I think the emerging themes starting to emerge in my poems are almost very somber in mood. The underlying things that have fueled my poems are primarily my anxiety, sadness, anger, and trepidation of the world around me. Like I had expressed in Journal #2 about “The Shadow”, the poetry I normally lean towards or find most inspiration for is the darker parts of my mentality and experiences. I find that those parts of me are the biggest emotions I carry and so it’s reflected in my writing. That is not to say that all of my poetry is dark and gloomy. In fact, I have written one poem so far for this class, and have a few in my own portfolio, that are upbeat and carry warmth. Looking across my poems, I notice patterns in how I use imagery and voice. Many pieces, like My Father’s Daughter and Our Respectable Ruin and Becoming, deal with responsibility, weight, and identity, often tied to family and inherited roles. They correspond through the way they show a younger self observing, carrying, or inheriting something larger than themselves. Meanwhile, poems like First Love Theory and Aurora of Memory connect through tenderness and longing, though one is rooted in romantic memory and the other in ancestral ties. Both reveal how love, whether earthly or eternal, leaves a lasting presence. I also see a correspondence between Longing in Bronze and New York, New York: two pieces that use metaphor to animate the world around us. One brings a statue and the sea to life, while the other gives the city itself a kind of breathing, rumbling presence. Both poems capture environments that feel alive, overwhelming, and consuming, echoing the unease that threads through much of my work. If I had to choose three or four poems that go together most clearly, I’d group Becoming, My Father’s Daughter and Our Respectable Ruin, First Love Theory, and Aurora of Memory. Together, they trace a journey through identity, responsibility, love, and memory. Each one reflects how human connection, whether to family, partner, or ancestor, defines and complicates who we are.
After reflecting on my ten poems, I notice general themes of growth and aspiration to improve in many of my writings. Looking at the development of my work, it’s noticeable that the first pieces show my struggles of the time, working on being patient (In My Time), gaining courage to conquer the day (Another Day), and coming to terms with my reality (Movie poem). Over the past two years, I have done a lot of self-reflection and analysis of who I surround myself with. I think my awareness of it comes through in my poetry. Towards the later poems, there’s noticeable progression in my attempts to improve corners of my life, like time management with ‘The Laundry Lady’, reconnecting with what makes me happy (2 Free Poems), and moving forward by still appreciating the life lessons from my Anniversary Poem. I believe that my first three poems, In My Time, Another Day, and the film-inspired poem overlap in the idea that life is imperfect, but I recognize I can question and change it. There’s a common theme of perseverance and an undertone that I have the power to change these struggles. While journaling in my free time is beneficial and calming, I’ve found writing these prompts allows me to look at my life in a different way and aid in processing these events.
Looking through my previous poems I sense a few themes coming through. One of those themes that I see is poems relating back to my freshman year of college. I think this is because it was one of the most developing times in my life. Whether it is relating to friendships or more than that. When I am not relating back to my freshman year of college I notice that I will write a poem about what has happened in my life recently. As I have started to write poetry I have been going through my day to day life and sometimes thinking “wow, I could write a poem about this”. I like thinking like this because I start to see how little details in life add up to something way more than it seems to be.
Something that I have also noticed within my poetry is how short they are. I prefer to get right to the point with my poetry making every line and word purposeful. I would like to start forcing myself to write poems that are longer because it will be easier to tell a complete story this way.
Three poems that go together are:
Poem 1
Listening to every word I have to say
As if it is poetry
The trails of an
endeavorment of meeting someone there
Is something I don’t want to do for you
As I was drowning you tied rocks to my legs
But now I’ve hiked to the peak
Poem 2
Sterility gives me a disease
A white room with 4 walls
A blank canvas that has never been touched
Given a rainbow of colors and a huge paintbrush
You get ripped from the room
But, your mid painting
Poem 3
You ask for honesty
Do you want the ‘right’ answer?
It simmers in her chest
Like water left to boil
High pitched hissing
I turn up the stove
Was that the right answer
Or just the truth you feared?
These are all poems that describe the same situation from my perspective. I’m not sure if you were someone reading it from an outside perspective that you would know this.
My collection of poems are pretty all over the place. They differ from one another not only in terms of themes, but also in terms of structure. I’ve tried to write my poems in different ways each time, trying different sized stanzas and different lengths of lines, trying small rhyming schemes, trying some repetition, trying to heavily use metaphors, so on and so forth. There’s a similar disorganization when it comes to the themes and imagery throughout my poems. Sometimes the tone of the poems is very heavy, somber, and melancholic. Sometimes the poems are far more whimsical and fun, sometimes even highly hopeful and positively ambitious.
