The readings of Chapter 1 in "Making Your Own Days" dealt mainly with the language of poetry. It was said by Koch that poetry is a language within a language and poets often think of words they want to use, not only by what they sound like but by what they want to express. A kind of analogy that I think of having read this, is a painter determining what shade of colors would best draw out the emotion he/she is trying to induce visually. The second chapter is about the music that poetry creates and the "notes" used within. I had never thought of words as notes; poetry as music, but this chapter gave me a greater undertanding of why it is some poets write in the style they do.
The first chapter invoked a sense of awe inside me when I realized how much deeper into creativity poetry goes. The poets are sifting through language to find the words that can paint a visual and/or an emotional picture to the reader/listener. This is amazing to me. When I tried to read poetry in the past, something always felt artificial about it. It seemed to me that the authors were going out of their way to sound melodramatic or overly exciting. Lo and behold that's exactly that they were doing but because of my limited understanding of poetry I could not see the beauty of the words written. I have written music and lyrics for about ten years and never considered myself a poet. I often struggle to write lyrics with more imagery and seldom do nothing more then write a piece that directly tells of the emotions I'm trying to have the listener feel. I would like to be able to learn in this class how to express myself through a more imaginitive, if that's the right word, way. Overall, I'm very excited about this class and feel it will be of great value in helping understand the creative process for more things then just poetry.
