Assigned Writing?
When I tried to write
in a set format with rhymes in my head and meters in stone I began the journey of one uninformed, forced into a line that I didn't know how to walk, pushed into a tone that I couldn't sing. I flailed and I thrashed splashing words on a page, but I was continually drowning, and could never get an "A". Years later, when I wrote, simply wrote, didn't try, expressing the burning feelings that seemed stuck inside of my chest, words that I somehow couldn't speak aloud, they flowed, almost oozed, brimming full out, spilling like PoiPoi lava and leaving me without doubt that indeed I could write when it wasn't forced, but my choice. |
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Beyond Assignments
The very first poem that I turned in for my 9th grade writing class was this:
Words (2006)
Three little black warriors,
Printed upon a white page,
Scurry along with a battering ram,
Thrust it--then disengage.
Three olive-green travelers,
Bearing white flags of truce,
Dally on by--laughter tinkling the air
As they sing--voices sweet--and douce.
Three little black warriors,
Printed upon a white page,
Scurry along with a battering ram,
Thrust it--then disengage.
Three olive-green travelers,
Bearing white flags of truce,
Dally on by--laughter tinkling the air
As they sing--voices sweet--and douce.
As you might be able to tell, although I had a fun idea, I was trying a little too hard to make it rhyme. This led to countless frustrations on my part, trying to get all of my poems to be in rhyming formats, and resulted in me receiving lower grades on my poetry than on any other form of writing. I began to believe that I just would not be able to write good poetry. But as I grew older, and wrote poetry in my journal, more as an expression of myself, my feelings, and my experiences, my writing became more natural and improved drastically. In fact, this is now my favorite genre to write in, as you can see from the poem at the top of the page, which I wrote during this class to describe my learning journey with poetry. I know that students can struggle with poetry, because they tend to see it as something unrelated to how they view life, but if we teach them how they can use it to express themselves, instead of all of the possible rules that can go along with poetry, I believe that poetry can be one of the most accessible formats for students to write in. In my experience, creating a blog where I could write and share my poetry greatly helped me to develop my skills in this genre. You can see this blog and my past and current postings on it through the link to the next page.