I think that ultimately, because of this, the through line in my poems is experimentation. I’m trying to cover a lot of ground throughout my poems, and trying to include a lot of different points of interest to me. Some of my poems have heavy doses of nautical themes and imagery, others are about the woods and New England and bugs. That’s why I think the theme is experimentation, I think that ultimately my collection displays that I’m still trying to find my poetic voice.
Looking at my collection of poems, a common pattern and theme I notice is how many of my poems are centered around melancholy tones and the idea of horror. Furthermore, I also tackle inner anxiety and demons within my head and express it in my poems. Poems like “Footprints”, “The Mountain with No Peak”, and “Voices” are all very personal poems to me, as they express inner depression, coping mechanisms and the idea of self doubt. I think this shows how much I doubt myself and how much I reflect on my choices. I also notice that my writing style has already revolutionized during this class, as the latter two poems are both written with a rhyming scheme, while “Footprints” is more centered around structure and clauses. I also seem to be someone who mixes long lines with short lines to make a poem that has stanzas with deeper meanings. Furthermore, I have incorporated a lot of horror themes and even films into my poems. “Neon” and “Coulrophobia” are both centered around horror motion pictures and describing the mood and feelings of them. I wanted to take an approach that would showcase the idea of fear on paper rather than being put on screen for us to interpret. Overall, I do think my poems are a mixture of both personal melancholy battles and my love of the horror genre and expressing it through poetry, and I do think that already makes me a much more diverse poet than I initially thought.
Looking over all my poems it seems the only thing they have in common is length. They aren’t necessarily long but they are fairly short. There are 2 sets of 2 poems I wrote. I find go together in a way. First of all the two free poems I wrote go along together because they both talk about nature. The first one describes the sky as “on fire”—the second states “the stars whisper”. Two other poems I find go along together are the first poetry exercise that talks about self-confidence—the idea of not being enough. Similar to this, the poem I wrote about using something as a metaphor for my life (basketball) is also about self-confidence. I use dribbling the ball as a metaphor for handling my anxiety and self-confidence throughout my everyday life. None of my poems appear to be too similar but if I had to choose I’d say these ones definitely have some similarities in their own ways but no recurring themes emerge throughout them.
I think I have a few poems (my anniversary poem, the two poetry exercises, and another one I have called “Theme Parks”) that all deal with some sense of expectations for the self that are not reflected in reality. In most of these, the expectations are coming from someone else though there is one that is expectations that are set up by the self. There are two more poems that have a theme together discussing my relationship with friends. I would like to explore that one a bit more, but it will come as inspiration hits me.
Reading over my poems, I noticed two recurring themes. The first theme is nature and the second theme is my girlfriend. I have four poems that talk about nature or at least refer to nature. Poem #1, (Secret Stash)-Ideas for Writing # 1, p, 28., the film poem, the A Picture is Worth a Trillion Dollars poem, and my drafty-draft poem could all go together because they talk about nature and elements of nature. They also embody how I feel about the nature that I am talking about and how it makes me feel. The second theme appears in Poem #1, (Secret Stash)-Ideas for Writing # 1, p, 28., Free Poem #1, Free Poem #2, and the anniversary poem. This is definitely a recurring theme because when I look for inspiration she is the first thing I think of. I also think it is easier to write about positive emotions than negative emotions. I think both of these themes were very predictable for me. Something I thought I would have written more about would be my friends and family in general, as well as animals.
I reread my past poems and I do think I have a couple strong themes throughout my writing. The first one is that I definitely focus a lot on the theme of nature. I like to relate everything I write or think to something in nature to see how similar it is. So, in my poems I do a lot of comparisons between either humans and nature or nature and inanimate objects. Some patterns were things like water lying still watching the sky like stargazers or trees holding deep emotions. Another theme I found that was emerging was silence, or moments of stillness. Even though these moments sound peaceful, this theme is more of an inevitable pressure building up, waiting to be freed from the silence. Some patterns from this theme were holding breath, grating stillness, and mirrors watching me. I like all of my poems but I know at least 4 of them definitely go together based on themes. My poems “Pulsation”, “seasons’ threshold”, “Like Insects”, and “how the frost whispers into your ear” all share the same similar theme. They focus mainly on the theme of nature and some delve more into how animals are affected by nature. But, if you look deeper, I wanted to make these poems more like nature as a reflection. So, I tried to make my poems with beautiful scenery, but also alive and transformative. My poems “unknown waters”, “half-hearted”, “Make Way!”, and how the frost whispers into your ear all contribute to my theme of silence. I wanted to make this theme more as a pressure cooker rather than a reflection like the last one. I tried to use stillness as a waiting space for fear instead of the usual peacefulness. I wanted it to feel tangible, something that the reader would be able to feel in their very bones, like that tingling feeling when you listen to your favorite song for the first time.
