Poetry Assignment: A Blog?

This is one of my assignments this week: There are too many forms of poetry for us to begin to address them all here. Though we are looking at a few forms for experience, many more exist. Some forms can be found here. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the forms. Choose one or two that seem to draw you to write in that form. In your blog, identify the poetic form and explain what it is about the form that is especially interesting.

This is my response to the professor:

I have no prior experience with poetry before this course beyond casual encounters, and I don’t recall what I had to do in High School so long ago. The limerick and haiku, sonnet and ballad seem to be the most familiar to me. The haiku especially is intriguing, because I think the trick with that is not the simplicity of the poem, but the intensity and word choice.

However, the haiku, and the others, were not the forms that spoke to me. There were many rigid poem structures I looked at, like the villanelle (Dylan Thomas’ poem I have heard before, and our discussion topic “One Art”), and that rigidity intimidates me. I have an analytical mind, and I like to approach dissection of a piece of work with that analytical approach. I don’t think I could create a piece of art with that rigid of a form, however. Well, I think I am capable, but I’m not sure I would enjoy it. So, I avoided any styles of poetry with a strict structure.

There were two types of poems that piqued my interest: the prose poem, and the dramatic monologue. I think I could attempt to write the first with some success. I liked that I could focus on word choice, meter, rhythm, but not limited by line breaks. I think I would enjoy that. I am going to try to write something and keep to a poetic style, but not worry about making it look like a poem. I bought a cheap college rule notebook from Target to try to do this on my own. I think I can write something poetic with a pen better than I could on a screen. I type much faster than I write, and I think I can focus on the words and what I am trying to say in a poem if I write by hand. I’ve never done this before, poems or writing-by-hand, so this is unfamiliar territory!

The dramatic monologue didn’t interest me as much until I read “Falling” by James Dickey. It’s not in first person but the poem was amazing, I was captivated by it. It was very freeing, and I really liked that. It was a very unique style, and I noticed the extra spaces the poet used to help accent the poem. I don’t presume to understand poetry or the reasons why a poet would do something, but the way he laid the poem out as I read it was very intense. I don’t know if I can be that brilliant, but I am adding the dramatic monologue to this because I think a poem pushing the reader into a character they may not necessarily like is really intriguing.

I have developed an interest in poetry, but I’m still sure it’s not for me to do professionally. I think if I can break up my short story writing with some poetry that interests me, then maybe I can be more flexible as a writer. Who knows, maybe the poetry I write will mean something to someone. I definitely have read more poetry in the last week than I can recall from my life, and it’s not as scary as I originally thought.

Oren