Directions: Please peruse the following poetry reading opportunities, below. Let me know if, at this time, you may have an interest in participating. Next, please read some of my work below. I share it with you because I am going to ask you to do the same and I feel it is only fair that I do so. Also, I would like to show you my process and some of the possibilities that are out there for poets. In this blog space, please share any thoughts and reflections you have about your relationship with poetry, the prospect of writing and reading poems in class, the possibility of performing in front of a live audience, comments on the upcoming events, and comments on the work I shared with you.
I look forward to your responses,
Mr. P.
11th Annual AHS Poetry Night
Here is the flyer written by founder Harry Durso (on the right): The Robert Frost Foundation, has invited students and teachers from Andover High School to participate in a special 11th Anniversary Poetry Night at Café Azteca in Lawrence on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 7:00 PM. The event will be hosted by former AHS Teacher Harry J. Durso . The AHS Poetry Night is sponsored by LA VENTURE. Video Production is sponsored by Joe Spanos Productions. English Teacher, Eric Pellerin, will coordinate the event for Andover High School.
We are planning on videotaping this event for a later showing on Andover Public Access TV and local cable access stations in Lawrence and Methuen and on You Tube.
This is a Robert Frost Foundation event that is open to the public and is being held at a full service restaurant that is open for business during the poetry reading.
The student’s best behavior is expected.
Café Azteca is located at 180 Common Street in Lawrence and is easy to get to with off street parking nearby. Instructions and a map are also available on their web site. Although the street area outside the restaurant is supervised, you are asked not to leave valuables in your car.
Parents are welcome and encouraged to attend. Please be aware that the content of some of the poetry performed later in the evening may have adult themes.
If you plan on eating at Café Azteca, please arrive around 6:00 PM so as to be finished before the reading begins. You are welcome to make reservations by calling Café Azteca and mentioning that you will be part of the poetry reading.
Café Azteca is open for business and food and beverages are available during the event, but the participants are responsible for their own expenses.
Students are expected to provide their own transportation due to school rules. Students should call their parents when the reading is over as this will be an undetermined time. This is a Robert Frost Foundation public event.
Other poets from the Merrimack Valley will read after the Andover High School portion of the event is over.
Students are expected to provide their own transportation due to school rules. Students should call their parents when the reading is over as this will be an undetermined time. This is a Robert Frost Foundation public event.
Other poets from the Merrimack Valley will read after the Andover High School portion of the event is over.
El Taller of Lawrence
From the website: Fueling the pulse of creativity through literacy, community gatherings, conversation and good food. El Taller offers an Open Mic from 7:30 - 11 pm every third Thursday. I am hoping to take a group on March 19th! Visit their website here.
MassLeap Youth Poetry Competition
Overview from MassLeap website: From 2012 to 2018, The Louder Than A Bomb Massachusetts Youth Poetry Slam Festival succeeded in bringing young people together across geographic, racial, cultural and socio-economic lines. LTAB (a city wide poetry slam model founded in Chicago in 2001) is a friendly competition that emphasizes self-expression and community via poetry, oral story-telling, and hip-hop spoken word. Over the course of 7 years, Mass LEAP served over 1,000 teens and educators through this festival, featuring poetry slam competitions, writing & performance workshops, panels, special partnership opportunities and professional development for coach-educators. The festival went on hiatus in 2019. Mass LEAP hosted several community conversations to help re-name, re-brand and re-envision how a youth poetry festival can better serve the unique needs of our communities. Wicked Loud Festiva will work do further de-emphasize the competition by offering more generative workshops, non-competitive open mics, themed panels and opening pathways for young people to reflect on how their writing can lead to stronger communities. Visit their website, here.