Now that I’ve drafted 10 poems, including the Anniversary poem we worked on in and out of class, I’m starting to see a few recurring themes and patterns emerge in my writing. What surprised me most is how organically these themes appeared, often without me fully realizing it in the moment of writing. A strong sense of memory and time runs through many of my poems. Whether it’s revisiting past relationships (romantic or platonic), imagining a future version of myself, or reflecting on a specific anniversary, there’s a consistent preoccupation with the passage of time and how it shapes relationships, identity, and even silence. Another prominent theme is distance, both emotional and physical. Several poems explore the feeling of being far from someone or something important, whether it’s a person, a version of myself, or even a place. Several of my poems deal with relationships, not always romantic, but deeply personal. There’s often a speaker reaching out, remembering, or grappling with something unsaid or undone. These pieces tend to share a similar tone of remembrance, often tinged with a feeling of both longing for someone or something, and small pieces of love. The Anniversary poem, for example, shares a similar style or tone with another poem I wrote about my current relationship. My poems are not always about the same people, but the emotional echo can be found throughout each of them.
Reflecting on the process I went through while writing each poem we’ve done so far, I notice that I try to write poems similar to the ones that I enjoy reading. I think I’ve improved at creating thought provoking metaphors and lines that are comfortably elusive. I’ve found that I enjoy that type of poetry. I like using words that maybe the reader hasn’t seen before, I want each poem I write to be a new experience. The poems I think go together would be the list poem, my free poem “Gulled”, and either the rhyming poem we just did, or the anniversary one. They all have a tone of reflection, I tend to write about something after it has occurred and rarely write about things happening in the present.
Looking over all of my poems so far, I noticed that I tend to incoporate elements of nature into them. I use both metaphors comparing things to nature and imagery in most of my poems. Another thing thats common in my poems is the use of rhyming. I naturally tend to rhyme when writing, often without intending to. While my poems aren’t about similar subjects, they all have a bittersweet tone to them. One of the most challenging thing for me is picking a title, so most of my poems tend to not have one.
12 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 6”
I think the emerging themes starting to emerge in my poems are almost very somber in mood. The underlying things that have fueled my poems are primarily my anxiety, sadness, anger, and trepidation of the world around me. Like I had expressed in Journal #2 about “The Shadow”, the poetry I normally lean towards or find most inspiration for is the darker parts of my mentality and experiences. I find that those parts of me are the biggest emotions I carry and so it’s reflected in my writing. That is not to say that all of my poetry is dark and gloomy. In fact, I have written one poem so far for this class, and have a few in my own portfolio, that are upbeat and carry warmth. Looking across my poems, I notice patterns in how I use imagery and voice. Many pieces, like My Father’s Daughter and Our Respectable Ruin and Becoming, deal with responsibility, weight, and identity, often tied to family and inherited roles. They correspond through the way they show a younger self observing, carrying, or inheriting something larger than themselves. Meanwhile, poems like First Love Theory and Aurora of Memory connect through tenderness and longing, though one is rooted in romantic memory and the other in ancestral ties. Both reveal how love, whether earthly or eternal, leaves a lasting presence. I also see a correspondence between Longing in Bronze and New York, New York: two pieces that use metaphor to animate the world around us. One brings a statue and the sea to life, while the other gives the city itself a kind of breathing, rumbling presence. Both poems capture environments that feel alive, overwhelming, and consuming, echoing the unease that threads through much of my work. If I had to choose three or four poems that go together most clearly, I’d group Becoming, My Father’s Daughter and Our Respectable Ruin, First Love Theory, and Aurora of Memory. Together, they trace a journey through identity, responsibility, love, and memory. Each one reflects how human connection, whether to family, partner, or ancestor, defines and complicates who we are.
After reflecting on my ten poems, I notice general themes of growth and aspiration to improve in many of my writings. Looking at the development of my work, it’s noticeable that the first pieces show my struggles of the time, working on being patient (In My Time), gaining courage to conquer the day (Another Day), and coming to terms with my reality (Movie poem). Over the past two years, I have done a lot of self-reflection and analysis of who I surround myself with. I think my awareness of it comes through in my poetry. Towards the later poems, there’s noticeable progression in my attempts to improve corners of my life, like time management with ‘The Laundry Lady’, reconnecting with what makes me happy (2 Free Poems), and moving forward by still appreciating the life lessons from my Anniversary Poem. I believe that my first three poems, In My Time, Another Day, and the film-inspired poem overlap in the idea that life is imperfect, but I recognize I can question and change it. There’s a common theme of perseverance and an undertone that I have the power to change these struggles. While journaling in my free time is beneficial and calming, I’ve found writing these prompts allows me to look at my life in a different way and aid in processing these events.
