Reflecting on our Past Book Assignment

I learned a great deal from our last assignment, which was to read an entire book of poetry by one author. It was the first time I had focused on the work of a specific poet. The book I chose exposed me to a style of writing I was not familiar with. It was similar to a stream-of-consciousness style. This demonstrated to me the freedom an author has when they are writing. I seem to put restrictions on myself when I am writing, which leads to problems. One of these problems is the length of time it takes me to write a poem. I will be writing a poem, and I see that an hour has gone by, and I realize I have only written four lines. This clearly isn't an efficient use of my time. However, after reading so many poems that read like a train of thought, I have discovered my ability to spit out lines more quickly has improved. By just writing what comes to mind first, rather than thinking and analyzing every word I write down, I am able to write longer, more fluent poetry. This has been an effective way to overcome writer's block. I made this discovery in class during one of our exercises where we write a line of poetry, then pass it on to our classmates.

Another exercise in class that has helped with writer's block is taking words from other peoples' poems and making them into your own creation. I find this very fun and effective in writing creative yet interesting poetry. One thing I am not sure about is plagiarism though. How do you know when you cross the line? Do you need to credit the author of the original poem in your new poem? For myself, I have mixed feelings using other poet's work because I don't feel like I am being original. However, I also feel that it is there to learn from and use for inspiration. I think finding a balance in this would be a perfect way to write poetry.