Poetry Project
(video)
(Final Draft Poem)
Nicholas Gilmore
The Hallway of White Bricks
There it was, clear as day,
The hallway of white bricks. realistic
as a dream, I’m still confused.
Almost…. Like I’m back in school.
Stuck in my own guilt forever.
I finally examine my surroundings.I see
Two, parallel Brick like walls,Like seeing two
mirrors facing each other, they keep going.
Cold, rough. Flat like drywall,
I see no pattern.
The two walls continue to grow all
Directions, yet I still stand still.
The Feeling like moths instead of
butterflies in my stomach Is growing.
Not knowing where else to go, I step forward.
The two walls move an inch closer. Closer.
Closer the walls come together as I keep
Stepping forward.
Finally, I step backwards hoping,Wishing for a
different result, but the walls
Only move closer together. only inches
with every step I take. I’m only playing
into The definition of insanity.
I run through the hallway. Knowing that I could be crushed by the two structures, I am too scared to stop, But I am too afraid to do anything else, But run.
Little did I know, I ran myself into a worse place
than I was before; stuck between two walls, I feel
The pressure on my shoulders. Squirming,
I've tried everything But nothing works.
But I can’t give up, I just can’t.
Not yet.
Not now.
Only when I stopped trying
could I see, the answer. I had to dig under the dirt ground and digging past the brick walls. But it's
too late, I can't move.
There is so little space. The only thing I
can do is move my toes, fingers, and face.
The last thing I felt was the cold, pressure on
Both sides of my head. Only if I knew, I just needed to calm down, And think.
Maybe I could have made it out alive,
Just maybe….
The Hallway of White Bricks
There it was, clear as day,
The hallway of white bricks. realistic
as a dream, I’m still confused.
Almost…. Like I’m back in school.
Stuck in my own guilt forever.
I finally examine my surroundings.I see
Two, parallel Brick like walls,Like seeing two
mirrors facing each other, they keep going.
Cold, rough. Flat like drywall,
I see no pattern.
The two walls continue to grow all
Directions, yet I still stand still.
The Feeling like moths instead of
butterflies in my stomach Is growing.
Not knowing where else to go, I step forward.
The two walls move an inch closer. Closer.
Closer the walls come together as I keep
Stepping forward.
Finally, I step backwards hoping,Wishing for a
different result, but the walls
Only move closer together. only inches
with every step I take. I’m only playing
into The definition of insanity.
I run through the hallway. Knowing that I could be crushed by the two structures, I am too scared to stop, But I am too afraid to do anything else, But run.
Little did I know, I ran myself into a worse place
than I was before; stuck between two walls, I feel
The pressure on my shoulders. Squirming,
I've tried everything But nothing works.
But I can’t give up, I just can’t.
Not yet.
Not now.
Only when I stopped trying
could I see, the answer. I had to dig under the dirt ground and digging past the brick walls. But it's
too late, I can't move.
There is so little space. The only thing I
can do is move my toes, fingers, and face.
The last thing I felt was the cold, pressure on
Both sides of my head. Only if I knew, I just needed to calm down, And think.
Maybe I could have made it out alive,
Just maybe….
Artist Statement
Nicholas J. Gilmore
This whole entire poem started with a dream I had a couple of days before we started working on our poems. Although I say it was a dream, it was more like a nightmare. It was like my brain purposely knew what scared me, and made me go through it all. One of my fears as a person is being stuck, physically and mentally. Being mentally stuck means nothing in your life changes or grows, constantly staying the same. Because good poems are based off of feelings, I felt this would be a good topic to choose. That dream has such a big connection to my poem and how the format of it was going turn out, almva. S ost seemed like a coincidence I had the idea the second we were making our own poems. T .
Nbxxwww A
As there are only minor tweaks to the original dream I had, my poem basically follows everything I experienced. I am glad I could remember that much of my dream, however, there are many things I don’t remember clearly, which makes it hard to use imagery in my poem. This connected to my fears because I felt like I was stuck in a kind of unknown guilt, which felt like being crushed by two walls. This sparked fear inside of me because even though those two fears seem different, I react the same way to both, no matter how they are interpreted.
