Confluence & Ode to My Muscles

Image description: A young woman seen from behind, clutching the top of her head. The muscles of her back are strained and ridges of her spine visible. From Pixabay.

I'm taking a break from Kevarya this week to showcase some recently rediscovered poetry from 2015. It's somewhat hard to believe that three years have passed since I wrote these, but in a way, it makes sense, since they had started to fade from my memory.

Both poems deal with the relationship between mind and body, exploring both the positive and negative sides of physical awareness. Confluence contains references to characters you may recognize from other posts, while Ode to My Muscles deals with a topic I've rarely touched upon here: my experience as a disabled person.

So, without further ado, here's...

Confluence &

Ode to My Muscles

New Interview! With Jordan Villegas

Image from http://themugcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/stock-footage-microphone-stage-view-of-microphone-shallow-dof.jpg, courtesy of the Google Machine.

Hello, all! So, a lovely teen author named Jordan Villegas (whom I met at the 2015 Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers) did an interview with me! Be sure to check it out, and stick around for the rest of the weekly interviews he'll be posting!

Learn what stories I'm working on, what books I'm reading, what I'd like my tombstone to say, and what exactly it would take to turn me into a Machiavellian mind-reading supervillain... with a conscience. (Hint: it's not much.)

So without further ado, I present to you...

teens who are awesome (and maybe also write):
Interview with Amanda Grace Shu

Listen

From http://www.cultbox.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Doctor-Who-Listen2.jpg, courtesy of the Google Machine. 'Tis a screenshot from the inspirationally well-written Doctor Who episode with which this essay shares its title.

I rarely write personal essays, and when one is assigned despite my protests, I make a conscious effort to write more about others--or, better yet, abstract concepts--than I do about myself. I don't know why, other that I'm a very private person. And yet, whenever I write about the characters I've created, or about the writing process in general, the resulting essay reveals more about me than I ever intended.

That's what ended up happening with this essay, "Listen". I wrote it as part of my college application, which I sent to six colleges, five of which accepted me. The college which I will be attending in the fall started their acceptance letter with a quote from the essay and a note on how deeply it resonated with their admissions staff. My parents' initial reaction was more along the lines of "...that's... different... very you, though." And I have to agree. "Listen" is a meditation on an integral part of my identity; it speaks to an experience that many and yet few share. And it is utterly, undeniably mine.

Enjoy.

Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Azure

Azurite and malachite, both of which appear in this poem. From http://www.roomservicestore.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/AzuriteMalachite2.jpg.

Azure

Career Goal Report: a pentametric poem in six parts

This, this is just sad. This is the page image for the Occupational Outlook Handbook's article on "How to Become A Writer or Author".  The caption? "Freelance writers may have to manage multiple assignments simultaneously." Gee, is that all?

 As a junior in high school, I get a lot of pressure about what I plan to do with my future. Usually, when the subject of college is brought up, I just pretend to have spontaneously transformed into a cat. However, a "Career Goal Report" was required for Physics class, so I grudgingly did some research about my chosen occupation, the marvelous and wonderful world of creative writing... and turned in this as my report.

Career Goal Report:

a pentametric poem in six parts

Hope for the Flowers

From http://wallpaperstock.net/butterfly-light_wallpapers_5363_1280x1024_1.html, courtesy of The Internet.

Because our city, our nation, and all our souls could certainly do with some hope.

Here is a video of me reading my poem "To Sing to a Butterfly" alongside composer Erik Gustafson's prelude of the same name (directly inspired by the poem) as part of a piano rededication service at Old South Church in Boston, my home church and the proudly-proclaimed Church of the Finish Line, just down the street from the site of Monday's explosions. The church is now closed off as part of the crime scene; we are denied access to the beautiful pianos and stained-glass windows lying just beyond the barricade. Every one of us is—just as everyone in and outside of the city is—shaken. Sometimes, it feels as if the world is coming to an end.

But there is a quote, a beautiful quote from an anonymous sage who knows that just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, she became a butterfly. "Shaken but not forsaken," Old South continues to worship as a community, graciously hosted by the Church of the Covenant a few blocks away. Today we walked together to the boundaries of the crime scene to reclaim our finish line by singing hymns. My life flows on in endless song, above Earth's lamentation. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. Guide my feet, hold my hand, wheel with me while I run this race. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine...

