Final Visual of My Poem
Final Poem
They make tablets that clean water.
They build tent worlds for the multitudes of corpses.
Doctors come from all over the world,
China, the States, and Europe,
More supplies are shipped than Sysco to McDonald’s.
Little men come in rubber boats,
They bring solar panels and college students.
They think they are helping.
They are in a way,
Helping themselves.
Relieving their conscience,
Soaking up our pity,
Making up for their sins.
They give us iodine pills to shield us from iodine in the air.
All these things are done,
So why can’t they cut the plant at the roots?
Clot the arteries that pump blood to the heart,
Prohibit war like it was a level one drug,
The fight, the rape, the war.
Where is the organization that breaks up the skirmish before it escalates into a trillion dollar invasion?
Find me a modern day Gandhi,
That starves the Corporate Mongrels that spark wars over cell phones and diamonds.
Find me a modern day Martin Luther King,
With a dream of a global equality,
With dreams of abolishing the hollow crimes of war.
Find me a modern Cesar Chavez,
Who is Moses for working rights in every country,
From sweatshops to illegal immigrants.
Si, Se puede.
It can be done.
I want you,
To help me obtain oil,
Come join my war,
Fight with W and General Sam,
Make my day.
It takes one person to plant a tree,
Colossal statues are grown from something that is smaller than your finger nail,
With time, nutrients, medium, and a seed you too can grow a tree.
Unlike a tree, it does not take fifty years to grow an idea.
It takes one tree to pollinate the earth with oxygen.
It does not take a tree to pollinate the earth with change.
One tree can be a resource for countless beings.
With very little, you can be a source of aid to many targets of war.
If a single tree can do all of these things,
Imagine what you can do,
With technology, money, and ambition.
Imagine what you can do with tablets that clean water,
And worlds of tents for bodies and sick people,
Imagine what you can do with more supplies than there are trees in the forest,
And boats full of college students,
With iodine pills and solar panels.
Just imagine what you can do with the human factor.
Just imagine.
Artist Statement
About half way through our genocide project we watched a movie by the name of “Ghosts of Rwanda”. This was a very strong move about the genocide in Rwanda. In the movie there were interviews of many doctors and accounts of the terrible things that the people saw and did during the genocide. They also talked about the multitude of things that are done to clean up the carnage after the cause. This made me ponder, if so many things are done to help after the disaster, why can’t we take more initiative to stop the conflict before it escalates into genocide. This inspired me to write a poem about all of the things they can do to help people after the disaster, but why they cannot stop the disaster before it starts. I am inspired because I see all of the technologically advanced things they do to help and the extensive process organizations do to try to clean blood off of the streets, yet they cannot just make it top priority to step in and end the war in the planning stages. Now, I know that war is a very complicated thing that is driven by many things, but there are certain things that can be done to help prevent it. I feel like we need to take greater actions to stop war before it starts. Many wars could have been stopped in history if countries would have stepped instead of watching people kill each other through binoculars across the ocean.
When I was pondering what type of poem I wanted to write I read many poems from different poets to get some ideas. There was one poem that really stood out to me and inspired me a lot. Now, I had already read this poem earlier in life, but when I took a look back at it I really loved it. That poem was “I know why the caged bird sings” by Maya Angelou. I like this poem because it is a very powerful free-verse. I really like the language and the extended metaphor of the poem. Now, my poem is not an extended metaphor like this one, but I still got inspired by the Caged Bird. I think that Maya Angelou is so inspiring because she is such a powerful woman. All of her confidence and power is reflected in her poetry, and I think that is why all of her poetry has such a powerful message and it is really inspiring. Reading her poem made me want to make my poem very powerful and it pushed me to write the best poem I could.
