Poetry Reflection

1- Poetry has a significant place in my life. Whenever I feel like expressing how I feel about a conflict in the present or past, I might write a poem in private. I keep these poems in the Google Drive of my personal email. These poems mainly express how I feel about the past which make them a part of me. I wouldn't say poetry is a huge piece for exactly everybody. Take Dylan for an example. He made a haiku about not wanting to write more poems. I assume that there's people in the real world such as Dylan that don't like expressing themselves with poetry. Different people probably express themselves in different ways, like using prose to write how they feel or drawing out their emotions.

2- Poets can use past events and experiences of their life to influence the poems they make. Many people use significant events like the death of a loved one or discrimination or something else they faced. Strong and intense feelings of regret or happiness or melancholy can also affect poems. Robert Frost and his poem, "The Road Not Taken," is an example of this. The poem is about decisions and Robert hints at the fact that he regrets not picking a certain choice. A real life decision that Robert experienced and him choosing the path that he did could've led to him writing this poem. Events of the past influence poems because these are usually their personal idea mines that they use for writing poems. Sometimes poets just want to express themselves and how they feel in the present so they use conflicts that they are currently facing as well.

3- "Childhoods" By Angel Hernandez
Childhoods
They're many things
They can be plain fast food burgers
or a sweet chocolate bar
that you want to keep swirling in your mouth
They can be Warheads
Sour for a while
but sweet all the way after

Distant memories
that everybody misses
and thinks about every once and a while
The ones that shape and mold
clay into people
The favorite part of some people's songs
that they want to listen to
again and again

-The idea behind this poem is childhood. Things like candy, clay, music, and food is used to compare childhood using metaphors. This is to express certain ideas like childhoods being the favorite part of some people's lives or childhoods being sour at times but also sweet. The way that these metaphors are structured into these two stanzas adds to the meaning because it makes the metaphors sound reminiscent. The first stanza mainly compares childhood to sweets. The second stanza is more about what people think of childhood and how people miss it every now and then.

"Good Bones" By Maggie Smith

Life is short, though I keep this from my children.
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children.
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you,
though I keep this from my children. I am trying
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.

The structure in this poem compares and contrast the good and the bad in this world. This poem also uses the repetition of "though I keep this from my chilldren." The meaning behind this is that the world has something unfortunate for everything good. There's as least as much bad as there is good. The poet also explains that she is metaphorically trying to sell the world to her children like the way realtors sell homes that aren't worth their price to customers. Both the customers and the poet's children can make the house or world a better place. The main structure used to support the message is showing something positive in life followed by something negative. The poet goes on to say that these are the facts that she doesn't tell her children because she wants them to make the world beautiful.

Free Choice
Bio-Poem
Where I'm From
Spine Poem
Found Poem
Nonsense Poem
Apology Poem
Choices Poem