Journal 8

David Colon

Creative Writing

Professor Miller

3/7/18

Growing up, I was never that interested and or enticed by poetry. I don’t know if it was the style or format of the poems I read, but poems never sounded right. After reading this chapter, I’ve come to appreciate how poems should sound based upon the syntax of the sentence. On page 105, the author states “A line break is not just a pause in the action of the poem; it’s very much part of it” (105). The placement (and subsequently the absence) of words indicates how a poem should read. Much like in Gotham Writer’s, “The Poet’s Companion” introduces concepts of craft. And what I never realized was that when constructing a poem, there is a great deal of craft that goes into it line for line.

When reading over the poems the author decided to include in this chapter, it was fascinating to see how different the same poems could sound based upon the wording and placement of sentences. During the “We real cool” exercise on page 107, you could actually hear the difference when stressing certain syllables. As I was reading this, I thought of how music imitates this element of craft. In music, the artist places certain words at the end of certain sentences so that it rhymes or so that a certain syllable is stressed/emphasized. After realizing this, I became a little bit more interested in poetry.

The final aspect of this chapter that interested me was how the author discussed short lines: “One thing we’re certain of: the shorter (and the shorter the poem), the tighter the language has to be. All that white space around your words makes them really stand out.” (112). When writing a poem, you can craft it however you would like. By placing breaks and or lengthening lines of a poem, one can make words, phrases, or syllables stand out. That aspect is fascinating because it adds an element of creativity that story writing does not necessarily offer. When writing a poem, a break in continuity and or length can totally change how a poem is read.