POETRY
One of my favorite experiences in Mr. Weinstein’s class was getting to collaborate with others on assignments. This helped me a lot when it came to writing poetry. I truly believe that the best way to learn and appreciate any activity in life, is to be around people who enjoy what they are doing. In this case, that was Vivian – the “free verse GOD”. Her poetry is full of emotions and meanings given through metaphors and experiences; it was such a pleasure working with her. Her process was simple. When we collaborated, it was usually very LATE at night. Vivian believes that during this time she has “broken the sanity barrier” and writes without holding back. There was no planning in our writing; however, I always brought up interesting ideas. We would usually just scribble whatever sounded nice after that.
I also had the opportunity to work with Judy Ha this year. This experience was COMPLETELY different, even though she loves poetry just as much as Vivian does. She believed the key to writing poetry was to plan, plan, PLAN (and revise). We would start by agreeing on an idea, agreeing on a style, agreeing on typography, agreeing on everything. What I learned from Judy was the importance of constantly revising your work. Even though I still struggle with writing poetry on my own, the ability to work with these girls helped me understand and appreciate the different ways to approach poetry. By collaborating with others, I have improved my poetry writing and have branched away from the sappy poetry styles used in the past. Here are some of the poems I’ve written and collaborated on for the past two years: