Week 2 (1/22-1/25)

This week was definately a long a long one for me personally.  While I enjoy the art and emotion behind poetry, I personally get very aggrevated with trying to figure out exactly what the writer means all the time.  Also what he or she is thinking when writing the poem, and is the poem actually what they mean or is it just one big metaphore.  It was definately a learning experience from the readings this week.

The sonnet poems in our packet were a very interesting read.  I enjoy how there isn't very many rules or guidelines with them.  This makes every poets different styles very noticeable when reading but also makes the meanings of what the poet is writing about hard to discover.  For example with Shakespeare, you might think he is writing about how his wife is not making him happy, when he is actually writing a love poem.  For example, number 130 on page 189 of the packet.  He says, "No such roses see I in her cheeks".  This seemed like he was being mean or negetive about his wife, yet some people in class thought it was a love poem.  The crazy part is that it could be either.  You can guess at the meaning behind the words of a poem, but only the poet really knows what it really means.  After writing two myself, i realized that i actually kind of liked expressing myself through a sonnet.  I still don't really like reading them all that much, because they are hard tpo understand sometimes, but writing a few definately helped me understand them better.

Later in the readings from the packet there are a couple of poems writen by Susan Howe, from Singularities.  It really caught my interest because of how it is writen.  It describes what the poet is feeling or writing about with absolutely no order.  There are a few sentences, some phrases and sometimes just words.  Also there is no order to where on the page and which direction the writing is in.  Some words, phrases, sentences are upside down, some are diagonal, and some have no starting or ending point.  It looks like a word bank only with all the words every where  and going in any direction.  It reminds me of raw emotion, feelings and thought. They are not organized and sometimes don't make any sense.  When writing a poem or even, or even sometimes just living life in general, this is exactly how i feel.  My thoughts, feelings and emotions are everywhere.  Then sometimes i got everything together, like the complete sentences in the middle of the page.  It starts to make sense, then gets crazy again.  It lets the reader into the mind of the writer, without structure or and order.  This was the first time i have seen a poem or anything writen like this and I think it is really unique.

Finally, I liked reading some of the poems by Langston Hughes.  One in particular that I really like is one called Preference on page 225.  I liked this poem for one becuase it is short and not to complicated.  He writes how he want a women that is older.  Young women are always asking for things all the time.  They never ask you if you need something.  Older women are the opposite, they ask if you ever need any thing.  They take care of you, instead of you always having to take care of them.  I thought this was hilarious because my mom is always asking me if I ever need anything, or if she can make me some food, or help me with something and I love it.  My last girlfriend didn't do this at all.  It was always, Jason help me with this, or Jason do that.  It was always about her.  Nothing is worse then someone that is selfish.  Expecially when you are so selfless.  As it says, "when she converstations you ain't forever, Gimme".  This type of poem is the kind that I like to read.  There is no mystery surrounding it.  The meaning is very clear, it is short and to the point, and makes me want to read another one.  The rest of the readings were alright.  I had to read everything twice to get an idea of what the poet means.  While i don't enjoy it, I didn't mind it all that much either.  I learned a great deal from this weeks readings and I hope we move onto something besides poetry very soon!

Creative Writing 201 Introduction

My name is Jason O'Guinn and this is my blog for our creative writing 201 class.  I am a junior here at Eastern Michigan, along with being a communications major and having a minor in business.  I am from Plymouth Michigan and i went to Plymouth High School.  I spent a year and a half at Eastern, then another year and a half at Central Michigan.  I moved back home and took a year off school for some family issues going on.  Once these issues were taken care of i decided to try and finish my schooling.  Thats how i ended up here.  I restarted school this semester and am taking this class partially because i want to, and partially because i need to for my communications major.  I'm looking to get a new prospective of writing out of this class, along with maybe learning a few things, and making a few new friends.