Personal Philosophy of Poetry

I have learned a lot more about poetry than I had envisioned from the start of the
semester. I believe the poetry book required for the class gave the majority of the
knowledge I learned in this class. It talked about the importance of poems, what they are,
and various ways to write a poem. I also think the chapters about being a poet were
especially helpful because it can be translated to how you approach an academic paper.
The chapter about poets discussed that talent in writing poems comes from the refusal to
wait for spontaneous ideas and ditching the idea that there is a writer’s block. I believe
both of these concepts are special for other classes outside of poetry as well. They are
good rules to follow. There is no such thing as writer’s block because all you have to do is
start putting your thoughts onto the page and later you can revise it however you want.
But, the initial brainstorm and collection of ideas written out on page is what gets a paper
or poem started in the first place. It is rare that you come up with a perfect poem or paper
at the start so you might as well just pour words on the page that you can change around
later. These ideas helped me in poetry as well as other classes by improving my writing
skills. Also, by learning various ways to write poetry, I learned different styles that I could
approach when writing. Some examples include writing to a person that is not there like an
apostrophe poem, or narrating like a story in a narrative poem, and an aubade which is a
poem about congratulating or welcoming and arrival of something. Several styles work in
several scenarios for what the purpose of your poem is or who you are writing it for.

The purpose of poems is different for writers and for the readers. Different people
expect different things out of poetry. Some expect to get a moral or lesson from it while
others just want to be moved with their emotions etc. I think the purpose that I am most
compelled to for a poem is just going through emotions and ending with a strong or change
in feeling after reading. I love writing poems that evoke emotion rather than having a
narrative or moral. That is because you can interpret a lot from what you feel and make it
into a lesson or narrative of your own.

A poem we read in class is from Rupi Kaur. Without formatting, the words stated
are, “if you were born with the weakness to fall you were born with the strength to rise”. I
think two reactions from this poem would be hopefulness and happiness. Someone could
read that and see the moral of the poem is that there are still good days even when there
are bad days or that you can still do good even when you have done bad. So, hopefulness
would be the reaction to seeing the lesson learned from the poem. Another reaction would
be feeling happiness because the poem evokes an emotion of being happy. It ends with a
positive message that moves people.

I think a realistic scenario where I would write a poem in the future would be
writing a poem in a love letter or card for a loved one. I would like to accomplish evoking
feelings from the reader to make them sad, happy, and feel loved. I would write a love
poem which is a poem intended for a loved one to express feelings towards them. I would
add the pathos element of touching on emotions to really evoke feelings from my partner.

If my friend was choosing between two classes, I think they should take poetry
instead of pottery. I believe pottery would be really fun and I would even enjoy doing that
class. Though, I think there is a lot more real-world benefit to poetry than pottery. POttery
can help in the real-world by building your own vases for your flowers in your house and
maybe even teaching you patience and creativity. But, with poetry, you are enhancing your
writing skills and improving your thinking skills from brainstorming and approaching
problems or ideas from different angles. I think poetry helps academically for a college
degree for a career as well as helping with writing emails and other papers while in your
career. So, overall, I believe poetry has more benefit.