Looking through my previous poems I sense a few themes coming through. One of those themes that I see is poems relating back to my freshman year of college. I think this is because it was one of the most developing times in my life. Whether it is relating to friendships or more than that. When I am not relating back to my freshman year of college I notice that I will write a poem about what has happened in my life recently. As I have started to write poetry I have been going through my day to day life and sometimes thinking “wow, I could write a poem about this”. I like thinking like this because I start to see how little details in life add up to something way more than it seems to be.
Something that I have also noticed within my poetry is how short they are. I prefer to get right to the point with my poetry making every line and word purposeful. I would like to start forcing myself to write poems that are longer because it will be easier to tell a complete story this way.
Three poems that go together are:
Poem 1
Listening to every word I have to say
As if it is poetry
The trails of an
endeavorment of meeting someone there
Is something I don’t want to do for you
As I was drowning you tied rocks to my legs
But now I’ve hiked to the peak
Poem 2
Sterility gives me a disease
A white room with 4 walls
A blank canvas that has never been touched
Given a rainbow of colors and a huge paintbrush
You get ripped from the room
But, your mid painting
Poem 3
You ask for honesty
Do you want the ‘right’ answer?
It simmers in her chest
Like water left to boil
High pitched hissing
I turn up the stove
Was that the right answer
Or just the truth you feared?
These are all poems that describe the same situation from my perspective. I’m not sure if you were someone reading it from an outside perspective that you would know this.
My collection of poems are pretty all over the place. They differ from one another not only in terms of themes, but also in terms of structure. I’ve tried to write my poems in different ways each time, trying different sized stanzas and different lengths of lines, trying small rhyming schemes, trying some repetition, trying to heavily use metaphors, so on and so forth. There’s a similar disorganization when it comes to the themes and imagery throughout my poems. Sometimes the tone of the poems is very heavy, somber, and melancholic. Sometimes the poems are far more whimsical and fun, sometimes even highly hopeful and positively ambitious.
I think that ultimately, because of this, the through line in my poems is experimentation. I’m trying to cover a lot of ground throughout my poems, and trying to include a lot of different points of interest to me. Some of my poems have heavy doses of nautical themes and imagery, others are about the woods and New England and bugs. That’s why I think the theme is experimentation, I think that ultimately my collection displays that I’m still trying to find my poetic voice.
Looking at my collection of poems, a common pattern and theme I notice is how many of my poems are centered around melancholy tones and the idea of horror. Furthermore, I also tackle inner anxiety and demons within my head and express it in my poems. Poems like “Footprints”, “The Mountain with No Peak”, and “Voices” are all very personal poems to me, as they express inner depression, coping mechanisms and the idea of self doubt. I think this shows how much I doubt myself and how much I reflect on my choices. I also notice that my writing style has already revolutionized during this class, as the latter two poems are both written with a rhyming scheme, while “Footprints” is more centered around structure and clauses. I also seem to be someone who mixes long lines with short lines to make a poem that has stanzas with deeper meanings. Furthermore, I have incorporated a lot of horror themes and even films into my poems. “Neon” and “Coulrophobia” are both centered around horror motion pictures and describing the mood and feelings of them. I wanted to take an approach that would showcase the idea of fear on paper rather than being put on screen for us to interpret. Overall, I do think my poems are a mixture of both personal melancholy battles and my love of the horror genre and expressing it through poetry, and I do think that already makes me a much more diverse poet than I initially thought.
Looking over all my poems it seems the only thing they have in common is length. They aren’t necessarily long but they are fairly short. There are 2 sets of 2 poems I wrote. I find go together in a way. First of all the two free poems I wrote go along together because they both talk about nature. The first one describes the sky as “on fire”—the second states “the stars whisper”. Two other poems I find go along together are the first poetry exercise that talks about self-confidence—the idea of not being enough. Similar to this, the poem I wrote about using something as a metaphor for my life (basketball) is also about self-confidence. I use dribbling the ball as a metaphor for handling my anxiety and self-confidence throughout my everyday life. None of my poems appear to be too similar but if I had to choose I’d say these ones definitely have some similarities in their own ways but no recurring themes emerge throughout them.
