Third Blog Post

Similar to the comments I have viewed so far, I am also going to share my sentiments regarding the second assignment. I was relieved that we could break the assignment into separate poems, for I doubt I could effectively develop a message throughout a fifty line poem. I do not think my creativity has that much stamina presently. In addition, by pursuing different topics, I found the assignment to be more enjoyable, for it allowed me to experiment. For instance, "Sleeping with the Dictionary" inspired me to look for outside influence in the development of form. I am usually controlling when I compose, so I decided to let the dictionary speak. I wrote a poem with all of the lines in alphabetical order, and a randomly chosen word to begin each line. Although this method introduced some chaos, I enjoyed the challenge of unifying all of the words into a single statement. Ironically, the first word I selected was "American", which ultimately influenced the tone of the remaining lines. This experiment broadened my perspective of form. For another poem, I was struggling for a topic, so I decided to write about what was in front of me: a box of ginger snaps. Unfortunately, I have a habit of consuming everything that is edible and within my line of sight, so I personified the box of ginger snaps as a mistress, and elaborated on my struggle to resist her. I had fun, but I am not sure how "valuable" the poem is to the literary world.