Words As Art

In 7th grade, I learned to love writing poetry. These are the poems I wrote for my end of year poetry project.

For that project, I explored three viewpoints of myself: my home self, my school self, and my private self. If you want to know more about these viewpoints, you can read my description here.

Floating By (I Can’t Let Go)

I sit on my little cloud

Watch my stories fly by

Pick one

Out of the air

Hold on until I

Can’t

Any

Longer

I sit on my little cloud

My friends with me

All figments

Of my imagination

We talk

Until I am called

By my mom

To dinner.



glass is so fragile


I look out the window

ignoring my homework


I look 

around

and

see

birdsgrassrabbitstrees

and

leavesrocksflowersbees


I change my perspective

now, my reflection is what my eye sees

as I stare at the glass

hope that this moment will last




Poetic devices in glass is so fragile

  • rhyme (trees/bees/sees, and glass/last near-rhyme to end poem)

  • portmanteaus (blend words together)

  • non-capitalization (to make it seem more fragile)




School Self


Alone


I sit

Confined

To my picture frame


The people 

Rush by

And I sit

Still as stone

Watching it happen


Everyone talks

Everyone laughs

Everyone smiles


Define everyone


It is not everyone


Because it is not me.


While

not-everyone is

Talking

Laughing

Smiling

I am alone 

In my picture frame


Poetic devices in Alone

  • Line breaks (emphasize “It is not everyone / Because it is not me.”)

  • Metaphors (picture frame) and Simile (“still as stone”)

  • Repetition (“my picture frame” and “everyone”)

  • Punctuation (“not-everyone” and using a period only with “Because it is not me.” to emphasize that part)


School Self


Writer’s Block


A Block

Blocking

the path to my ideas.


I try to move this Block

Blocking

the path to my ideas.


But the Block persists.


My pencil stays put

and will stay put

until

I 

figure 

out

how

to

Break this Big Block

into a billion bits


clearing the path

to my ideas.



Poetic devices in Writer’s Block

  • Metaphor (writer’s block as a literal block)

  • Alliteration (break big block billion bits)

  • Repetition (“Block Blocking the path to my ideas” and ending with “the path to my ideas”)

  • Line breaks (“Blocking” as its own line, and also all the little one-word lines because that’s what it feels like to me to have writer’s block).


Private Self


Be Quiet


Brink of sleep, except

Emotions are at full volume


Quite uncertain how to turn them down

Always talking so loudly, they are

Unrecognizable without a voice

So loud they don’t hear me 

Until they have no choice

It’s almost funny

Everything is too loud

That’s my life




Poetic devices in Be Quiet

  • Acrostic poem (the left parts spell the title “Be Quiet”)

  • Rhyming (voice and choice)


Private Self


The parts of me, myself, and I

 

My mind is a forest

My body a world

My heart beats the emotion 

that allows me to be

 

My mind is a weapon

I guard my memories

My thoughts fly like bullets

I will do as I please

 

My mind is a canvas

Ready to put on a show

I am a person

That is all I’ll ever know 



Poetic devices in The parts of me, myself, and I

  • metaphors (the whole poem is a metaphor)

  • simile (fly like bullets)

  • rhyming (show / know and other near rhymes)

Home Self