Project 1

Seashore — The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams, 1923

like perfect clockwork

waves

crash the sea

shore

under the moon

from

sunrise to sunset

Friendship — The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams, 1923

a lifelong necessity

to

have a friend

ship

though all different

but

friends are treasures

I thought Williams’ poem would be the most interesting to emulate because it is so short, so there is not much room for error. I also felt that I could pay more attention to his specific writing style because of its length, from the types of words to the punctuation. The biggest challenge I faced was getting started. I was not really sure where to start, but then I noticed the title, how the wheelbarrow mentioned in the poem was split between two lines because it is a compound word, so I knew I needed to do the same. At first, I had the split later in a different stanza but decided to change it to match Williams in the second stanza.

Another thing I did not notice until finishing the first poem was how nothing was capitalized or punctuated at all. I think it was an exciting exercise to kind of have to think about how other people write and mimic their style, mainly because I don’t always think of things like word placement, just apparent things like capitalization and slang. I believe that the value of mimesis helps broaden the range of creative writing I could do because it makes me step out of my own comfort zone and think differently.