I think I have a few poems (my anniversary poem, the two poetry exercises, and another one I have called “Theme Parks”) that all deal with some sense of expectations for the self that are not reflected in reality. In most of these, the expectations are coming from someone else though there is one that is expectations that are set up by the self. There are two more poems that have a theme together discussing my relationship with friends. I would like to explore that one a bit more, but it will come as inspiration hits me.
Reading over my poems, I noticed two recurring themes. The first theme is nature and the second theme is my girlfriend. I have four poems that talk about nature or at least refer to nature. Poem #1, (Secret Stash)-Ideas for Writing # 1, p, 28., the film poem, the A Picture is Worth a Trillion Dollars poem, and my drafty-draft poem could all go together because they talk about nature and elements of nature. They also embody how I feel about the nature that I am talking about and how it makes me feel. The second theme appears in Poem #1, (Secret Stash)-Ideas for Writing # 1, p, 28., Free Poem #1, Free Poem #2, and the anniversary poem. This is definitely a recurring theme because when I look for inspiration she is the first thing I think of. I also think it is easier to write about positive emotions than negative emotions. I think both of these themes were very predictable for me. Something I thought I would have written more about would be my friends and family in general, as well as animals.
I reread my past poems and I do think I have a couple strong themes throughout my writing. The first one is that I definitely focus a lot on the theme of nature. I like to relate everything I write or think to something in nature to see how similar it is. So, in my poems I do a lot of comparisons between either humans and nature or nature and inanimate objects. Some patterns were things like water lying still watching the sky like stargazers or trees holding deep emotions. Another theme I found that was emerging was silence, or moments of stillness. Even though these moments sound peaceful, this theme is more of an inevitable pressure building up, waiting to be freed from the silence. Some patterns from this theme were holding breath, grating stillness, and mirrors watching me. I like all of my poems but I know at least 4 of them definitely go together based on themes. My poems “Pulsation”, “seasons’ threshold”, “Like Insects”, and “how the frost whispers into your ear” all share the same similar theme. They focus mainly on the theme of nature and some delve more into how animals are affected by nature. But, if you look deeper, I wanted to make these poems more like nature as a reflection. So, I tried to make my poems with beautiful scenery, but also alive and transformative. My poems “unknown waters”, “half-hearted”, “Make Way!”, and how the frost whispers into your ear all contribute to my theme of silence. I wanted to make this theme more as a pressure cooker rather than a reflection like the last one. I tried to use stillness as a waiting space for fear instead of the usual peacefulness. I wanted it to feel tangible, something that the reader would be able to feel in their very bones, like that tingling feeling when you listen to your favorite song for the first time.
Now that I’ve drafted 10 poems, including the Anniversary poem we worked on in and out of class, I’m starting to see a few recurring themes and patterns emerge in my writing. What surprised me most is how organically these themes appeared, often without me fully realizing it in the moment of writing. A strong sense of memory and time runs through many of my poems. Whether it’s revisiting past relationships (romantic or platonic), imagining a future version of myself, or reflecting on a specific anniversary, there’s a consistent preoccupation with the passage of time and how it shapes relationships, identity, and even silence. Another prominent theme is distance, both emotional and physical. Several poems explore the feeling of being far from someone or something important, whether it’s a person, a version of myself, or even a place. Several of my poems deal with relationships, not always romantic, but deeply personal. There’s often a speaker reaching out, remembering, or grappling with something unsaid or undone. These pieces tend to share a similar tone of remembrance, often tinged with a feeling of both longing for someone or something, and small pieces of love. The Anniversary poem, for example, shares a similar style or tone with another poem I wrote about my current relationship. My poems are not always about the same people, but the emotional echo can be found throughout each of them.
Reflecting on the process I went through while writing each poem we’ve done so far, I notice that I try to write poems similar to the ones that I enjoy reading. I think I’ve improved at creating thought provoking metaphors and lines that are comfortably elusive. I’ve found that I enjoy that type of poetry. I like using words that maybe the reader hasn’t seen before, I want each poem I write to be a new experience. The poems I think go together would be the list poem, my free poem “Gulled”, and either the rhyming poem we just did, or the anniversary one. They all have a tone of reflection, I tend to write about something after it has occurred and rarely write about things happening in the present.
Looking over all of my poems so far, I noticed that I tend to incoporate elements of nature into them. I use both metaphors comparing things to nature and imagery in most of my poems. Another thing thats common in my poems is the use of rhyming. I naturally tend to rhyme when writing, often without intending to. While my poems aren’t about similar subjects, they all have a bittersweet tone to them. One of the most challenging thing for me is picking a title, so most of my poems tend to not have one.