My Work
“the prayer of the smoker”
by eric pellerin
(from Merrimack
Literary Review ed. by Ron Howland & Greg Waters, 2004)
dear god
it is i
a subhuman
sneaking outside
civilization to smoke a butt
the december wind
cuts my face
as do the sharp
glances of the passers by
passing judgment
with their pretty pink lungs ripe
with self
righteous indignation
having visited
the oracle who told them
you will live forever
wanna smoke with
me lord
i heard you hang
with the lepers beggars and whores
wanna slum a bit
further down the ladder
take one
lets breathe in
together
place the camels
to our thirsty lips
no filters
no lights
no ultra lights
low tar
no tar
no way
wusses
right god
quiet now
lets bring the
matches to our lips
inhale
hold it now
let tobey and
nicky work their magic on our iron lungs
hold it now
breathe it all in
ill breathe in
the endless piles of paperwork
you breathe in
the 100 years war
hold it now
ill breathe in
the computer
glitches
the long rows of
cubicles
the pimple on my
chin
the copy due by
five
the coffee four
hours cold
the paper cut on
my thumb
the pain in my
back
the clinking of
my car
the kids
screaming in my ear
the wifes
disapproving glare
the eyes staring
back at my reflection before i go to bed wondering where it all went
hold it now
you breathe in
the gift of
freewill
the murders
the rapes
the poverty
the racism
the sexism
the ageism
the thisism
the thatism
the billions who
died in your name
the planet you
created covered with hot top
the blame you
receive for all of the above while others walk away clean
the sad sulks
like me who take your list for granted and rant about my own
hold it now
together
breathe in
oblivion
hold it now
exhale
drop it
stamp it out
hold the door
2004
“white people cant dance”
by eric pellerin
watch em try
though
they cannot
hear
music
they
make rhythm n
white
blues
merely repeating
motown sounds
slave songs
drowned out
through olive presses
until the juice
loses richness
complexity
through years of
sitting in oak barrels
waiting for a chance to see the
light of day
to breathe
it is crushed
no longer
resembling grapes
pinot or sauvignon
it is only water
now
there is no way
to get drunk on manilow
or maroon 5
they say they move like jagger
they do
just
without the
swagger
of james brown
they prefer elvis
impersonating
forgetting
muddy waters
in a bar saloon
billie holiday singing
for a fix
ray charles
before pepsi ads
without a remix
they cannot dance
they cannot move
forward
you have to know
how to look
back
step
to hear
they do not know
how to
listen
they press on
sung by their own
they claim it
as their own
forgetting the
pain
they caused
to create it
apply it
to their petty
problems
then
give themselves a
grammy
give it to beatles
to buddy holly
and his crickets
to little taylors swiftly
who look like
their daughters
they are not ready
no i dont think they
are ready
for this jelly
they cant handle
jazz
unless its norah
jones
blasting from ceiling speakers
at starbucks
sipping coffee with too much cream
drown out the
flavor
with white liquids
whipped
americans
dream
without
brown sugar
cain
un abel
to open their eyes
they sip
they can swallow
nyc
in the key of alicia keys
they choke
on jay z
they just like
the chorus
ignore the verse
which describe
why nyc
is the place to be
not just the
upper east side
near sex and the city
among charlottes
and samanthas
what about detroit
chicago
need to channel gladys
aretha
ella
or go further
back
to ghana
make you sweat
so
get up
move
sing it in rounds
move your feet
whitepeople
into someone else
shoes
let someone else
do the stomping
trace the steps
created from a
world
that only offered pain
by those who cannot
hear
the music
songs about you
songs about
me
2013
“1973: dam”
by eric pellerin
they set
out to create a city on the mill
upon
foundations of imperishable blue stone
laying
granite foundation
upon a
system of canals
leading
to bodwell’s falls
there
stood a great stone dam
to
generate power
unable
to hold back the current
of
immigrants who would populate the
tall
brick mills of abott lawrence’s vision
they
were married in 1970
all blue
eyeshadow and brown polyester
walking
their first born son in a stroller down common street
past
corpus christi parish where they religiously attend service
past
tripoli’s bakery where they eat pizza
with
sweet sauce and sparse mozzarella
to where
the neon lights are bright
on route
28 broadway
they
will stop to see the damn falls
praying
it will help this colicky child stop crying
the
sound of water crashing
unfailing
waves falling into foam
juxtaposing
a scarlet sun setting behind the crumbling bricks of
his
story
her
italian grandparents sorted laundry here
stripped
to their waists handling steaming hot sheets
she took
his name which means pilgrim in france
then off
to canada to louisiana settling in lawrence
where
the name signifies nothing
ultimately
all their descendants will make missiles for raytheon
to point
at the only people less fortunate than themselves
i could
not sleep
from my
stroller
i look
at the falls
noticing
how the water transforms
sounding
like my mother’s womb
knowing
my place is swimming in a sea
where i
am at peace
they
tried to return home by turning me around
where
all i can see is smoke and brick
rows of
three story houses
with
three generations of families in each cell block
i cried
i made
them turn me around
to look
at the falls once more
at that
time my voice determined where i go
silently
seeing falls fall crash and settle
eventually
they will need to take me home
bring me
back to a reality
where i
will carry on traditions
i will
never fit in anywhere
i will
always feel poor
i will
never be manly enough
i will
always be too sensitive
too much
not
enough
i will
spend the rest of my life holding back
feelings
i never know how to express
who i am
until
someone opens a gate
unleashing
a barrage of rage
crashing
down with nowhere to fall
nowhere
to settle
nowhere
to call home
2019
“1977: A New Hope”
by Eric Pellerin
A
long time ago, in a country far, far, away,
under
the sign of Libra, Apollo gifts a baby boy
to a
family in Eastern Mass, who are movin’ on up to a place
called
Groveland, with a white picket fence, a private yard, fulfilling their destiny,
of escaping
drugs, alleyways, low performing schools, and other assorted dead ends, free
to
dream beyond their parents’ prospects; this boy on a swing-set soars, feet
pumping toward a sky full of hope.
