Project #3

3 Poems:

“The Path”

I had traveled the path

Many times before.

I recognized the tall buildings

That made me feel so small.

I knew the smells and the sights

But there was a stiffness to the air.

I expected the familiar sunlight

But was greeted by ominous darkness.

My preeminent anticipation

Was clouded by the somberness of those around me.

I paused to find the clarity I needed,

And though the path lay physically unchanged,

It had seen the trauma that I could not bear.

“Home Away From Home”

A single breeze full of fresh air

Pine needles scattered about the ground

Chipmunks frolicking in sunflower seeds

Laughter echoing across the mountains

Sunlight dancing on the surface of the lake

A current crashing against the sturdy rocks

Snow melting from the mountaintops

Chirping of birds in the distance calling for attention

The culmination of senses and scenery

Bring the reminder that I am home.

“Tree Climbing”

Two sisters are climbing a tree

The younger flailing her arms around the branches,

The older keeping her eyes on her next move.

The tree branches are less sturdy as the sisters climb up

The younger finding herself stuck with no next move,

The older continuing her steady path to the top.

The tree appears less intimidating from above

The younger looking out contently,

The older reaching the final branch.

Two sisters climb down the tree

The same way they came up,

With a renown sense of accomplishment.

Project Notes:

• 1st person POV — story told from the perspective of one character
• 2nd person POV — story told with pronouns such as “you”, directed at the reader
• 3rd person omniscient POV — story told from all-knowing perspective, including the thoughts and feelings of all characters
• 3rd person limited POV — story told from narrator who only knows the thoughts and feelings of limited characters and/or situations
• *other brainstorming for previous projects are handwritten

Artist Statement:

Throughout this course, the main focuses that I took away were centered around image and metaphor, point of view and voice, and character and story. When I was initially trying to decide whether to write a short story, piece of creative nonfiction, or three poems, I was mostly thinking of how I could best incorporate these main themes while also challenging myself. I decided that writing three poems was the best way to accomplish this because I made the plan to center each poem around each of the major themes to demonstrate my understanding of them. This also presented a challenge for me because I have never considered poetry to be my strong suit. In fact, prior to this project, the last time I wrote a poem was in middle school. I referenced back to poems/authors that I read throughout this course, such as Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Robert Hayden, etc. After referencing these works, I felt a better sense of how to begin writing my poems. I began with writing my poem focused on character and story, “Tree Climbing.” I wanted to build the plot of the sisters climbing the tree and represent each of their respective personalities without directly identifying such traits. This story comes from my childhood from when my younger sister and I would have tree climbing competitions, and I chose to write about this particular experience to represent my understanding of character and story because I remember thinking of how the way each of us chose to climb to the top of the tree accurately aligned with our respective personalities. One of the first challenges I ran into was that I began writing this poem as a short story would be written, only with stanzas. I attempted to combat this by, quite honestly, thinking less about my sentence structure and just getting the main idea down. This strategy seemed to flow more as a poem rather than a short story, which is what I have been used to. I then worked on my poem focused on image and metaphor, “Home Away From Home.” I had the most trouble with deciding what to write about for this poem, but I ultimately settled on describing a place with the most vivid imagery for me personally, which is my family’s cabin in Colorado. Although I intended to incorporate metaphor as well as imagery, I felt that my intense use of imagery throughout the poem is what made it strong as a representation of my understanding of the concept. However, I did include other forms of figurative language, such as personification when referencing how the ‘sunlight danced.’ I used this technique in some ways in my other poems as well. My last poem was focused on point of view and voice, “The Path.” Although the title seemed rather dull, I felt that the simplicity of the topic allowed me the space to grow the perception of the described events from the first person point of view. I’ve always felt that writing about thoughts and feelings of a character as opposed to factual events or plot comes most naturally to me, so it did not surprise me too greatly that this poem was easiest for me to develop once I began. Although there are definitely hints of imagery and a loose plot, I really wanted the essence of the poem to center around the thoughts and perception of the setting of the narrator. I feel that I accomplished this by utilizing the first person point of view to reference that something traumatic had happened that is left to the reader’s imagination while also providing insight to how the narrator knew the path to be beforehand. I intentionally wanted to create this loose plot to allow the reader to fill in the gaps themselves based on the mood of the circumstances as conveyed by the central voice, which was a challenge for me to write properly at first. I believe that these main themes that I incorporated reflect my understanding of the course, and in the process of writing these poems in conjunction with past projects, I have definitely learned and grown more comfortable with the wide range of tools involved in creative writing.