The assignment was to create an original poem, but I took it one step further. I decided to improvise the entire thing!

Now, I do actually write poetry and I wouldn’t call what I did here anything special. BUT I do think this was an interesting challenge for me. Maybe later in the semester I’ll continue to mess around with audio assignments like these. I used my computer’s audio recorder to pick up the sound and, honestly, this took about 5 minutes to complete. I gave myself a couple of tries before I settled on the idea of improvisation, which ultimately lead to our final (beautiful) product.

Here it is!

For my next trick, and therefore, my second task worth three-and-a-half stars instead of four, I wrote, and recited, an original poem based on the themes of Mitchell’s Hot Topics; this poem focused on the red, orange and yellow coloring scheme the site largely has, up to, and including, the chrysanthemum background, and how said flower resembled the illusion of dancing flames. The poem was aptly named “Atomic Garden,” after the Bad Religion song of the same name, and focuses on my on-again, off-again ability to comprehend current events, both at home and abroad, as well as my personal anxieties and long-standing fear of letting others down, if not myself; even now, I still suspect that doing what I think is right could still lead to my destruction, a behavioral pattern I’m trying to stop.

Why in the world should I be afraid,
Of Father Time giving me a failing grade,
When I’d rather stop to smell the flowers,
Than talk of the latest outrage for hours?
It isn’t like the neighbors will decide
When I can run, and where to hide.

I want to be where the people are,
But I don’t think they’d even want to see me from afar.
I want to be heard on the grandest stage,
But I fear what I say will unleash someone’s rage.
It isn’t that I’m bad at my craft. I’m not,
But these days, it seems that everyone’s getting caught.

The thing is, in darkness, there must be light.
In times of hunger, we must take a bite.
I have to stop being so paranoid,
About this so-called heart-shaped void.
There are issues to address! The people must know!
Stop hiding in your past, kid. Let everything show!

Well, if it will help me stop being so shy,
I’ll tell you my one true reason why.
The things that give me the most terrible fright
Are the things we don’t notice, because they’re hidden in plain sight.
The crysanthemum, that you hold in your hand,
Is perdition’s flame, burning alongside time’s sand.

Through the sunbeams in the leaves
the sturdy trunks support the sky.
Birds chirp quips about you as you walk.
Through the forest of yellow fog,
a hazy sea with swirls of green,
shadows stretching out their arms,
reaching out to lead you deeper.
I’ve long been in these woods, the heat
oppressive, the sense of my existence
Underwhelming. I walk, not to escape,
not to go deeper, not to forget
or remember. I walk through these woods
to hear the birds and the trees,
to feel the shadows comfort me.

I decided to do the Recite an Original Poem audio assignment, because it intrigued and attracted me. It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything with poetry, aside from occasionally reading and analyzing it, so I was very excited to get to stretch my fingers and mind and come up with something. For this assignment, you have to write a poem that matches your blog’s theme, and then just record it, without anything fancy. Just how you would describe your blog, and a plain recording of you reading it.

The hardest part was, of course, writing the poem. What I created is still rather raw (most of the things I create do not get the amount of polish they really need), but I think that suits the theme of my blog. I’m very open about my emotions and certain things, and I don’t necessarily try to censor what I say, but it is buried and vague sometimes.

There needed to be a focus on the appearance of my blog, of course, and that was easy to accomplish. It’s just trees. What I really wanted to do in this poem is have that sense of uneasiness that I think comes with some of my blog posts. There’s always something introspective about them, where I’m just kind of talking to myself about my problems. I figured a walk through a slightly unsettling forest would be a fun idea. I invite the reader to follow along, but you don’t have to if you’d rather not walk through a shadowy mindscape.

For the process:

It was really easy. Just write up the poem (possibly difficult if you don’t like poetry, which I find that a surprising amount of people don’t), and then record it in Audacity. Unfortunately, my recording equipment (which is honestly just a set of headphones) is a little wonky, which is why the sound gets muddled and watery for a line or two, but it happened every time I recorded, so we’ll just have to pretend it’s fine.

For fun: a drabble based around this assignment, posted on my Personal tumblr “blog” (excuse the untidiness of the layout, I have to work on it)