He
doesn’t know it yet, but his only hope
to
escape his INFJ mind is born in a country far, far, away
gifted
to a family in Romania who wait in line for bread, no free-
dom
to learn, think, dream, own property, or practice religion. The only girl
of
this family will watch her father escape to Greece, work in a refugee camp,
hoping to fulfill his destiny,
immigrating
to America, praying his wife and daughter will find him in Eastern Mass, where
freedom is commonplace.
The
boy deals with the silence of this place
by arranging
his action figures from Star Wars: A New
Hope
on
the coffee table, while mom watches black and white movies. His destiny,
at
this time, is to become a Jedi Knight, unlike his father, a teacher who is
often away,
working
several labor jobs. There is a daughter, now. She shares the princess’s name,
and plays with the boy
who often
remains alone. It’s winter. Snowing. He longs to run through sprinklers, as summer
always helps him feel free.
Raised
by her grandmother, she was free
to
be herself, to play with dolls, animals, and knew this place
would
be her home forever. But it is gone. She
is gone. They told the girl
America
would be like Dallas, with horses roaming on pastures made of grain, only to
find her hopes
buried
under concreate sidewalks, discarded trash, dilapidated buildings. She thought they came to get away
from
this? Where is this land of
opportunity? Where are the starry nights
shining above the green pasture of destiny?
His
mother never thought this would be her destiny
moving
an hour away from her mother, one would think she felt free
to
live the life of her choosing. She does not.
Her mother never visits her. Castaway
from
her family to this new town, it may as well be on the other side of the world,
some place
like
France, Spain, Romania. Her husband works
three jobs and she keeps house. She is lonely, yet remains hope-
ful,
watching her stories and old films where people like her have big dreams,
beyond being a mother to a girl and a boy.
Her
mother never wanted to have this girl
her
husband wanted children, and her mother helped her fulfil her destiny
by
watching this child while she worked.
She had so many friends. They
were full of hope,
dancing,
smoking, sharing a laugh, quietly gossiping of the goings on in Romania – so young.
Well, free-
dom
feels like a different word in this lonely, new country of opportunity, only to
be scorned or with no place
to
escape. She is no longer herself, just a wife, mother, servant, with no life. What
purpose does she serve, anyway?
For
now, anyway, he is just a boy and she is just a girl.
In
this place, in time, they will begin to find themselves. Their ultimate destiny,
is
to will freely choose one another, to fill in the missing pieces. Yes, their chance
meeting will be their only hope.
