Week two post

This week we've focused primarily on blues poems. Reading a variety of artists, such as Langston Hughes, Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson and Sterling Brown, we've seen how individuals can invoke so much emotion through their writings. Although different methods of rhyming and/or repeating lines were used, each piece of work left me captivated by their themes. Another technique that I found inspirational was the authors use of descriptive and concrete words to make what they were stating pop-off the page and leave me feeling exactly how I feel they were feeling when they wrote it. My favorite piece of work what by Robert Johnson. I play the guitar and have often tried to play some blues. Until now, I have never actually focused on the lyrics as much as the awkward beats. The use of repeating the first line and rhyming the third is a great way to really get the emotion of the song/poem understood.
I really enjoyed the readings and songs this week. At first, I thought listening to "blues" would give me the blues and just be depressing pieces of art. After doing so, however, I see that they were full of emotion but not necessarily depressing. The "blues" technique is a great way to really invoke emotions on the reader by repeating a powerful statement and then rhyming on the third line and leaving it with a certain sense of beauty.
I wish I could say I enjoyed writing the blues poem and much as I enjoyed reading them. I found this weeks poems extremely difficult. I really tried to focus on keeping a similar format to that of Robert Johnson. The most challenging part of writing the poem was definitely using 12 syllables per line. I also found it challenging repeating the first line and still having a poem that sounded good. I think if I brought my guitar to class then reading my poem may sound better than what I fear its going to. I really did enjoy the blues this week. It was just so far out of my norm that it was extremely challenging.