Throughout the process of writing these poems, I have found out that poetry is an easy and effective way to get many points across. As shown in most of my poems, I want people to know that I'm the type of person who can't very easily hold in anger, and that I don't want to let go of the things I have, but I will have to someday, or they will be taken away from me. I am also willing to work together, which is what I did with Riya to write our A Midsummer Night's Dream poems.
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Prose
"Nightmares"
-
Light flooded in
from the open blinds of the windows.
I took a look outside.
The full moon shined
brightly.
I grabbed my teddy, brought it close,
and wrapped myself under the covers.
Silence. Darkness.
I closed my eyes,
then opened them again.
Arms grabbed at me,
trying to pull me
Away.
I screamed, then I woke again.
What a bad dream.
It seemed darker than usual.
The full moon, gone.
My teddy, gone.
I heard a few steps come closer,
and the nightmare happened again.
I had a story idea about a dream in a dream, and the protagonist being taken away by his own thoughts and mind. People cannot control their own thoughts sometimes.
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Mutt
"I Too Am America"
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I HEAR America singing,
I, too, sing America.
The carpenter, the mason, the boatman,
the shoemaker, the hatter, the wood-cutter.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
I, too, sing America.
At night, the party of young fellows,
They'll see how beautiful I am.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
I, too, am America.
I am trying to convey that all men have an equal status (listing the jobs), except for the speaker, but later in the poem he is optimistic and is ready to prove his status among the other people.
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Literature Poem
"Changed by Man"
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An old worn-out chestnut,
the forelegs unsteady.
How changed!
The beautifully arched and glossy neck,
now straight and lank and fallen in.
The face, once full of spirit and life
was now full of suffering.
"And so at last, I was bought by a man.
When they found out my weakness, they said I was not worth,
and that I just be used up.
Men are strongest,
and if they are cruel and have no feeling,
there is nothing that we can do."
A short time after, a cart with a dead horse passed.
It was a chestnut horse with a long, thin neck.
I believe it was Ginger; I hoped it was,
for then her troubles would be over.
Oh!
If men were more merciful
they would shoot us before we came to such misery.
The text used was Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, a story told from a horse's point of view about the abuse of horses before and during the 19th century. This passage made me cry the first time I read it, and I want others to know about it so they will not mistreat their horses or any other living creature.
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Memory
"Tree"
-
Death bringing life.
A tree falls
to its death
and rots slowly.
Its soul, refusing to die,
escapes into the soil,
enriching it with nutrients,
giving birth
to new Life.
This is a paradox because people do not normally think that Death would be something to bring new Life, but it does in fact happen.
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Occasional
"Flying"
-
I imagine a pair of wings,
lifting me into the sky,
giving me freedom.
They disappear, and I fall.
I had flown too high,
and I was scared.
Was this the consequence
of going too far?
I close my eyes and apologize
for making my mistake.
Suddenly, I was forgiven,
and my wings grow back.
Joyfully, I propel up,
making sure to not make my mistake again.
I compared wings to freedom, because I imagine that having wings will enable to let you go anywhere with no limits, but if someone abuses their freedom, they will be punished for it and have it taken away from them.
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Five Finger Pattern
"Anger"
-
Anger, a dark,
reddening face
letting it all out.
Scream,
brightly shouting out your frustration.
Red, the colour of blood,
and your fists
as they ball up together
and lose temper.
You can't hold it in.
Flames burst out
all at once.
Leave a scar.
Blood boils, burning bruised brothers.
Anger is the cause of misery,
It's anger that brings much pain.
But holding anger in hurts more,
So let your anger out sometimes.
Others will feel your anger too,
But don't hold in your anger.
I used the emotion of anger and related it with the color red. Again, it is not good to hold your anger in, because if you store too much it'll burst out all at once and hurt you and other people much more then it normally should have.
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Sonnet
"Bottom"
-
For you to love me, you have little mind,
For reason and love do not work as one.
To get them to work is achieved by none
The two are unable to be intertwined.
If I had wit, I wouldn't be so blind,
Straight out of this deep forest, I would run.
For me, staying here isn't any fun,
But I shall stay with you, for you are kind.
They will do anything for me, you say?
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, come.
Do scratch my hair, fetch me a honey sac,
Play the tong and bones, fetch me good sweet hay.
I fall asleep, wake again, my head numb,
Bottom's Dream, I shall tell when I get back.
This is a poem that corresponds to Riya's poem Titania. Her poem tells the story of the fairy queen from A Midsummer Night's Dream who falls in love with a man with an ass head because of a "love juice." In the first quatrain, Bottom explains how love and reason cannot work together. In the second, he explains that he is not smart enough to leave the forest, and he might as well stay with her. In the sestet he commands the fairies to do as he pleases, then wakes up from his "dream."
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Villanelle
"Life Moves On"
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Life continues to move fast,
sometimes you have to let go.
Move on, forget the past.
Time passes in a blast
And things shall quickly grow
Life continues to move fast
That event has already passed
It's hard to let go, you know
Move on, forget the past
The world you live in is vast
you are unallowed to live life slow
Life continues to move fast
You will not outlast,
move on with the flow.
Move on forget the past
Not everything shall last
And they'll be remembered as long ago
Life continues to move fast
Move on, forget the past
I always feel like I'm lagging behind everyone else, because I cling onto the past a lot. I realize that, but I don't take any steps to fix my mistakes.