I also thought this would be a good topic for a poem because of how the feeling of fear and panic can cause so much imagery and other types of emotions. Also known as the fear of being stuck. For my process, I realized the message I want to convey will be tough to show clearly for my message: being that panicked gets you nowhere, and thinking through problems does, and that staying calm through something so terrifying is how you solve and work through problems patiently.
Though I feel confident in my poem, I am not so comfortable with any other type of poems. I feel like I connect to poems that are more story based such as Edgar Allan Poe’s type of writing rather than something that’s more “loose ended” like Wallace Stevens’ style. I also wasn’t very good at writing poems to start with, because of how little I knew about the deep, intellectual, and emotional meanings of poetry. I really learned to enjoy poems when I first started to formally read them, annotating really helped me understand deeper meanings behind poems, therefore making poems more interesting to read and analyze them
This whole entire poem started with a dream I had a couple of days before we started working on our poems. Although I say it was a dream, it was more like a nightmare. It was like my brain purposely knew what scared me, and made me go through it all. One of my fears as a person is being stuck, physically and mentally. Being mentally stuck means nothing in your life changes or grows, constantly staying the same. Because good poems are based off of feelings, I felt this would be a good topic to choose. That dream has such a big connection to my poem and how the format of it was going turn out, almva. S ost seemed like a coincidence I had the idea the second we were making our own poems. T .
Nbxxwww A
As there are only minor tweaks to the original dream I had, my poem basically follows everything I experienced. I am glad I could remember that much of my dream, however, there are many things I don’t remember clearly, which makes it hard to use imagery in my poem. This connected to my fears because I felt like I was stuck in a kind of unknown guilt, which felt like being crushed by two walls. This sparked fear inside of me because even though those two fears seem different, I react the same way to both, no matter how they are interpreted.
I also thought this would be a good topic for a poem because of how the feeling of fear and panic can cause so much imagery and other types of emotions. Also known as the fear of being stuck. For my process, I realized the message I want to convey will be tough to show clearly for my message: being that panicked gets you nowhere, and thinking through problems does, and that staying calm through something so terrifying is how you solve and work through problems patiently.
Though I feel confident in my poem, I am not so comfortable with any other type of poems. I feel like I connect to poems that are more story based such as Edgar Allan Poe’s type of writing rather than something that’s more “loose ended” like Wallace Stevens’ style. I also wasn’t very good at writing poems to start with, because of how little I knew about the deep, intellectual, and emotional meanings of poetry. I really learned to enjoy poems when I first started to formally read them, annotating really helped me understand deeper meanings behind poems, therefore making poems more interesting to read and analyze them
Growth as a Poet Reflection
Nicholas Gilmore
5/17/19
P.2-3
Reflection
The first big change I made to my poem was knowing how big I wanted them to be. Because I felt like too long of a poem is hard to memorize but it has a more concise details than a small poem. Even though a small poem has more powerful and meaningful words and is easy to memorize, I still had a lot to say. So I choose a larger poem. I have this quote to support my claim: “There it was, as far as I can see.The hallway of white bricks.Two, perpendicular brick walls. Rough. cold. Yet no pattern.The wall begins to grow, Yet I still stand still.” This whole entire quote was going to be my poem, it’ll be a lot more descriptive but I soon realized you don’t have that much time to make a good story.” Now I don’t want to really show the whole other part of my poem but I added 15 other stanza’s to my poem, this benefited them by being a lot more descriptive while at the same time moves the plot forward. All of these stanzas made my poem better by allowing the viewer to experience more imagery and a complete plot./
Another important change I made to my poem was the message I was trying to convey. Pretty much, I either wanted my message to be that thinking through things gets you places, or how to communicate the things you feel when you have the fear of being stuck. My entire first draft explains why I needed the change: “There it was, as far as I can see. The hallway of white bricks. Two, perpendicular brick walls. Rough. cold. Yet no pattern.The wall begins to grow, Yet I still stand still.” This…. was originally gonna be my entire poem, because I wanted it to be short and simple.the poem needed to change because it’s a lot easier to use sensory language when I use the fear aspect of a message. As you can tell, my poem is a lot longer and diverse than my original writing because of the imagery I used.