In my poem I used primarily three devices. I used metaphors, similes, and repetition. I used similes and metaphors the most because I like to use creative and weird language. I like to use weird language because I feel like that is what makes poetry different than normal writing. I also like making the reader stop and think about what is written and actually appreciate the power of language. I used one extended metaphor in the end of the poem. I used a metaphor about how trees can be like ideas. I used this metaphor because I feel like it really helps drive home the message. The use of repetition gives the poem a nice rhythm and flow.
Project Reflection
The poetry goal of the poetry project in a whole was to learn about all aspects of poetry. From writing it to analyzing it, we spent a lot of time viewing different aspects of poetry. We started by reading it and analyzing the meaning. We studied all of the poetic devices and how they affect the meaning of the poem and the reader. There are many different devices and we learned about the very common ones and some of the unusual ones. I witnessed a lot of poems with metaphors and similes. We read many poems with meter and imagery, and we learned about how the devices add to the uniqueness of poetry. I realized that the presence of devices is really what separates poetry from normal writing. Poets strive to use language in a new way that is creative and original, and that is what I strived to do when I wrote my poem.
Writing our poems was a long, extraneous process. We went through many steps to get our final drafts. We started with sh***y first drafts and went through many revises and critiques, but after about three weeks we ended up with beautiful, polished poems. I learned a lot about writing poetry during this process. I used to think that poetry was easy to write. I thought that you just had to go down to a park and sit in the grass and perfect poetry flowed out, but I quickly learned that is not true. Writing poetry is like raising a cat, it sucks. It goes around your house and throws up on the carpet and pees on your pillow, but after a while it learns it’s way and you end up with something that is very cute and cuddly. I mean that poetry is very hard to write and for a long time you will hate your poem because some parts will sound very stupid, but after you work at is for a while things end up sounding good and it makes you proud to be the author of it.
After I was satisfied with my poem I had to decide how I was going to present it visually. I decided to do an art piece. I was inspired by a picture behind Lori’s desk. It is a poem called “Speak” by a former student of hers. I really liked how the lines of the poem were arranged in a way that flows back and forth across the page. I also liked the idea of putting pictures that represent the poem next to the poem. This gave me the basis for my poem. I obtained two canvases and I projected my poem onto them. I traced all of the lines in pencil and then traced them one more time with sharpie. I then took a few pictures that were symbols in my poem. I projected them onto the canvas and traced them. I then went over those in sharpie also. In my opinion, my visual turned out very well. It looks very professional, and I am very pleased with it.
I learned a lot about how poetry is written affects the audience. I learned a lot about how devices, tone, and presentation affect how the message of the poem is conveyed. One of the biggest effects on the reader is tone. The tone really sets how the poem is read. Depending on the tone a line with the same words could be seen many different ways. A line can be read as sarcastic or serious, and the tone is the device that tells the reader how to read the poem. When a poem is performed tone takes a big part of the performance. When you are reciting a poem the tone of the performer’s voice sets the mood of the poem. Fluctuation, pauses, and emphasis makes listening to a poem interesting. If a performer gets up and talks in a monotone voice and does not pause at the necessary time it makes the poem very boring to listen to, but if a performer gets up and actually acts a poem out it is very fun to watch. I also learned that imagery and use of poetic devices make good poetry. Good poetry is fun to read and makes you appreciate the use of language. Poetic devices make language interesting, and to write poetry you must have a good knowledge of devices and how to use them. When we analyzed many poems when we first started the unit we built up knowledge of different devices and good examples of them.
I learned about how to set a tone to convey my message. I learned about how certain words and how they are said can affect tone. I learned about how word visually look can affect tone; you can change font, size, and placement to show emphasis on a certain phrase or line. When we were writing our poems Lori said to weird out your language to make interesting poetry. She meant you must use imagery and metaphors to make poems interesting to read. Instead of just plain out saying something, it is much more interesting to find a way to phrase that makes the reader think about what the author is saying. I did this by using poetic devices, but metaphors and similes specifically. In all, I learned a lot about writing and performing poetry throughout the project.
Link to a video of my recitation
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