Just when we think the world is over, defeated by grief and hate and violence, we can be transformed—not returned to the way things were before, but transformed, like butterflies, into something beautiful and profound, something that brings hope to the flowers.

"For this is the truth all nature-singers know:
When you sing to a butterfly,
you sing to yourself as well,
and you know that all things are possible."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC_5S-8s_mc

*listen to more of Erik's gorgeous music at http://erikmusik.net/

Magniloquence

Taken from http://youthvoices.net/sites/default/files/image/10913/apr/selfesteem.png, courtesy of The Internet, as usual. Image apparently depicts all the labeling and pressure put upon young girls in the media that leads to low self-esteem— the very things that the speaker of this poem is attempting to defy in her "magniloquence."

High time for some optimistic poetry, eh?

I don't like to boast. No, really, I don't. That's not just me being modest. I don't like boasting.

That being said, this assignment for Creative Writing Class was deemed a "boast poem," though I prefer to think of it as a "confidence poem." Excuse any arrogance that you may perceive while reading this—it's part of the prompt, I swear. As was the rhyme scheme. And the number of lines. And the Maya Angelou and King Lear allusions, though I was happy to put those in.

Magniloquence

(or, A Boast of Epic Proportions)

Sonnet & Villanelle

Picture is taken from http://totheshore.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/quillpeninkwell1.jpg, courtesy of The Internet. (I seriously hope I don't get sued for that phrase sometime in the future.) It depicts a quill pen and ink, evoking Shakespearean sonnets. These poems are not quite the same as those.

Neither of the two poems I'm sharing with you today are exactly what their titles imply.

The first, a "sonnet," happens to be not of love, but of anger and even hate. Also, it is (somewhat mercifully) not directed towards a specific person, as many sonnets—be they romantic or accusatory—are. The second, a "villanelle," is written not in villanelle format, but in sonnet format. It too has a dark tone, though it is the lack of emotional articulation ability, rather than the presence, that lends it this. (It was written to be spoken in a play by an android incapable of feeling.) Grouping the two poems together is thus natural—both are melancholy sonnets that do not quite fit the connotations of their forms.

I seriously hope these poems do not upset you all.

Sonnet & Villanelle

For Maya and Matilda

From http://loveforliana.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/footprints-snow-love-for-liana.jpg, courtesy of The Internet. 'Tis a very lovely image, methinks, and evocative of certain phrases from this poem.

Poetry fans, you're in luck--the next several posts on this blog will contain a plethora of poetry, as I have recently had to complete two collections of poetry for school. The assignment for this one was to write a poem in the style of another, more famous poet, so I have attempted to imitate the poetic style of the inestimable Maya Angelou.

Another inspiration for this poem was the story of Matilda, Lady of the English. I don't think you have to know her story to understand the poem, but it might help.

For Maya and Matilda

Moment

Yes, this is me and my brother. From the back, to conceal our identities, obviously.

Make way for memoir! Make way for memoir!

Yes, I have as of recently been exploring the treacherous waters of the nonfiction genre, if by "recently" you mean "in July, at Smith," and have made a wary but definite peace treaty with personal experience writing, if only for a little while. I've actually been meaning to post this for some time, but I couldn't figure out how to get the picture in until today...

Posted to the Teen Ink website August 1st, 2012. And even featured on the front page of the entire Nonfiction section! I have a screencap as proof.

With the little VIP sticker next to my name, no less!

I hope you enjoy it!

Moment

Autobiographical Poems

Image taken from http://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/images/Morningsuncrop.jpg, courtesy of The Internet. The picture depicts morning sunlight, the kind that I wish I could wake up to every day.

It's time for a poetry post!

Here are two poems, both written in eighth grade, both results of school assignments, both about creating art, specifically writing, and both autobiographical. Or at least semi-autobiographical. Oddly enough, both of them also have connections to The Hunger Games (a book series which, as you can probably tell by now, I adore): the title of the first, "Mockingjay," references the third book of the series and the fictional creature that book is named after; the second, a work known only as "A pad of yellow paper," has a poetic style similar to an excellent poem, "Brokens," that is a fanfiction of The Hunger Games. I mimicked the style intentionally, and if that offends the author of the fanfiction in any way, then I humbly apologize.

"A pad of yellow paper" was published in the June issue of my middle school's school newspaper.

"Mockingjay" & "A pad of yellow paper"