language

     In the last class session, everyone presented a poem or short story that interested them in some way. The interpretations given from others were very fine detailed, original and quite creative. Some of the works were from Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes. The interpretations were very dead on in terms of what the poet is really trying to portray within their works. It has been quite some time since I have read some of Hughes works, but as soon as I read "Preferences", I understood the diction used and was able to put a timeline on the poem. As for the Emily Dickinson poems, I tried as hard as I could to understand what was depicted from her poems. Needless to say, not much was said other than Death, which is what majority of the class caught on to. To be one of the most famous poets, she sure does know how to draw the reader in with her imagery and horrifying descriptions of death with the greatest metaphors possible. She almost had me thinking of other things to understand why that symbolism was used to depict death within her poems. But as I understood the concept that she was trying to get through to the reader, I figured what she was trying to say before I unravelled the symbolism in her poetry.
      I really enjoyed, as the class might have already figured out the interpretations of Gabion Parapet; the discombobulated poem that had everyone in extreme perplexity. It was pleasing to me because as I looked at the words within the poem, it was rather a rhetorical finding but I realized it was about war. And also, by using my past experiences to understand the hidden messages within a poem, I realized it was more of a concrete poem, based on what the poem was about, what was happening and what was being shown. This lead me to the idea that the poem was war and was just as complex as war itself which made it even more intriguing to look at and decipher.
      Last week we were given abstract ideas and to come up with sensory or words dealing with imagery to describe or define how it made us feel. I had many ideas or certain imagery terms that came to mind but it was all train of thought. In the poems that I made from the abstract words sounds pretty decent. Not only did I use touch, taste, and sight as my main sensory language, but I used emotion to capture the language used in imagery to create a picture. Five different emotions are depicted in the poems, which are still abstract in a way but I am still trying to have the reader picture the subject within my works.

13 ways to .... continuing from "Revising Shakespeare"

I decided to write my poem about mist. When you think of water in general, there are many things that can happen. You have things like fog, mist itself from waterfalls, splashing in the pool, the dew on plants left from the early morning, stean vapor, or the water when it condenses on your cup when you drink something cold. In my poem those are the things that I thought of. Even though all of them are not in any mist form all the time, it is the texture that reminds you of the mist. You can sit next to the fountain near Welch and McKenny Hall and get sprayed by the water. Or you can go to Niagra Falls and get the feel of a real water spray. I also decided to portray the imagery of water so you can picture the water in action and remenise on how it feels if it were to touch you. Those are the things that I try to portray in my poem.

When we read "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" it was very difficult and confusing. I know for a fact that all the poems I will read will be nothing like "The Cat in the Hat" book with all its special rhyming. I do know that with practice, eventually it won't be that complicated to decipher what the poet is trying to express through his/her poem. But I do think that in all reality, some poets leave majority of their poems up to interpretations. So there is no right nor wrong answer. It does make it difficult for everyone to agree upon what is actually going on within the poem, even though we do not need to agree (it's a creative classroom! make up your own mind!!!). I'm not going to point out any specific ideas, but some where only seen in cetain stanzas which made it hard to believe where the people got there interpretations from. I know that mine were just a bit farfetched as well, so I'm not the one to judge. All the interpretations sounded just about right to me. I enjoy doin interpretations to poems in class. It gets the creative juices flowing in your brain. Hopefully in class we are doing something similar or have another crazy but  quite intriguing exercise to do for homework!

Revising Shakespeare

You would have to have a PhD. in Creative Writing to revise a Shakespearean Sonnet!!! Well, it wasn't that bad. I guess you can say that we all have had some difficulties with him, but we will manage. Actually I didn't think that the exercise was all that bad. In creative writing I know one of the most important things to be able to do is decipher hidden messages within the works that you read. And if you do not understand them, then just go with what sounds like it to you. In terms of writing the poems down, it was difficult to come up with something. I write based on impulse or inspiration. There has to be something that has happened all of a sudden or the after effect of what happened is still there. This helps me write down what I'm feeling at the moment. If I'm not feeling anything, then I don't think the poems sound just as good. When I began thinking in my head of what I could write, the interpretations that I received from the poems overwhelmed me with so many ideas. It felt like my mind was moving so fast, that I would already have the ending of the poem in my head but I cant remember what I wanted to put in between those lines. I enjoy doing stuff like that. It makes me feel like I am actually good at what I do. I guess you can only hear my passion through my voice, but I know how to put it all down on paper.

Hey.

My name is Jazmine Pitts. I do not like writing, but I love to write poems. I think outside the box and would prefer to stay out there. I have the gift to write about anything for a poem but I love inspiration, so sometimes I wait on that. I enjoy the arts and the creativity that flows from it.