2019
I want to start off my blog post by thanking Mr. Pellerin for sharing his poems with us. I know how difficult it is to share the poems we write with other people because unlike other works of literature such as essays, or novels, poems are more intimate. The beauty of poems is that they allow us to express ourselves in ways we didn’t even know we could. There are less rules when it comes to poetry enabling us to be free with our writing. When writing poetry, you don’t have to focus on the grammar of the piece necessarily or the syntax of it, but rather can just get out what you want to get out. Since middle school, I have been writing poems as a way to deal with all the momentous things that have occured in my life. Very rarely have I shared these poems with anyone else because these poems are like my diary. Sharing these poems is the equivalent to publishing my diary for all to see which for me is incredibly daunting because of the fear I have that everyone will truly know what goes on in my life and that when they see who I truly am, the insecurities, the damage, and all, that they will not like what they see. A few times I have mustered up enough courage to share these poems with others such as in 7th grade during our poetry slam competition and in 8th grade when I convinced myself to let one of my poems be published in the Apple Sauce Literary Magazine. I have not shared any of these poems since 8th grade because of the fear of the reactions of others as well as the fear that they are not good enough to be shared but am open to potentially sharing my poems with others just as soon as I start to gain my confidence back and feel strong and proud enough of myself. One of my favorite parts about Mr. Pellerin’s poems are that even though I have not gone through the same experiences, I am still able to see myself, or connect to the poems in different ways. A line that stuck out to me in the first poem The Prayer of the Smoker is “the december wind cuts my face as do the sharp glances of the passers by passing judgement with their pretty pink lungs ripe”. Although I have never smoked and cannot relate to the part about the lungs specifically I can relate to the feeling of people passing by and passing judgements on me. I feel that every single day when I walk through the hallway at school or when I walk down the stairs in the morning. The looks people give me whether they be good or bad cut me sharply and stay with me for the rest of the day until it is time for me to go to bed at the end of the day. Even when I am in my bed at night, I am still feeling the wrath of these random people’s stares or opinions of myself because that is the world that we live in.
ReplyDeletePoetry scares me...both writing and reading it. I feel like whenever I attempt to write a poem, it turns out to be shallow and boring and awkward. I cannot recall a time when I was truly proud of a poem that I wrote. As a person, I am very structured and rule-based, and not very expressive, which is why I enjoyed poetry in elementary school when we did acrostic poems and haikus. But now that I have to write a poem with practically no limits, I have no idea where to start and where to go. There is also this feeling in me when I write poetry that I will never be able to bring justice to whatever or whomever I am writing about. Yet at the same time, my poems do not have to be as heavy as the ones performed at Louder Than a Bomb. I tend to get into this mindset that good poems are weighty poems, and so nothing I write will be good because I do not have anything particularly heavy going on in my life. In 7th grade, my English teacher had a mini stage with a microphone in the classroom for people to read their work aloud. I tried to avoid that stage at all costs. Performing in front of a live audience is not something I naturally am attracted to, but I guess the more I practice, the more comfortable I’ll become. I also find poems to be difficult to understand. Seeing a poem on any standardized test makes me anxious before I even read it. Sometimes I try to look too deep for some sort of profound, underlying message, when it is actually only meant to be interpreted as it is. Maybe the reason I tense up when I hear the word poetry is because I am afraid of not understanding what the author is trying to convey.
ReplyDeleteI loved reading Mr. Pellerin’s poems, particularly “1977: A New Hope.” It is so beautiful how the boy and the girl, who do not know about the other’s existence, come together by chance and “fill in the missing pieces” like two matching puzzle pieces. I think that a good sestina is one in which the last words of each line do not feel forced- and Mr. Pellerin’s sestina does just that. It flows so naturally that at one point I didn't even notice the repeated words. Thank you for sharing!
I’m not a stranger to poetry, but I don’t consider myself very good at it. I’ve had friends who were really into it, and so i’ve dabbled in it once or twice, and in eighth grade I had to compose a few for a project, but I’m certainly not comfortable with it. I know I’m going to be nervous about this project, because there’s no option other than to pour myself into words. That’s what this is for, after all. Even so, I love it. I find something so interesting in poems that can manage to find the smallest things and be able to expand upon them into something much larger, or with poems that have so much to say that I can’t help but sit in awe because of how powerful they are, a lot like Nova’s poem in the documentary. I also like it when poems do their job and make you read it a specific way in your head, like “the prayer of the smoker”. It’s specific in its pauses and fast moments, making you recollect on the way you asked god to share a smoke. Even in “1973: dam”, the wife’s last name was something small, something that most people don’t think about. It had meaning in France, but the contrast between that and the fact that in Lawrence it meant nothing is stark. Things like that are what I find beautiful in poetry.
