response to 2 peer's reflection essay, 150words for each

· When you’re responding to a reflective essay draft, make observations on how detailed the author is being about how s/he describes craft elements. For example, describing plot situation, rising action, climax, and resolution is detailed. Simply describing a plot is not detailed. Describing specific rhyme schemes (end rhyme, internal rhyme, near rhyme or perfect rhyme) is detailed. Just saying rhyme is used or not is not detailed.

· Note questions about the focus, organization, or content of the draft. Be sure to explain why the work raises your questions (in other words, don’t ask questions just for the sake of asking questions). Look for areas in the work that make you curious or confused and develop questions from that.

· Make suggestions on the focus, organization, details, or content of the essay as you see fit.

Reflection 1:

The topic of my poetry began as an affixation with folk lore and cryptids, such as skin walkers, Mothman, and the Jersey Devil. What began as a fun way to write about spooky things I found enjoyment in, became a way for me to convey a very particular emotion or feeling. I tried to make anyone who would read or listen to this set of poetry feel the way I did when I wrote it originally; a sort of dissociative state of mind, a numbness in your gut, and a comfort through your arms and legs. I feel that my goal in a lot of my writing now is to put onto paper the hypnotic state I feel when I read something powerful.

The revisions I made to the first poem, “Hell Town,” was very hard for me. It feels like a very personal piece to me, but after making the changes at the end, I feel it is exceptionally stronger and fits with the rest of the poem.

“Night Time, My Time,” is about a skinwalker, which is a witch from Navajo culture. Skinwalkers today are portrayed as sort of creatures that mimic and steal from animals and people. Although the skinwalker this poem is about is obviously of an evil nature, I wanted her movements to be read as feminine. I did this by using alliteration and some repetition, which I feel makes the poem feel silky. I feel this poem is related mostly to the LGBT+ community. I have a lot of empathy for trans people, especially transwomen. Transgender people often relate to “villains” in classic cinema, and I wanted to portray that in this piece. A trans woman is constantly trying to find her skin and fit in to a society that makes her feel like a villain.

“Moth flu in,” one of my untitled poems, is shorter. I wanted to convey the feeling of heartbreak and loneliness one can feel even as a child. I was very inspired by “The Yellow Wallpaper” and the two poems by e.e. Cummings. I wanted this poem to “feel” the same. To attempt to achieve the same “feeling,” I not only created a depressed and ill female character, but I also attempted to create a rhythm that feels somewhat like a song or a lullaby, much like how e.e. Cummings poems sound.  I used the word “flu” as the moth’s action because the girl who was sad is actually going to become ill. The moth is not real, as my motif of monsters/folklore/cryptids go, it is a sort of omen or sign that the girl will get sick and die.

My weakness in writing it developing a rhythm and rhyme. I feel that not all poetry needs to have an exact rhythm, but it does feel better when spoken aloud. Even if the rhythm is off, it should be purposeful. This is what I need to develop. My strong suit, I feel, is creating imagery, symbolism, and sometimes word choice. I always try to create a hidden message in my writing because I am a relatively honest person in real life.

Reflection 2:

My poetry comes from my heart. It comes from not only my experiences, but the experiences of my boyfriend as well. When I did my first poem "Growing in Time", which is about my pregnancy so far, I felt like I was getting a lot of emotions out. The deeper I made the poem the more connected I felt, the more heart I put into it. I wanted anyone who read it to feel the emotion I feel becoming a first time mother. After I started into the other poems it felt as if emotion was just pouring out of me. I started getting inspiration from little things, that turned into bigger things. 

Revising my poetry was sort of a struggle. It is a challenge when you read something one way, and not everyone else reads it the same as you. I had to make some decent changes to make sure my readers were on the same page as me. Which, I think worked out well.

My most favorite poem I wrote so far is, "Hard Working Love". That poem is about my amazing boyfriend who means so much to me. He works so hard everyday for our family and never gives less than 100%. I cried multiple times writing this poem because it was so meaningful and made me cherish him a little extra that day! 

For my writing I tried to get every one of my readers to feel deep emotion. The deep emotion that I feel or that I know my boyfriend feels. I feel like choosing the poetry route was the right move for me to really express different feelings that I have as a writer. It did get hard sometimes, and I did struggle with putting too much or too little detail. For the most part, I am beyond happy with my work.