Poetry Task Summary

I have now come to the end of my week of writing a 10 minute poem a day.
If anyone hasn't already come across this on the blogs, this was an idea of a way to 'play with reflection' suggested by Adesola, which I previously shared on my blog.
(http://stephaniethomas-blog.blogspot.com/2011/02/playing-with-ways-to-reflect-adesola.html)


I chose not to publish my poems on my blog, as I think my poetry leaves a lot to be desired! However, I realised that you don't have to be the world's most eloquent writer to benefit from this task. I found that limiting myself to 10 mins to write the poem stopped me agonising or questioning what to write, and I just allowed myself to freely associate and let my stream of consciousness pour out. 


What I found most interesting was the way in which it really helped me to see exactly what my dominant thought or reflection on the day was, and a lot of these feelings recurred throughout the week. My thoughts seemed to be dominated by worries about the obstacles that get in the way of my professional practice, rather than the actual work. This concerns me, as I feel slightly disappointed at my lack of creativity - my life appears to be more just like a daily battle to stay on top of things and not fall behind. However, it's got to be a good thing that I am now more aware of this and can seek to rectify it.


To help me consolidate my thoughts from the poetry task and give a sense of the week in retrospect, I have written down what I consider to be the dominant topic/mood of each day and listed a couple of quotes from the poems below. The topics seem quite negative, which I suppose they were, but it's perhaps not as bad as it seems! For example, my poem exploring guilt was actually written the next day when I hadn't done my poem the night before, but was really about the fact that I didn't feel guilty - in fact I felt quite liberated. It's important not to forget that these reflective tools are meant to help us, not just add to the pressure. 

Day 1 - Insomnia...

"Thoughts, go away and come back tomorrow

You have kept me awake for too many nights now

Come instead in dreams and settle on my pillow

But do not wake me, please"

Day 2 - Self Analysis...

"I am that girl

Full of enthusiasm but always going wrong"

Day 3 - Guilt...

"I lay down on my bed with the alarm not set

And I loved it "

Day 4 - Lack of Inspiration...
"Oh god
I am boring myself"

Day 5 - Procrastination...

"Give me back those 24 hours"

Day 6 - Passions...
"I could have been a lawyer

I should have been a teacher

I would have been miserable"      

Day 7 - Distraction...
"Distraction comes in the form of a tasty meal, a bottle of wine, a better offer"

For other examples of reflective poems and some thoughts on poetry as a tool for reflection, check out these posts by Adesola & Mark. Interestingly, and I didn't realise this until afterwards, Mark has a similar experience to me in that he found he was writing quite negative poems, especially at first. I think I have a slightly self-depreciating attitude sometimes but it my poems it was mostly not particularly serious, but rather taking the p**s out of my flaws, which I think can be quite a healthy thing to do. My conclusion is, recognise your problems and downfalls....acknowledge them, learn from them and let them go, don't allow them to drag you down.