Blogging Around

I guess I've said it before, but i'll say it again:
I love these blog assignments. I'd prefer them over any written essay. The way I see it, there's just a casual, free-thinking element to every blog post- and i love this element. I can convey my thoughts without any of the pressures that I'd experience in an essay. No pressures, no outlines, no forced claims, and no stress. Nothing but the perfect thinking environment. (I'll make THAT my next blog post)

So I began by reading Brandon's metacognition post- and i must say that I liked it alot. Brandon made a point of how revising a poem is very similar to picking up dog poop- in the sense that it's very unpleasant but necessary. So in any case, I just found this analogy to very humorous, quite logical, certainly clever, and by all means, original. I just had to comment on such a perfect analogy.

But either way, Brandon made a point of how there is such a thing as too much revision. He recounted how, after hours of revising, his poem looked nothing the way it originally did. He even went to say how too much revision can kill a poem's original ideas. I believed this idea was an important subject. I wrote:

"That's what revisions are: picking up the poop in my poem."
Honestly, Brandon, i don't think anyone could have said it better than you have. It's tedious, it's frustrating, and it also involves alot of overspent thinking. So you're right, it's a pain in butt.
Still, what I've noticed about the revision process is that there's really no clear formula for it. It may just be a touch-up here or there.
So, in any case, this leads up to one of the biggest, most dauting questions of all time: "Where the hell do i start??"
When you mentioned the "stream of conciousness" that you experienced, i couldn't help but think "How did he do that?"- so that is my question to you. How does one overcome writer's block? Is it just confidence, or perhaps something else that im missing? Either way, i'm beginning to think that I need to take a "brain laxative".
As for the poem degradation you mentioned, I believe the key to solving that is a balance of ideas. Revision, in fact, is just like anything else: It needs to be done in moderation. Too little revising basically leaves you with the same original rough draft, and too much revision turns it into something you can't even recognize.
For an analogy, I think revising poetry is just like a delicate surgical operation. You have to make just the right cuts- hopefully without killing the patient.

But ok, moving on. The second post that I read was titled "Relating my Standards to King Lear's". It was written by Crystal, and it recalled alot of important family values that i wouldn't have even otherwise noticed while i was reading king lear.

So yes, this was an inspirational post for me. Through all the dark, tragic events of King Lear, I would have never realized how it emphasized the importance of family!

So here's what I wrote:

Ah, that is a very good point you made there! I would have never thought about these positive family aspects in King Lear before you mentioned them. To tell you the truth, I had thought of these family values the other way around up until now. I thought of King Lear's situation as something that PROVED how you couldn't trust family members. Now I see it differently!I mean, right now I'm just picturing a little family stepping out of the shakespeare's theater, recalling how awful it would be if one of their beloved children suddenly turned against them. The youngest child, of course, will say, "I would never do that to mommy or daddy!" and he would be telling the truth. So that's jsut what i'm thinking right now- and i totally agree with what you said. Still, it makes me wonder whether the aspect of family was an actual renaissance idea. Could it have possibly been medieval?

Metacognition: Rhyming Poetry

Creating poetry itself is a difficult task, and I'll admit that the rhyming element is a lot harder than it seems. Still, now that i think of it, there are alot of great upsides to writing poetry in rhyme. First off, rhyme usually takes good care of the poem's rhythm and transitions- in fact, it's almost a given. Poets with OCD may even find that rhyming satisfies that horrible twitching desire for everything to flow smoothly. Rhythm comes with every rhyme, and transitions are things that these poems just seem to take care of naturally.

Still, this doesn't quite compensate for the fact that rhyming poems are so strictly limited in terms of structure. Quite simply, every other stanza has to rhyme. It actually restricts the amount of words that can still be used while pertaining to the poem's orgininal theme (and you're not allowed to use the word "orange" either). As a matter of fact, rhyming may even obstruct some of the poem's content- especially while the writer is struggling to make everything rhyme.

What i've also noticed about rhyming poems is that they don't just "fly out of your head", like any other kind of freeform poetry. The whole rhyming filter slows down this process, where ideas are directly taken from their abstract state and inserted among the poem's stanzas. That's what frustrates alot of poets who attempt to use rhyme in this "idea to paper" manner. You can't just scribble things down with perfect rhyme and regularity. Based on my experience, I believe rhyming allows your ideas to come out one line at a time.

So, without further ado, let's say that I'm creating my rhyming poem. I begin by reviewing some of my themes (snow, frost, beauty, redemption, numbness, nature, bitter winter cold) and i jot some of these down before i lose them. My next step now, is to create a line using some of these themes.

"Like flecks of silky fallen fluff"
Ok. that sounds pretty good. I'll just have to create another line since I've decided that this stanza's going to be ABAB format.

"Like dust from angel's powdered wings".
Hmmm... I'm really liking this... But here comes the tricky part. My next line will require 8 syllables and end in a word that rhymes with fluff. Let's see if i can pull it off.

Fluff, luff, bluff, stuff, huff, puff, snuff, duff, ouff?..........
Don't get me wrong- these are all good words- but it doesn't look like any of they'd work with the poem's theme. This poses a problem, so i'll now have to go back and change the first line of my stanza. I change it to "Like flecks of silken fluff it fell". Luckily, it works. So, now that i have fell as my rhyming word, i find it much easier to get that third line written down. The fourth line just comes to me naturally.

This also goes to show that you can't simply whip off a rhyming poem in under 10 minutes. Creating a poem that rhymes can be frustrating, mind-boggling, headache-inducing, and very time-consuming. Sometimes it requires the use of a rhyming thesaurus. But even then, it seems to me like my ideas for this kind of poetry always slip out of my head a little too quickly. Sometimes i'll think "Omigod! Perfect line!" and then it will disappear in a split second.

I've always imagined these ideas in poetry to be little insects whirring around in your brain- especially when you don't take notice of them right away. You'll be minding your own business when one of these little thought-bugs suddenly and unexpectedly whizzes by right in front of you. Then of course, you're somehow left with one choice: to capture the thought before it flies away. You struggle to hold on to it. You do finally manage to capture it.

The lid is almost firmly secured on the little jar containing your idea. You're on the verge of writing it down, and your fingers are poised over the keys. Unfortunately, and that also happens to be when mom enters the room, asking whether or not you've done some petty task this afternoon. You are distracted from writing. The insect in the jar breaks free, flies away, and the other little thought-bugs scatter at her voice. "NO, MOM, GO AWAY, I'M WORKING!!!" you shout, obviously very frustrated with the situation. Mom wonders why you're so temperamental.