Sunday, June 28, 2009

Poem…. How boring it is…. That used to be my thought, until I’ve learned something in this AUSMAT course about this so called ancient and traditional art of writing. Although I’ve learned literature components during my days at school, it didn’t however give any impact either on my feelings or my way of thinking concerning to it. All I knew on those days were to swallow and remember all the poets and their poems and some important facts relating to their works, so that I could vomit it out back during the exam. However, after my English teacher showed me some poems during English lesson created by poets that their names that I need not to remember, I felt as if the world turned around. I no longer live in a world of blindness. That English lesson on that particular day opened my eyes towards poetry world. Now, I’m learning to appreciate works done by poets as it is not easy to create a poem. The simplest poem that we can read is actually the hardest to produce. That’s what I can see through my lens. I don’t know about other people, but for me, poems are riddles created by the poets themselves by inviting and letting us to go into their world and those riddles could only be solved by letting ourselves walking in the poets’ shoes. It’s a wonderful feeling that we would likely get if we could solve one and we also would be restless if we can’t solve one. Poem is an art of writing and producing an art needs talent and creativity. One thing that still awe me until today is the method and ideas used by poets in presenting their works. Take this poem by Sylvia Plath. What could you conclude ? This is one awesome poem.

I’m a riddle in nine syllables

An elephant, a ponderous house,

A melon strolling on two tendrils.

O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!

This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising,

Money’s new-minted in this fat pursue.

I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf,

I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,

Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

*she is actually describing about herself of not being comfortable when she is pregnant. Awesome isn’t it…..??? nine syllables, nine lines and nine month of being pregnant. Describe as elephant,house,melon and etc.