ReplyDeleteTo me, poetry is to writing what painting is to art. There are multiple ways to paint. Some people choose to paint clean, unblurred pictures. Others like to play with reality itself by painting a distorted vision of reality, while others just throw a bucket of paint on a canvas. All of it is art, and everyone sees something different. A person might look at a painting of an apple tree and claim it is uncreative, but someone else might see beauty in its simplicity. The same is true about poems. Someone might look at a 8 line poem about a wheelbarrow and see it as boring, or they could see the parallels it draws to the real world and how its simplicity creates a scene of peace. This subjection is what makes poetry an amazing thing. Ultimately, the poet is writing for themselves, just as the artist paints for themselves. I have always been drawn to two types of poems. I find that I enjoy peaceful poems or funny poems. I enjoy peaceful poems because they relax me. I enjoy the serenity that the words can bring to me, such as describing the cold and biting, yet energizing and refreshing wind that you would encounter while skiing. I like funny poems mostly for the inside jokes. If I were to write a funny poem, my goal would be to make myself laugh, not necessarily others. It would also probably be satirical, because for whatever reason I love jokes that can be read with a straight face. Overall, I like poems, but just as anyone does not like all paintings, I like certain types of poetry more than others.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I want to say that Mr. Pellerin’s poems are great, and thank you for sharing his poetry with us. Mr. Pellerin’s “1973: dam” is my favorite. The image of the dam and waterfall flow naturally into the story of a family struggling to settle in America. The vague connection and suspense were only revealed at the very end when the narrator began to talk about himself, showing the dam is the reality that holds himself back. Although it seems bleak at first glance, there is a hidden positive message that even the harshest reality can’t entirely hold your dreams back as it gushes through. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteMy relationship with poetry has always been a love-hate relationship. Poems and flash fictions have always been my favorite literary types. I’m practically addicted to them, and I love its curtness and simplicity. With merely a few words, powerful emotions came through and stuck me. Vivid images and people pop out of the thin page and converse with me. After reading the poem, the poems always leave an echoing effect on my mind and keeps me entertained for days. It is the most effective entertainment I find. XD At the same time, I don’t write poems that much since I always find it hard to phrase. All of the rhythms and rhymes and beats are challenging to control. When I try to create or imagine out of the box, I tend to get stuck and often think about pictures instead of words. Translating an image into words will guarantee missing details, and I will usually feel sad due to those missing parts. Furthermore, similar to Annette, the misconception of the more profound the poem, the better is also in my mind. When I first started writing poems, there is a constant voice in me when I write poetry telling me that I will never be able to bring the depth or profound meaning to what I am writing about. I’m getting better at overcoming my insecurities over the years, and I’m interested in challenging myself by sharing my poem.
My favorite thing about poetry is that there are no limits to what you can and cannot do! Unlike with creative writing or argumentative writing, poetic writing lets you say what you want in any format and style you so choose. Writing poetry makes me feel relaxed because, unlike standard writing styles, even if my writing is not received well, no one is able to truly “judge” what I have expressed through my poem. When I put pen to page it’s my feelings and my thoughts that I am writing about, so it would be unfair for someone to tell me I’m wrong or that my writing is worse than someone else’s. Who gave people the right to criticize the quality of feelings? I guess that’s how it is for all forms of writing, but poetry is a very vulnerable experience so when people criticize poems it seems worse to me than when they criticize an essay or a novel. While I do love that poems lack a specific rubric, this can also make them seem very easy to write. Take the “Red Wagon” for example. Sure we ended up analyzing its meaning for a good chunk of time but ultimately doesn’t it seem like anyone could write that? Poetry is super subjective, similar to acting. No one is really a better actor than anyone else, because different forms of acting are more appreciated by certain people than others. Poetry is the same. No poet can be better than another since everyone has their own opinions on the works they read and the feelings expressed in poetic writing.
