This is my digital Poetry Portfolio! Please click any of the links below in order access my poetry, revised over the course of the semester. Below the links will also be a short comment on the poem, though I've tried to keep it to revisions exclusively, as it is important that you derive your own meaning from a work, unsullied by artistic intent. Oh, and in case you're wondering, this was created for the 2020 Spring Semester course ENGL-24A "Creative Writing:Introduction to Poetry".
For the intended experience, I highly recommend viewing the poems on a PC in a window taking up about half the screen. If you're using your phone, go to your phone's browser and select the option to View Desktop Site. In order to return to the Table of Contents, use the back key on your browser, as there is no button to return on the pages themselves. Thank you for reading. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed this even a fraction of as much as I enjoyed making it!
This is a short preface that explans how I have evolved as a poet, and how my aesthetic has developed over the semester.
The two haikus are revised from the first workshop. After feedback that suggested these two poems could be seen as companions, I decided to roll with it. Because the poem was originally written in Japanese, I've decided to work with the word economy, shortening lines to their bare essentials, rather than uphold a strict form in both English and Japanese.
The sonnet's volta and second stanza has been revised, to allow for smoother flow while maintaing the form. Along with this, the visuals have been altered, using a line break rather than uneven spacing to denote the "cut".
Along with the obvious change in visuals that this website allows me, I've changed the arrangement of several lines, particularly the last stanza, to better fit the repetitious nature of the subject.
An ode to someone who I used to be. You will need to highlight some text in the last stanza. Slight revisions have been made to make the poem follow the rhyme scheme better, and to further emphasize the impact of certain words. Also, for context, plastic model kits, unlike other building toys like Lego, come in sheets of plastic called sprues, and pieces must be cut out.
A revised version of Writing Journal Excercise #11: Music of the Line, this poem uses end-stop and enjambment to create a poem from the following paragraph.
The cows stand under the trees in the wet grass, lifting their necks to pull leaves down. We slow the truck, pull over to the side of the road to watch them. How graceful they look, how unlike themselves. We get out and lean on the fence. The cows don't seem to notice we are there.
This is a revision of a poem submitted for the Extra Credit Workshop. Created when I had a poem I spent an hour working on got deleted, this poem has had some revision in the last stanza to have more focused and cohesive imagery.
This poem will require you to highlight all of the text on screen. If you cannot do this, an alternate version is available here.
This poem requires no additional clicking or highlighting.