Since I didn't share in-class

We did a writing exercise the other day and it was called "throw-away poem" and Kevin commented that my list was very long, and just to clarify I did a bit of spring cleaning the other day, so I don't have all these things anymore.
My list is titled "Guilt Hoarder" because all the things I list are things that were given to me that I don't want anymore, but I feel bad throwing away things that people gave me thinking I'd really like. I think I've always had this problem, also I'm seriously sentimental, and I like the little memories that come along with some of these items. Here it goes:

That scarf I got for Christmas two years ago, I never wear scarves anyway.
A movie ticket for almost every movie I've been to since moving to Vernon.
Old nail polish bottles, almost completely full, but unfortunate colours.
Worn, old shoes, with a mustard stain from camping. Or was it ketchup.
A winter jacket that no longer fits.
A shoe box filled with junk.
A karaoke machine.
The receipt for my drivers test.
A script for a play I was in, in the 7th grade.
My student ID cards from Junior High and High-school.
A kite I made in 8th grade.
Costume jewellery I haven't worn for years.
Token from Chuck E. Cheese.
Writing on my white-board that's been there for two or three years.
The box my polaroid-camera came in.

Just a little more...

With the year coming to an end I find that I can't think of anything except that it's almost over, and so is my two-year Writing and Publishing program. With that in mind, the only poems I want to write have to do with summer.
I wrote this one while it was sunny out and all I wanted to do was jump in the lake!

It's called "A Gradient of Deliciousness"
I see
green,
blue,
aqua,
turquoise,
any shade that you can imagine,
no wonder they call it
"lake of many colours"


My inspiration for this little poem was half the slurpee I was drinking and half Kalamalka lake, because both had the same shades and both were summer related and both are cool. I think it needs a lot of work to be not so obvious about what I'm talking about, and it's too short, etc, etc. But I still kinda like it.

Spring Fever

Lately it's been sunny out and all I can think of is summer, and no school and going to the beach and being free. Just for a little while anyway. I really want warm sunny, blue-sky weather and it's so stuck in my head that I'm going to write a poem about it.
It's called "Everything Blue"

Sky,
lake-water,
camera-case,
his eyes,
my phone
and me.
When my fingertips
touch the
water
touch the
sky
I feel the
blue leech
away.



It's shorter and more to the point than I'd like, but then again it is just a draft. Let me know what anyone thinks!

blert

So the next reading we had to do was a book called blert. I actually kind of liked the poems in this book because they seemed to be part narrative, part poetry and part nonsense, I thought they were more fun to read and my favourite one was on page 44, and I liked that it started with snow so it was something I could picture, but then it moved on to poetry-like non-sense which I kind of like because it sounds beautiful yet I have no idea what I'm supposed to be getting from it.

I don't know, these poems don't make me mad like the other ones have, but at the same time they aren't my favourite ones. They're somewhere in between and I think that they're interesting. I think my favourite thing about this book, is that the first page is covered in text talking about bums, in the shape of a bum. What a magical way to start a book, do you know what I mean? What universally makes people smile more that talking about bums, am I right? I am.

So I'm going to try and replicate the feel I guess that I get from these poems by writing one of my own, if you know what I'm saying. I kind of want to go for the same, concrete, mixed with what the hell, with a little bit of nice vocabulary. My poem won't have a title because as far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be a title for any of these poems, unless I just didn't see or something. I don't know.

Here is my poem:

feetefeetsiefeetsiefeetsi
feetsefeetsiefeetsiefeetsi
feetiesefeetsiefeetsiefeetsi
footfeettoeefeetsiefeetsiefee
feetsfeetiesfootfeettoeefeetsi
feetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsefeetsi
feetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfefeetsi
eettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeettoefeetsi
etiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeeties
footfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeeet
ettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfe
etiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeetto
efeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfee          ofeetsfeeti
esfootfeettoeotfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeets
feetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeesfoo
etsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeesfootfe
ettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfee
ttoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesf
  oefeetsfeetiesfootfeettoefeetsf                                  tiesfootfeettoefeetsfeetiesf
   footfeettoefeetsfeetihdnd                                                 etiesfootfeetto
     feetiesfootfeettoe


I tried to copy the bum thing on the first page, by writing about feet, and repeated the same word over again, and still using them to create a shape on the page. I don't think I like it at all, because it just is stupid. Let me know what you guys think?

I don't know either

I wrote a poem and it isn't inspired by any of the readings or in-class exercises, I don't know where it came from or why and I just felt like sharing it. Let me know what you think?

"Is it Hard to Dig?"
Do you still remember my name?
Do you hear my dead heart beating?
Do you drink to forget the taste of my lips?
Do you burn our pictures because my face is burned into your eyelids?
Do you try to forget me?
Do you succeed?
Do you feel better now?
Do you have what you wanted so badly?
Do you remember how cold I was?
I'll be cold forever,
now.

I'm not gonna tell you what it's about or what I pictured when I wrote it because I want to see if what I was getting at came across clearly or if you have no idea.

Kevin drives like a maniac on his way to poetry readings.

So the other night we went to a poetry reading, and it was my first time being in the Vertigo Voices building because all last year I had work every night that there was a reading. I wasn't sure what to expect because I usually find reading poetry to be boring unless I find the poem particularly nice and interesting to read. I think it's entirely different when you have someone read their own poems especially when that person isn't shy and has no stage fright. And it also helps that that person is funny and calls out things from their own work and doesn't seem to be embarrassed (or is just good at hiding it). Anyways, I actually really enjoyed going to this reading, and I was inspired by the performer to write more of my own, although fiction instead of poetry (sorry Kevin). I think I actually would have bought one of her books if I'd brought money, and that's saying something because I never buy poetry books, unless they're required in the syllabus. I can't think of many specific things to say because it's been a few days since we went, but I do know that I thought it was fun and not boring and I liked her explanations for why she wrote certain things. And I think the most useful thing to me was what she said about working with her editors and how they worked with her instead of telling her what to write and what to change. I actually want to be a writer, and I've been waiting until I'm finished at the college before I do the final edit of some of my manuscripts before I try and get them published because I wanna see what I can learn to make them better and I was worried that they'd make me change my stories completely. And I know what everyone is going to say "there's no money in writing" and my answer is that I'm not doing it for money I'm doing it because I like my stories and I want to share them and see if other people like them too. And if I make money, then that's great, if I don't then I'll be happy as long as one person likes what I've written. I can't even explain how much this reader inspired me to write more, especially the 1000 words a days for a month idea. I think I'll try something like that but maybe not 1000 a day. I have too much homework right now. But back to the main point, I really enjoyed the reading and I'd like to read more of her work.