ReplyDeleteMy relationship with poetry? Sheesh. It's odd; I won't share it with just anyone, except I'll share with very unspecific types of people I know. I've shared poetry that is so deep into my heart with people I've just met when I'm yet to share it with people who I've been closest to for years. I'm very into the art and technicality of poetry. I primarily write love sonnets and I love to get my feelings onto pieces of paper. I don't always share the sonnets I write with crushes I have. I think that it is a very raw sense of how I feel, completely open in my desires of another person. Jumping around ideas that come into my head on this subject, I don't think poetry is something you have to constantly be writing. You can't force the poetry out. I notice my best work comes when I take months in between writing. The emotions and feelings must be aged and mature enough to come up with the right words. It took me about 4 months last year to finish a sonnet I had started, not because of laziness or forgetfulness, but simply because I needed to make sure I had the correct words and phrases that did justice to my feelings on the subject. This information is only to describe my own personal creative processes. I'd be open to the idea of presenting my poetry to the class, I only hope that I can come up with the proper words in time to do justice to whatever I choose to write about. The poems presented written by Mr. Pellerin were great. The Smoker's Prayer was excellent. I enjoyed the personification of tobacco and nicotine, it added a lot to the power of a cigarette. The poem does not try hard, it gives a very real and rational viewpoint of a smoker, and I appreciate that. White People Can't Dance was another one that I enjoyed very much. Not only because I understood all the references, but I think I noticed a nuanced sophistication to the poem. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but the clunk of some words and the cut off stanzas could be in reference to the stereotype that white people have no rhythm when they dance and they look awkward and silly when they try. I think well done if so! There's no reason to get upset by the phrase white people can't dance, and I'm glad that Mr. Pellerin found the humor in that and was able to write this poem. It also calls upon the social consciousness and responsibility that people should bear with them.
ReplyDeleteI’ll admit that I have never been a huge fan of having to write poems in English classes. However, I do enjoy reading a good poem as much as the next guy. When I was little, I would spend many hours reading Shel Silverstein’s books of poems, such as Falling Up. I often found poems easier to read than books, and oftentimes I found them funny as well. I have to give a lot of credit to poets, especially those who touch upon very personal issues and subjects. It’s hard enough to write about your deepest feelings, and even more difficult to effectively express them in poetry. What Mr. Pellerin has done for us here is a great example of this. The poem “the prayer of the smoker” was excellent; through repetition and personification, it paints a clear picture of the scenes being described, and even though the poem wasn’t overly focused on critiquing smoking, it still was able to do so effectively. I also really enjoyed “1977: A New Hope”. It told a very moving story, and as a Star Wars fan myself, the opening line, the reference to the “only hope”, and the Star Destroyer shaped stanzas were nice touches.
ReplyDeleteI used to write a lot of poems back in middle school and into freshman year, but then I stopped. I never shared my poems to the public because they were really personal to me and I’m never the person to express my deepest thoughts to everyone. I honestly don’t know why I stopped writing poems, I think I became more occupied with other things in high school. But I’ve always enjoyed writing poems. I see it as a creative outlet that helped me deal with my emotions, similar to how music is. I think I shifted from poetry to music once I started exploring all genres of music. But then again, music is just poems with beats and instruments playing with it. These past few days, I decided to take a trip down memory lane and look at my old poems. Needless to say, I cringed a lot while reading them. But I also thought about how emotional they were. I was feeling a lot of emotions while writing them. They were also of similar topics. It makes me wonder maybe I stopped writing poetry because those topics aren’t relevant to me anymore.
ReplyDeleteNow I have written a few poems here and there for a project in school, but they were never good or as worth remembering as the ones I wrote before. They were never about something that interested me. They never invoked as much emotions as the ones I wrote on my own. I believe poetry or any type of writing is only good if the writer feels it. If there is no connection, it can’t touch the readers.
As for Mr. Pellerin’s poems, they are all great. Reading “White people can’t dance” in my head doesn’t have the same effect though. I think since it’s a spoken word poem, reading it aloud the way it should be read would give it more meaning. But I love the pop culture references. I also love the reference to route 28 broadway st from “1973: dam”. It stood out to me because I’m always on broadway st. since my temple is just off the street. And since it’s so long, I’ve been to so many places on Broadway with my friends and family that many memories are made on that street. Broadway st. is one of the streets that I end up on at least 3 times, either at the Lawrence end or the Salem end because it passes through so many towns. It’s just nice to know it has some significance in someone’s life like it does on mine.
Poetry is impossible to start without inspiration. However, an idea is not manufactured, and usually slips into my head when I’m driving without music, bored by the monotony of steering. For the most part, these thoughts are very short, and I have to figure out how to scribble them down quickly, and without hitting the person in front of me. Usually these poems are very short, consisting of only one stanza, and this doesn’t occur very often.
