I started writing poetry in my seventh grade English class. When I first started off writing poetry I thought it was silly and pointless. As I learned more about poetry and how it makes me feel when I am writing, I started to get more interested in it. I always thought poetry was all about rhyming so most of my early poems were all poems that rhymed. For an example: “It is all about me, can’t you see I am a beauty Queen that is why it is all about me.” Sounds a little corny and arrogant but hey I was only in the seventh grade, it was a cute little rhyme. The teacher must have liked it also because I got an A+. Well that was the seventh grade. I was not required to write poetry again until the eleventh grade.
In the twelfth grade I learned about the different types of poetry. I was taught to write couplets, elegy, epic poem, haiku, and quatrain poems. They each have different meanings and have their own style of format. A couplet has rhyming stanzas made up of two lines. Elegy is a sad and thoughtful poem about individuals. Epic poems are extensive, serious poem that tells a story about a heroic figure. A haiku is a poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five morae. Last but not least a quatrain poem is a poem of four lines, with lines two and four rhyming with similar number of syllables. My favorite poem to write was the quatrain poem. May sound a little hard but it is kind of fun to try to figure it out.
After learning how to write poetry I started writing more and more on my own. I always started off writing my poetry by just jotting things down. I wrote anything that came off the top of my mind, and most of the times my writing turn into just thoughts. After reading through the thoughts I sometimes group my words a certain way. For an example:
“So many thoughts are running through my mind right now
I don’t really know if I should keep him in my life or just let him go
It just really irritates me for him to make promises
When he know that it really will not happen
And to top everything off you are now ignoring my calls and texts
Because I am now asking about a promise that you have told…”
I started off just jotting down words like promises, car, father, and ignoring. That is when I came up with this mini poem. It is really easy to write when you don’t have a certain topic that you are required. I love to write mostly when there is something going on in my life; rather I am in a good or bad mood. I really like that fact that my wordings of my poetry has gotten better throughout the years. I do not really have to be so up front and forward with my work. I know how to hide some feelings behind words. Personal writing is way easier than academic writing.
Academic writing is not really interesting to do. You are really critiqued and sometimes you think too much about making sure your paper is so correct for the professor and so into getting that red A that you forget about including yourself in your writing. You start not to think or worry about what you think about your writing that you lose yourself.
