Poem 1

The heavens beckon,

Inviting you with open arms.

Lavender fading into blue.

The rich velvety air,

Only interrupted by a wistful draft.

You attempt to stop time,

Hoping to seize the moment,

Frame it for eternity.

But we all know,

that with every peak,

follows its undoing.

the heavens turn to hell,

mutating to a murky black,

the air deathly still,

suffocating,

fracturing your dreams,

snapping you out of your daze

This is the first poem I have written in a while, and I can't say I did it alone. The nonstop poetry we have been reading and analyzing for the past few weeks definitely influenced my perspective on what I thought my final poem should finally look like. I also drew inspiration from other places, some poems, some books, and namely my life. 

I recently finished the novel Caraval, which is partially written in purple prose, so I wanted to try that throughout my poem. Purple prose is basically embellishing your language by making it flowery and ornate, and I thought that was a good way to describe the scene and lay out metaphors. In the first stanza, I tried mimicking "From Blossoms," and the beautiful descriptions Lee used to describe peaches. I wanted to portray a tranquil and dreamy moment. A moment where you look off into the horizon, and just notice how perfect the sky is. Where you sort of lose yourself in the moment. The second stanza is where the speaker realizes the fleeting nature of that moment and the desperation of wanting to preserve that moment sets in. The last stanza is supposed to complete that shift, and completely break that perfect image, showing the unexpectedness of life. In the end, trying to pick a single title to represent my poem seemed too daunting of a task, so taking inspiration from Shakespeare's sonnets, I creatively titled this poem "Poem 1." 

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience of (trying) to write a poem. It was a nice change from simply writing prose and analysis all the time. With that, I'm looking forward to the next time I get to write a poem, hopefully, where I can draw less inspiration from outside sources and more inspiration from within myself.