The prompt

Struggling to get through everything.

Trying to finish it all by the deadline.

Everything is overwhelming.

Should I eat before everything is done?

Should I sleep before everything is done?

Everything is fine. I have to make them believe everything is fine.

Drowning, drowning, going down.

Oh right, my theater homework. I forgot. Put it on the list.

Undo that, it’s not good enough.

This will never be good enough.

Normally, while I study or do homework, I play instrumental music in the background to help me focus. While I was shuffling between playlists today, I stumbled on an ocean sounds white noise video on YouTube. (Ok? And? … just keep reading. this will make more sense when you read my assignment) While I was in a zen mood opening up the DS106 assignment bank I decided to start with a writing assignment because I love to write.

I opened the Write a poem assignment which basically instructed me to read a poem about emotions and to write a poem about how we were feeling at the moment. This is the poem I wrote: in fact, I was so proud of it, I posted it on my Twitter:

Following the tide 

I ran and I ran and I ran and I ran 

And I ran some more. 

Until my ankles got sore 

Until my knees could do nothing but fold 

Until my feet were blistered 

Until my sole was surely torn

But I had to keep running, I had to hide 

I had to do everything I can, I had to do everything to survive 

It’s gonna swallow me with its mouth open wide 

So i kept running and running away from the big scary tide. 

It continued to taunt me with its deafening roar 

It wanted so badly to swallow me whole 

I ran and I ran away from the tide 

I didn’t stand a chance

At least that’s what i thought 

I ran and I hid, just trying to survive

I wish i had the courage to fight, I wish the lion in me had come alive 

I should have fought back. 

Why did I have to run? Why did I try to hide? 

I should’ve seen the tide as an invitation to go for a ride 

I would’ve been able to get to the other side. 

The other side where magic exists and dreams come true 

was at the tip of my fingers but I let it slip through. 

In the next life, I know to chase, to hunt, to do anything but hide, in the next life I will follow the tide. 

This entire week, well actually the past 2 weeks… no the past 3 weeks… I feel like I have been extremely overwhelmed with things to do. I had to get everything in order and pack after my trip to Ethiopia then I had to come back home, unpack my stuff from Ethiopia, then pack once again to come to campus. Not to mention the number of things I had to do to start my semester like ordering my textbooks, getting my supplies, getting my booster shot, my COVID test, reading through all of my syllabi. Then, I had to answer the emails that I missed while I was in Ethiopia and I organized my calendar and made my agenda. And even though we are only on the second week of classes, I feel like we are on the 5th, in terms of the amount of workload I have had the first two weeks.

In short, I felt like I was drowning in work. I felt like there was a tide chasing me and I was on the brink of drowning. As such, my poem was inspired by how overwhelmed I was as well as the ocean sounds I had playing in the background while I was working.

I feel like my poem reflects my optimistic values. I felt like I was being chased by a “tide” yet I end the poem by saying, “In the next life,  I know to chase, to hunt, to do anything but hide, in the next life I will follow the tide.”

This assignment, or shall I say the product of this assignment, my poem, goes hand in hand with our class’s theme of the Joy of Painting. While I didn’t grab a canvas and a brush to write my poem, I was able to use my words to paint a picture of how I was feeling. That is the “Joy of Painting”, the joy of art allows us to express ourselves in such a deep and meaningful way.

For this writing assignment, I chose to write a poem (three stars). However, I was also inspired by another post (also three stars) which used a random word generator as a basis of the content. I decided to do a blend of these topics, taking ten words from the random word generator and attempting to use one word in each line of a poem. This was a bit tricky due to some of the words I was given but ultimately, due to the interpretive nature of poetry, it was quite freeing. Instead of literal meaning, I focused more on the rhythm of words, alliteration, etc. However, I do think there could be potential meaning in what I came up with, I simply don’t intend to set it in stone with my own interpretation.

My randomly generated words were:

1. blame
2. destiny
3. subway
4. charade
5. hills
6. even
7. paralyzed
8. adopter
9. kingdom
10. flimsy

Here’s what I came up with:

An early adopter
Of any charade
That made him feel even with God
A spiritual subway
With no one to blame
A kingdom even he would applaud
Flimsy fickle fingers
Paralyzed in fear
His destiny awaits him
Beyond rolling hills of tragedy