I will takeaway from our last week of poetry is our lovely and interesting conversations regarding this last selection of works, as well as everyone’s takes on the creative writing exercise. I’m in a Creative Writing class already, but being able to engage with the medium without the constraint of form or craft (specifically) was so beneficial and refreshing!
Unfortunately, I missed class this week but as I read more poetry outside of class regarding being an immigrant in America I got more insight on how to better word or organize my essay. Aside from school-oriented takeaways, from writing our personal poems these last few classes I’ve been thinking about the role my mother played in my life and how I’d love to capture her through poetry.
Something that stood out to me about this week was writing a letter for peer-review, because in the past I’ve mostly done peer reviews in the format of answering specific questions or jotting notes on a print copy. Initially I was apprehensive about putting my review in the form of a letter, since I tend to approach revisions by marking up a draft, but I think the format ended up kind of free-form, giving more room to be flexible about content and direction of comments. It also made the process feel more communicative and conversational, which I appreciated.
Since we only had one class this week, I had some time to think about how much I enjoyed our poetry unit. I feel much more comfortable talking about and reading poems than I have coming out of any poetry unit I’ve experienced in school before. I really enjoyed our discussions!
Even though this week was quite short, I feel like I learned a lot more about how to balance my writing with structure and risks. Even though it is hard and definitely a learning curve, I feel welcome to the challenge! I also loved our poetry unit, so it’s a bittersweet ending. However, I am super excited to read Fun home!
This week was very clarifying on the direction of my essay. I was able to sit and really reflect on how to adapt it and make it better. Sonali and Professor Cassarino’s comments really helped on guiding me. The poems for this week were also great reads. They were tough at certain moments, many moments, but it helped me to unpack some of my own political views and my own point of view.
I have really enjoyed writing poems this week – I think it has expanded my voice as a writer in a new and unexplored way. Writing poetry is leading me to reflect on how I can express myself more in my day-to-day life, as self-expression isn’t really something I get to practice a lot as an engineering major. I have found that poetry doesn’t really feel like a chore, rather, it feels like a release, and I think this is a beautiful thing. I hope that I continue reading and writing poetry on my own after this semester ends, because I think it’s helping me learn more about myself and my identity . The intense feelings present in my writing aren’t often formed as concrete thoughts in my heead, and they come through in my poetry much more clearly, which I think is beautiful.
Although I feel like I’ve had a jarring transition back to school from fall break, I really enjoyed our one class this week. I was anxious to discuss such sensitive subject matters, but I think it was valuable to lean into that discomfort to expand some mental horizons. Even more so, I’ve loved reading my classmates’ poem imitations. I think this week’s exercise was inherently more vulnerable and everyone portrayed their thoughts in such a beautiful manner. I feel like we’ve been in the poetry section of the class for what feels like forever, so even though I feel much more comfortable and excited about poetry in general, I’m excited to shift gears for next week and read Fun Home for the first time!
We didn’t do a ton this week, but it’s been important to me that we slowed down a bit for fall break. Being able to take some time with the poems we’ve been reading (and the essay before revising) has helped me to figure out what I think, and where I want to focus.
I really enjoyed the in-depth conversations we had about different poems, as it opens up a lot of new doors into thinking about the poems and their purposes. I often find myself getting stuck trying to understand an author’s purpose for writing a certain poem, or why they chose to phrase something in a certain way. But going through the poems as a group really allows me to digest all of the different ideas people have about the author’s reasoning for doing certain things.
One of my favorite parts of class this week was when different people read poems out loud for the class. While throughout the semester so far, many people have read aloud and done a really good job with it, it was nice that this time we were able to take a moment to talk about how the act of reading out loud opens up new perspectives on a poem. Often when reading something internally to yourself, it’s hard to pick up on the rhythm and pacing of a poem; however, by listening to people read some of the poems out loud, I was able to see the poems in a new way and it made me appreciate the poets’ craft—and people’s poetry reading abilities—even more.
One takeaway I had this week was in regards to my poem-writing. I haven’t written poems in several years, mostly because I found poems always came to me when I wasn’t mentally healthy, and I’ve healed a lot (or at least got better at managing things) since. The past two exercises felt a little awkward at first, but I think the prompt of “mimic the style of a poem from this week” helped a lot, as it limited the infinite expanse of “I could write anything” that’s frequently a creative block for me in other things. Overall, I enjoyed it, and it was a fun way to stretch my creative writing muscles.