The last important change I will be talking about is the type of poem I want to do. I had a lot of different options, however I wanted a type of poem that matched the style of what I was writing, a poem where I would have it structured about the fear I have. Disappointingly, I couldn’t find a good one for my poem. So I did mine in stanzas as a free write. If you take any part of my poem such as“Little did I know, I ran myself into a worse place than I was before; stuck between two walls, I feel The pressure on my shoulders. Squirming, I've tried everything But nothing works.” You can tell there is no rhyme, euphony, or even a poetic license, you only see freewrite, imagery, and maybe a simile In my poem. I did it this way because I feel like structure can limit you on certain subjects to write about, so I wanted to be as open as possible. This made my poem better by allowing me to be more diverse in my poem.
5/17/19
P.2-3
Reflection
- PARAGRAPH 1: The perspective in my poem has changed from my very first drafts, because my first meaning of the poem was to warn people that when you get scared, you cannot think properly. However if you calm down, you can get through problems in a more constructive way.Now, my poems more about sharing how having the fear of being stuck feels, and how it affects your life. For example, my second draft talks a lot more about the person realizing what he should have done differently so he could escape. This quote is a perfect example of my second draft. “I tried everything…… except digging under the dirt ground and digging past the brick walls.” I was supposed to emphasize this line the most. In my final draft I add more emphasis on the fear piece of my poem, really explaining the anxiety that happens when you know you can’t move. this statement is backed up with this quote in my final draft: “The two walls move an inch closer. Closer. Closer the walls come together as I keep Stepping forward.Finally, I step backwards hoping,Wishing for a different result, but the walls Only move closer together. only inches with every step I take. I’m only playing into The definition of insanity.” My perspective changed by realizing before I talk about how panicking works, people need to know what the person was panicking about, and to really connect to this person in the poem.
The first big change I made to my poem was knowing how big I wanted them to be. Because I felt like too long of a poem is hard to memorize but it has a more concise details than a small poem. Even though a small poem has more powerful and meaningful words and is easy to memorize, I still had a lot to say. So I choose a larger poem. I have this quote to support my claim: “There it was, as far as I can see.The hallway of white bricks.Two, perpendicular brick walls. Rough. cold. Yet no pattern.The wall begins to grow, Yet I still stand still.” This whole entire quote was going to be my poem, it’ll be a lot more descriptive but I soon realized you don’t have that much time to make a good story.” Now I don’t want to really show the whole other part of my poem but I added 15 other stanza’s to my poem, this benefited them by being a lot more descriptive while at the same time moves the plot forward. All of these stanzas made my poem better by allowing the viewer to experience more imagery and a complete plot./
Another important change I made to my poem was the message I was trying to convey. Pretty much, I either wanted my message to be that thinking through things gets you places, or how to communicate the things you feel when you have the fear of being stuck. My entire first draft explains why I needed the change: “There it was, as far as I can see. The hallway of white bricks. Two, perpendicular brick walls. Rough. cold. Yet no pattern.The wall begins to grow, Yet I still stand still.” This…. was originally gonna be my entire poem, because I wanted it to be short and simple.the poem needed to change because it’s a lot easier to use sensory language when I use the fear aspect of a message. As you can tell, my poem is a lot longer and diverse than my original writing because of the imagery I used.
The last important change I will be talking about is the type of poem I want to do. I had a lot of different options, however I wanted a type of poem that matched the style of what I was writing, a poem where I would have it structured about the fear I have. Disappointingly, I couldn’t find a good one for my poem. So I did mine in stanzas as a free write. If you take any part of my poem such as“Little did I know, I ran myself into a worse place than I was before; stuck between two walls, I feel The pressure on my shoulders. Squirming, I've tried everything But nothing works.” You can tell there is no rhyme, euphony, or even a poetic license, you only see freewrite, imagery, and maybe a simile In my poem. I did it this way because I feel like structure can limit you on certain subjects to write about, so I wanted to be as open as possible. This made my poem better by allowing me to be more diverse in my poem.
Genocide Project
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