Yesterday was an interesting day in my creative writing class. We were still critiquing free verse poems from the week before, and the first one we were given was a poem by my friend Ed. He wrote about rain, but he added rhyme to it... so I don't know exactly how to label it? Haha. I thought it was a beautiful piece, and I was actually relieved to be critiquing something that had to do with that subject. When I read it, I could hear the sound of the rain, feel the cool breeze that comes along with it, and I could even smell it! The imagery was amazing, and I think he did a fantastic job! For some reason, I've been wanting rain all week. I think that my empathy is craving it because it energizes me and makes me feel extremely joyous, and rain also helps release any negative energy that is stored in my body. In fact, I don't think I've ever written a piece that has portrayed rain as a bad thing before. So many people think that it's depressing, but if I could move to Forks, Washington or London, I would be in heaven. Sure, I'd like a little sunshine every now and then, but rain is my true love. (: So reading his poem made me feel like it really was raining!
After we finished critiquing Ed's poem, we moved onto tired eyes' poem. Why do I call her tired eyes? Because she looks like she has some serious bags under them. The first time I saw her, I thought she was suffering from sleep deprivation! I don't think I'm wrong about that particular assumption either, because she didn't seem to have it all together. My teacher asked her to read her poem out loud, and it had a lot of rhyming in it. So she asked tired eyes if it was intended to be a free verse, to which she replied, "Well, I didn't really understand the assignment. When I write, I just write whatever I want because that's just how I am and that's how I express myself. So... that's why I write." I was thinking, really? Are you being serious? That's like an English teacher asking you to write a research paper and handing in a creative piece instead, saying "I didn't understand how to write a research paper, so I just wrote what I wanted." Honestly, following a certain poem format is not that complicated! What was worse than that was the fact that almost every line of her poem needed serious fixing. Some lines were too wordy, some were confusing, and some of them even made me question what was going on. I kept thinking, gawd, poor girl. It's so hard to enjoy what has the potential of being a great poem when you have to constantly stop and fix a mind trip, and I wasn't just tripping. I was stumbling.
After her poem, we moved onto ballads and sonnets. Our teacher always assigns us certain types of poems to write every other week, and this week's poem formats happened to be those types. Ally's ballad was critiqued first (and was the only one we were able to get through), which I enjoyed reading very much! I don't think the tempo was as consistent as it could have been, but it was cute for sure! The rhyming was great as well. I just think the lines could have been longer. I made a few suggestions for her poem after I read through it, and then we began talking about it. During this critique, the teacher started digging into the poem a little too deeply and suggested that maybe it might be a metaphor. Ally looked at me with a confused, humorous look, and I couldn't help but smile. The teacher said, "I think that maybe she intended for this poem to mean more than just simply swimming. So, Ally, is this poem a metaphor?" Ally then followed her question with, "Um... well, I... um..." I began to chuckle, and then the teacher said, "You're laughing. Am I wrong? Was this poem intended to be a metaphor? Or did you just simply write about swimming?" This question was followed by her own chuckle, and Ally said, "No, I see what you mean by it being a metaphor." The teacher then began to ramble. "Sometimes in life, we all think that we're going to go for a little swim, and we think that we're still close to the shore. Then we realize that we swam too far. So we quickly try to swim back, and by the time we make it onto the beach, although we've made it back, we're still tired from the long swim. I think it represents how our choices still affect us even after we correct ourselves..." ramble ramble ramble. I was trying so hard not to laugh, and today while Ally and I were painting mortar onto our brick project for the set design in theatre, I began talking about how English teachers look way too deeply into some of the creative pieces they read. I then began making a joke about it. "Sometimes in life, we all feel really down and depressed, and we don't think that we can ever be happy again." *switch character* "Um, no, I'm pretty sure the curtains are just fucking blue." Lol. Seriously, think about it. The author of a piece of literature probably writes half of the material into the piece because it sounds good, not because it's supposed to represent the deep, dark depths of his or her soul. I know that when I want to portray that kind of a message or outlook, I make it as obvious as a bright light bulb in a pitch-black room. If I write a simple, cute poem, I intend for it to be a simple, cute poem, not some deep meaning of life. English teachers need to chill and stop looking so hard for some hidden meaning in other peoples' pieces!