I will takeaway from our last week of poetry is our lovely and interesting conversations regarding this last selection of works, as well as everyone’s takes on the creative writing exercise. I’m in a Creative Writing class already, but being able to engage with the medium without the constraint of form or craft (specifically) was so beneficial and refreshing!
Unfortunately, I missed class this week but as I read more poetry outside of class regarding being an immigrant in America I got more insight on how to better word or organize my essay. Aside from school-oriented takeaways, from writing our personal poems these last few classes I’ve been thinking about the role my mother played in my life and how I’d love to capture her through poetry.
Something that stood out to me about this week was writing a letter for peer-review, because in the past I’ve mostly done peer reviews in the format of answering specific questions or jotting notes on a print copy. Initially I was apprehensive about putting my review in the form of a letter, since I tend to approach revisions by marking up a draft, but I think the format ended up kind of free-form, giving more room to be flexible about content and direction of comments. It also made the process feel more communicative and conversational, which I appreciated.
Since we only had one class this week, I had some time to think about how much I enjoyed our poetry unit. I feel much more comfortable talking about and reading poems than I have coming out of any poetry unit I’ve experienced in school before. I really enjoyed our discussions!
Even though this week was quite short, I feel like I learned a lot more about how to balance my writing with structure and risks. Even though it is hard and definitely a learning curve, I feel welcome to the challenge! I also loved our poetry unit, so it’s a bittersweet ending. However, I am super excited to read Fun home!
This week was very clarifying on the direction of my essay. I was able to sit and really reflect on how to adapt it and make it better. Sonali and Professor Cassarino’s comments really helped on guiding me. The poems for this week were also great reads. They were tough at certain moments, many moments, but it helped me to unpack some of my own political views and my own point of view.
I have really enjoyed writing poems this week – I think it has expanded my voice as a writer in a new and unexplored way. Writing poetry is leading me to reflect on how I can express myself more in my day-to-day life, as self-expression isn’t really something I get to practice a lot as an engineering major. I have found that poetry doesn’t really feel like a chore, rather, it feels like a release, and I think this is a beautiful thing. I hope that I continue reading and writing poetry on my own after this semester ends, because I think it’s helping me learn more about myself and my identity . The intense feelings present in my writing aren’t often formed as concrete thoughts in my heead, and they come through in my poetry much more clearly, which I think is beautiful.
Although I feel like I’ve had a jarring transition back to school from fall break, I really enjoyed our one class this week. I was anxious to discuss such sensitive subject matters, but I think it was valuable to lean into that discomfort to expand some mental horizons. Even more so, I’ve loved reading my classmates’ poem imitations. I think this week’s exercise was inherently more vulnerable and everyone portrayed their thoughts in such a beautiful manner. I feel like we’ve been in the poetry section of the class for what feels like forever, so even though I feel much more comfortable and excited about poetry in general, I’m excited to shift gears for next week and read Fun Home for the first time!
We didn’t do a ton this week, but it’s been important to me that we slowed down a bit for fall break. Being able to take some time with the poems we’ve been reading (and the essay before revising) has helped me to figure out what I think, and where I want to focus.
I really enjoyed the in-depth conversations we had about different poems, as it opens up a lot of new doors into thinking about the poems and their purposes. I often find myself getting stuck trying to understand an author’s purpose for writing a certain poem, or why they chose to phrase something in a certain way. But going through the poems as a group really allows me to digest all of the different ideas people have about the author’s reasoning for doing certain things.
One of my favorite parts of class this week was when different people read poems out loud for the class. While throughout the semester so far, many people have read aloud and done a really good job with it, it was nice that this time we were able to take a moment to talk about how the act of reading out loud opens up new perspectives on a poem. Often when reading something internally to yourself, it’s hard to pick up on the rhythm and pacing of a poem; however, by listening to people read some of the poems out loud, I was able to see the poems in a new way and it made me appreciate the poets’ craft—and people’s poetry reading abilities—even more.
One takeaway I had this week was in regards to my poem-writing. I haven’t written poems in several years, mostly because I found poems always came to me when I wasn’t mentally healthy, and I’ve healed a lot (or at least got better at managing things) since. The past two exercises felt a little awkward at first, but I think the prompt of “mimic the style of a poem from this week” helped a lot, as it limited the infinite expanse of “I could write anything” that’s frequently a creative block for me in other things. Overall, I enjoyed it, and it was a fun way to stretch my creative writing muscles.