Reflection Post

We've reached the end. It's relieving but sad...

As a final post, Mrs Lewis has asked us to respond to the following questions:

How has your personal poetry changed over time (use examples from your page on the Ning from your poems)?

I think that my personal poetry has changed immensely.
While my initial outlook on poetry was fun and like, and ever humorous, I think that my personal poetry has changed a lot. Early poems like "Young Again" expressed a more fun feeling and were very light. However, newer poems like my group poem "My First Time" is a complete turn- around from my early poems. Receiving awesome remarks from the Poetry Slam judges I think that it got the point across, but also did SO much more. It dug deep and hit home for many people. I now enjoy writing and reading my poems so much more. I think that I have found myself as a poet and hope to keep writing!

How has your perspective of poetry changed?
My perspective has been altered forever. To me, before this class, poetry was "roses are red, violets are blue". I didn't know poetry could tell a deep story, let alone include devices such as fulcrums, anaphora, unusual typography, or parallelismus membrorum. I mean what the hell are those things right? Wrong. These devices incorporated into poetry when used by great authors like cummings, Whitman, Tennyson, and Parker can make all the difference. They alter the meaning of the poem. They alter the story the poem is telling. I feel enlightened and so grateful to have been able to learn this much about the overlooked authors who shaped poetry forever.

I'd just like to thank Mrs. Lewis. She took the short winter term that we had and pushed so much knowledge of poetry into our heads. But unlike other classes, I learned, I absorbed, I appreciated, and I enjoyed every second of it. I HIGHLY suggest Contemporary American Poetry to EVERYONE who can fit it into their schedule.

I'll miss having you in class so much Mrs. Lewis... but I'll definitely be in the library to say hi everyday! Thanks for an amazing term.