ReplyDeleteDuring my childhood, my favorite poems were those that rhymed with iambic pentameter. The rhythm of such poems captured me, though I much preferred prose, and today, although I appreciate poems, I don’t really engage with them enough. My elementary-school poems tended to be about nature and without meaning. Even today I find it difficult to find meaning, especially in longer works. In addition, since I’m used to free verse, writing a poems in the style of a slam poem will be a challenge, especially since I have to be aware of how it will sound when it will be read, and to break up lines and stanzas in a way pleasing to the ear. I feel like most of the poetry I’ve written before has been for reading, not hearing, which is the opposite purpose of this form.
My goal for this unit is to develop a poem, to bring forth meaning, maybe without even writing something meaningful. In addition, I want to try to perform the poem in a way that brings more meaning to my work, to practice multiple times before.
I used to write poetry a lot when I was younger and I always thought it was very simple, but I was young and writing in cliches. It's been awhile since I have written anything creative, so I'm not sure what shape I am in to be writing poetry. I prefer poetry to standard writing because I find that I can be broader with my word choice, whilst when writing a paragraph essay it is standard to be very direct. I’m not much of a speaker when it comes to reading essays or sharing my ideas out loud, but I feel very comfortable with poetry. Music is very similar to poetry when it comes to lyrics and formatting. It’s easy to say what you want to say and exactly the way you want to say it. I listen to a lot of lyrics and enjoy analyzing them. When I write poetry, a lot of it is developing ideas and overthinking them. I start with point A and expand on it until everything I need to say about it is out in the open. However, I feel like if someone handed me a topic to write a poem about, I wouldn’t be able to do it. I feel as though I need to be passionate and have something to say about the topic of the poem for it to come out well.
ReplyDeleteMy personal experience with poetry is one that has been quite positive and comforting. Throughout my life I have always kept a little poetry journal in my room where I write my own personal poetry about any sort of things in my life that maybe frustrate, anger or sadden me or make me happen or sometimes it’s just about ideas that pop into my head. They’re just rough draft poems that I like to write and I use it as a method of journaling and I think of it as my own personal diary. I’ve been writing this journal-like poetry since the third grade but I’ve been the most steady with it since the eighth grade. These poems are very, very personal to me and are ones that I don’t think I would ever be comfortable sharing with anyone and many of them are quite short or too long and wordy anyways. I feel like a challenge for me when writing poetry for this class will be finding topics that I am confident in writing about but also okay with sharing with others in class. I do really love to read poetry though and I think it would be a really great idea if we could share some of our favorite poems in class because I know some really great ones that I would definitely love to share with the class. As for the idea of performing poetry live, I’m not really nervous or afraid of public speaking so I would gladly do so as long as I really felt passionate about the work that I was presenting and as long as I truly believe that it was the best possible work that I could have shared with everyone else. I also loved Mr. Pellerin’s poetry and I am so glad that he opened up to us and shared his personal stories and feelings with us!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI've always had a very strong relationship with poetry. I love writing creatively, and poetry is one of the types of writing that I spend a lot of time working on. I have a few journals in my room that I have filled up over the years, and an ongoing google doc where I quickly throw my ideas whenever I think of something on the move. The cure to a lot of my sleepless nights have been poetry - writing a verse, no matter how scrappy it is, can ease my mind and emotions and put me to sleep. I love reading poetry and have recently started reading Spanish poetry, specifically Federico García Lorca. The collection of his that I am currently reading shows the original poem on one page, and the translation on the next. I wonder if the meaning or strength of the poem changes due to the translation. I also love love love spoken word - I've spent many hours on youtube watching people perform and share their poems - here's a playlist of my favorites if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPYkY26fmqYgQgXIkmZRWKXASYffxdZjL. I would like to thank you for sharing your poetry. I enjoyed reading each one, and I know how sensitive and personal poems can be! I am excited to share my work with the class and to hear what others have to share as well.
ReplyDeletePoetry has always been a little intimidating for me. The lack of rules allows for infinite possibilities and creativity, and for me it makes it complicated on where to start. There is so much beauty in the way that each poet can create their own format to reveal their feelings and emotions through writing. Since poetry is usually shorter than normal writing like an essay or a story, it is difficult for me to find limited words to express what I am trying to say. Although I find poetry difficult to write, I enjoy reading it because of the creativity that it involves. The words in a poem come so much more alive than they would in a story because every single word has a meaning as to why it is there. Although many poems may focus around the same general topics, I love noticing the differences that people come up with; it is like giving two choreographers the same song, yet their choreography is very different because of their inspiration and experiences. My favorite poem of Mr. Pellerin’s is “Prayer of the Smoker” because I loved reading and interpreting the different ways certain stanzas were put together. Thank you, Mr. Pellerin, for sharing your work with us!