I'm not too sure that I really even care for my teacher. She seems like the type of woman to choose favorites, and everyone already knows who the pet is. Lisp dude. Yep. He doesn't have much of one, but I can tell whenever he talks that it's there. And I really don't mean to hate on him. It's just that my teacher treats him like he's some big-shot English professional. Ever since he's announced that he's been published in the Mid Rivers Review, it seems that she has been favoring him over everyone else. He also told us of his rough past (and I'm sure that he was only skimming the surface of what he went through when he told us about it), so I think that also has a little something to do with it. Now, I'm a pretty big sucker for broken people. I love those who have been through hell and back because it makes me feel like they need some extra love (which I provide plenty of). But I never favor one person over another. That's just horrible. And I've noticed that during critiques, if he has anything to say, he really likes to rip the piece apart and dissect it. Okay, dude, we get it. We made mistakes. We don't see things the same way you do. Stop being so harsh about it. When I was a senior in high school and had my creative writing class, I was like the top dog when it came to critiques since I had more experience (and I wasn't too far on top either, trust me). But I never completely shredded my fellow writers' pieces. I always included good advice or pointed out great lines and words, and I always tried to include some personal insight if I felt really connected. I understand that the writing world is a difficult place, but you need to remember that writers do have pretty deep emotions, so it's hard not to take criticism personally when you act like your shit doesn't stink. Like I said, I'm really not trying to talk the poor guy down. I understand that he has come from a rough place, but a lot of us have, and there's no room to be cocky. You may be a great writer, but that doesn't mean you can go around saying mean things because everyone else is automatically inferior to you. I'd be the most hated person ever if I did that!
Anyway, back to ballads and sonnets.
Tonight, I was struggling to write a ballad that would be worthy of taking into my class for a critique. I had started on one last week, but I was failing the tempo miserably, and I finally thought, to hell with this! So I tossed it aside and I don't really care to ever see it again. I began wondering what I was going to do, and I had written a poem either yesterday or the day before about the cold and dying. It was a free verse with some great imagery incorporated into it, as well as three of the five senses (if I'm not mistaken). I was desperately wishing that I could take it in for a critique, but free verse week was over. However, something kept telling me to take another look at it. So, after much playing around with the tempo and rhyme scheme, I had created an alternative ballad poem to use for this week's assignment. I don't love it as much as the free verse form, but it's still an excellent piece to have for a critique. I kept having to read it out loud to myself to make sure that I didn't trip over anything, and I'm sure glad that I did, because I did trip a few times!
It's funny how many mistakes you catch when you read something out loud to yourself. Last semester in my English class (gawd how I miss that class!!), I recall my brilliant teacher telling us to read our essays out loud to ourselves after writing them because it was easier to catch mistakes that way. It took me awhile to form such a habit, but now I can't turn anything in without reading it to myself first! One of my friends was telling me yesterday that she wanted me to critique her essay for her English class, and I could see a lot of run-on's and fragments. I fixed the things that I found difficult to read, and then proceeded to tell her that I thought it was good, but that she needed to watch for fragments and run-on sentences. She told me that she didn't know how to, so I told her that she needed to read her paper out loud to herself. She then proceeded to say that she didn't like reading out loud. I continued to tell her that if she did this, she'd catch more mistakes because she would be able to tell if her voice was stumbling or not. And it really is true, writers. It's always great to read your pieces to yourself. It sounds completely different in your head vs. vocally, trust me on that. I read through my ballad a couple times in my mind thinking that it was fine, and then I read it out loud and found myself pausing from mind trips. Haha. I think that with writers, if you've never read your pieces vocally before, you feel kind of silly doing it the first time. It's like exercises that actors and singers have to do right before a performance. They have to use a bunch of weird movements and vocal exercises to prepare themselves, which most people would feel idiotic doing. But once you form that habit, it becomes natural. So please take that useful advice from me, because I'm finding out that it's a lot easier to make yourself do the stupid things and sound great the first time in front of an audience rather than not doing the stupid things and sounding awful your first time.
Well, I think that I've talked enough about my infatuation with words. So I'm gonna let you guys go just as soon as I show you these flash drive pictures that are now on my geek wishlist.
Good day to you!
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