Week One Blog

The readings for the first week of class in Kenneth Koch's book titled Making Your Own Days were quite informative and inspired me to think about what I would eventually like to create. In Chapter 1, The Two Languages, the language of poetry was discussed. Poetry was explained as a language that was able to give such depth and detail to words that the reader could actually see the thing being written about in reading the poem. On page 25, Koch talks about this when he writes about the word horse and says, "The word horse can make a reader see, smell, touch, even feel as if they are riding on a horse". This idea that language and use of words in poetry brings meaning and strength to the poem, allows readers to envision what is being written about and opens the reader's mind to what the poet wants the reader to see through their poem. In addition to this, this chapter also touched on the idea that language was an extensive and large medium, which consisted of a such an enormous quantity that it was not surprising that people or poets would play with it (25). This statement made me really think about language and how pliable it is when creating and writing and opened my mind to how enormous the medium actually is in our language.

Chapter 2, Music, discussed the different types of poems that can be created such as sonnets and how poems can take on different forms through stanzas or pauses in the poem. This chapter sparked some ideas in me about how I would like to write a poem and also made me realize how important pauses and line breaks can be in creating dramatic or effective poetry.

I am working on writing a poem that will be effective by using less words, but words that hold weight and deep meaning. I have enjoyed coming up with and playing around with words that could be used in my poem. There are so many words that you can choose from, but it is about finding the right word to fit with what you as the poet are trying to convey. So far,the only struggle I encounter, is being able to find or really understand the rhythm of a poem and which words are stressed.

I am learning that writing seems to be very important in our culture to not only communicate with others, but really as a means to getting our emotions physically out there for others to grasp and see. Writing can lead a person to become creative in their use of words, which enables the reader to experience or understand a poem differently. By reading other people's work and seeing their use of words and expressions helps lead to the inspiration of other writers and allows for different and more varied forms of creative poetry to be written.