ReplyDeleteBeginning in elementary school I learned how to write basic poems and we worked on them often as I went through middle school as well. However, once I reached highschool assignments for writing poetry were rare in my classes and I’ve found that I have only been asked to write one or two poems per year in my english classes. Once I reached AP Lang I did work analyzing poems which I enjoyed and feel like I took a lot from, but we were not asked to write our own. For our upcoming assignment to create our own poems I was intimidated at first, but I think it will be beneficial for me to get more practice working with poetry. Presenting my poem in front of the class makes me very nervous, because I don’t like presenting any projects and poetry is something I don’t feel especially comfortable with yet. My relationship with poetry has faded as I've gone through school, but I hope I can make it stronger through this unit.
ReplyDeleteMy relationship with poetry is slightly complicated but overwhelmingly positive. I love writing, and what appeals to me the most about poetry is the ability to freely express yourself without any sort of limitations. I have always loved music, and writing songs is something I enjoy a lot. However, I have only written poems of my own volition a few times, often on a whim. However, each and every time that I have has been a blast. From the initial outburst of an idea onto paper to the scrupulous editing, every step feels great. It might sound nerdy, but it’s the truth. It’s almost like being a painter with a near endless amount of colors to use with your brush. The sheer amount of words to choose from is amazing, and since modern poetry is so open as far as format, the sky's the limit as far as what can be created. I greatly look forward to exploring this art form more in-depth in class.
ReplyDeletepoetry is to writing what painting is to art. There are multiple ways to paint. Some people choose to paint clean, unblurred pictures. Others like to play with reality itself by painting a distorted vision of reality, while others just throw a bucket of paint on a canvas. All of it is art, and everyone sees something different. A person might look at a painting of an apple tree and claim it is uncreative, but someone else might see beauty in its simplicity. The same is true about poems. Someone might look at a 8 line poem about a wheelbarrow and see it as boring, or they could see the parallels it draws to the real world and how its simplicity creates a scene of peace. This subjection is what makes poetry an amazing thing. Ultimately, the poet is writing for themselves, just as the artist paints for themselves. I have always been drawn to two types of poems. I find that I enjoy peaceful poems or funny poems. I enjoy peaceful poems because they relax me. I enjoy the serenity that the words can bring to me, such as describing the cold and biting, yet energizing and refreshing wind that you would encounter while skiing. I like funny poems mostly for the inside jokes. If I were to write a funny poem, my goal would be to make myself laugh, not necessarily others. It would also probably be satirical, because for whatever reason I love jokes that can be read with a straight face. Overall, I like poems, but just as anyone does not like all paintings, I like certain types of poetry more than others.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I am incredibly happy that Mr. Pellerin is sharing his poems with us and I felt a mix of contrasting and conflicting emotions after reading each one of them."The Prayer of the Smoker" stood out the most to me. I love the arrangement of the lines.There are sometimes unnatural pauses and breaks which add to the uneasy connotations of the poem and is definitely a technique I have never considered implementing in the past.
ReplyDeletePoetry is one of the many art forms that I like to frequent. Along with drawing, painting, digital art, story-telling, and many others, poetry is a language art that I have practiced and written competitively in my own free time. In fact, when I submit to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards every year (since 8th grade), my poems have been the ones to shine and get selected for an award compared to my drawings and digital paintings.
Writing poetry for class is not something new to me, but usually it has never been as open-ended as this. I have written poems on a wide range of topics as was required like social justice, colonial times and slavery, Shakespearean works, and even the circulatory system. I have never had such an open-ended assignment in the past and that too on slam poetry. To accommodate my piece to this refreshing new medium, I made my phrases and words flow better than if I wrote a simple free verse poem and incorporated some subtle rhymes in between rather than at the end of each line as is characteristic of slam poem. I have performed poems in front of academic audiences before but I may choose to abstain this opportunity because of my state of mind right now. Hopefully, in the future, I will regain the confidence to perform in front of live audiences yet again.