Journal 8?

I have mixed feelings about this current unit. I love poetry and have always admired it. I think this may be because poetry can have a set structure or formula, which is a step closer to my comfort zone of scientific writing. In my first poem of this unit I did not take advantage of any particular structure however. Rather I tried to have it be a bit more free verse and expressive. I was slightly influenced by this particular poem, http://vimeo.com/9526797. The second poem I thought I would enjoy writing due to the requirement of structure and meter; boy was I mistaken. In my head I was hoping to make a beat poem, as inspired by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0W7Jbc_Vhw. So much for that! My goal was to write at least a page of iambic pentameter, but it didn't take me long to realize that writing even 5 successive lines was a near impossible feat. Even once I had done that, I realized I was losing the message I was trying to convey by trying to keep the correct emphasis and syllable number. I thought I would sleep on it and read it the next day; that was a mistake. When I reread what I had, the way I read it I realized I had reversed the stressed/ unstressed pattern I though I had. Not only that, I realized that for many of my lines, I had ended with 2 stressed syllables. One thing is for sure, I could really use that divine intervention from the god whom this blog is named after!

Journal 5

Wow... I can't believe I've missed two of these entries. Well I guess I'll just continue the "journal" count with where it's supposed to be; journal 5. Anyways!

Man, and I thought creative non-fiction was hard. I’ve spoken in my first journal entry about how I felt out of my comfort zone in this class, but then after a few classes I more or less acclimated to the environment; or so I thought. Having to write a fiction piece I found myself once again knocked on my ass. Not so say that the reading did not help me out with getting started, but keeping the momentum going as far as writing is concerned was very difficult. I kept finding myself thinking, “Ok… what do I want to happen next…” After extensive thought I would type something down, only to reread it, shortly followed by deleting what I had just typed and cursing at myself for writing something so dumb. Even the next “chapter” I’m writing seems to be just as hard as the first. I’ll probably find my niche right before we move onto the next unit. HA!