When I registered to take Creative Writing at Metro Community College, I expected the opportunity to expand upon my writing fiction. Poetry has always been something I tried to avoid. I did not write poetry; so, when I heard that I had to write poems in the Creative Writing class, I was disheartened, to say the least. Well, eight weeks later, I see poetry in quite a different light. I now wonder why I had not begun writing poems sooner. In some aspects, it is easier and much simpler than fictional prose. I can say so much more with so few words. I think I will continue to write prose, but I will definitely try to write poetry as well.
I think that poetry will give my prose writing new flavor and detail, with an economical usage of words. I know that my previous working of detail and imagery in prose has had an effect upon my poetry. Many of my poems have very visual images or deal with imagery in some form. In fact, my poem, "Choice" originated as a short scene that I wrote for a story. It was not until I was revising and editing the first draft of the poem that the subject of "Choice" emerged. I feel the visual imagery works well with the underlying subject of the poem. I have included a narrative essay that includes description and strong visual images, particularly at its beginning. I do believe that my usage of imagery is probably the strongest point in my poetry, as well as prose. I think visual poems attract a larger audience than abstract poems do also. Even if the subject is abstract, visual images help the reader or hearer better relate to the poem and understand it.
Although I do not write for the audience specifically, I try to write for myself as if I were the audience. I try to write things that I would understand easily and perceive without days of contemplation. In my fictional prose, I write in fairly short scenes, or episodes, much like a television show or movie. People today do not have long attention spans unfortunately, myself included usually, so action and drama must fit into short, neat little scenes so that people can grasp them. One of the reasons I like poetry is that it does just that. It says much with little. I am not saying that long drawn-out poetry is bad or anything, but that many people today do not have the patience or time to appreciate it. When I write a poem, I try to visualize it as a photograph or a painting. Something that does not take much time to "see," but takes some time to fully appreciate. The poems are meant to give someone a quick glance at truth, written in such a manner that the image will be retained in that person's memory so that the full understanding can develop after that person had walked away from the poem. I would rather have people remember the image and what it means than the poem itself. Well, enough about my poetry and other writings. I hope that the stuff that follows will be enjoyed and understood. Take the images with you and ponder them, even if you cannot remember what I wrote. It is the message I want you to take from this, not the package I put it in.
written by Ben Brick
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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