Skip The Chip?

Roses.

I was brilliant
like picking a stubborn rose
and pricking my lovely fingers

I was gentle
like stoking a soft, dying rose
with my lovely fingers

I was dead
I buried the rose
soil on my lovely fingers.

"How could you?" I asked her- she bandaged my pricked fingers.
"How could you?" I asked him- he put my dying rose in water.
"How could you?" I asked myself.

what to wish for

i have come to realize
that i approach life

with the assumption
that i will fail

but not very badly;

with the assumption
that i will try

very badly;

with the assumption
that i am objective

that i need to be;

with the assumption
that no one will like me

for good reason;

with the assumption
that tomorrow things will be better

but life is a string of todays;

with the assumption
that the future is unalterable

yet written in sand;

with the assumption
that i will be great someday

and no one will know;

and i wont care because
great
people
don't.

i throw pennies into wishing wells
with the assumption
that the penny
and ninety-nine prettier pennies
can be drawn up again
and made into a dollar.

although i am but a penny

in a world of golden ceasars

i can make a dollar.

(i assume)

When I Pass a Soldier By

I know exactly what you mean,

I know exactly what you mean,


i say- for



your fingers

reached around my ribcage

and tapped

a cymbal

and a gong



in my unexplored

resevoirs.



(beat)

today was a LONG day

www.facebook.com/rookieoftheyear

Do I sound self-important? Eew.

Hey! We don't really know each other but I get your poetry posts. I'm making a book for my personal project this summer and I'm just confused about one thing. I don't understand where commas and periods and capital letters are supposed to go in a poem. Is there like a rul that periods go at the end of each stanza or something? It's been so long since we went all over this in school.
Well if you can help I'd be so grateful.
You're a great poet and I can't wait to read more of your work!
Thanks,
Olivia


***

Olivia,

I don't know where I know you from. I'm glad you like my posts! But to answer your question-

The whole point of poetry, especially modern poetry, is being able to say what you want however you want. Great poets (I mean the really good ones) watch every comma and period and capital because it all has to mean something- punctuation has a lot to do with how a poem flows.

If you want an example of a great poet using capitals and punctuation really well, read this poem - http://lovepoems.yu-hu.com/cummings/since_feeling_is_first.shtml Do you see how he only uses 3 capital letters? One is to make Spring feel like a person, another is to replace quotation marks, and the last one, the And, is to make sure we know this is the concluding line. He doesn't use punctuation marks at all in the normal way- to separate ideas he puts them on different lines. Where he does use punctuation it's to show where natural pauses go, and also to change meaning a little bit.

Here's another example-

Say we made up a haiku.

Olivia, you
typed to me across the sea-
Commas? Capitals?

Now, if we wanted to change the meaning-

Olivia? You
typed to me! Across the sea;
commas, capitals

and it would completely change the meaning. Before it sounded like you were making an inquiry, now it sounds like I'm excited to see you again, no matter what we talk about. And there, were only using capitals because we were starting sentences. We could maybe do-

OLIVIA! you
typed- to me. ACROSS (the sea)
: commas ; capitals :

Then we would be using the first capitals to make me sound like I'm yelling, and the other ones to quote your typing. I'm not even pretending like this one could make any sense at all :P

I hope I showed you that the little differences do matter- but that the only rule is do what you want. Now, if you're writing a more formal poem you might have to pay more attention to sentences and the punctuation that goes with it, but in most poetry you're okay as long as you're happy with what you've written.

I hope this helped a little bit- I would love to read some of your poems!

-Emily

Same thing, better quality.

Hey, Lady Gaga!

What if you weren't famous? from coolstudyguides on Take180.com

Annie and the Unicorn

Underwater

vlog for csg

Day One of Describe Your Room

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51768894@N04/

Prayer for the day.

Dear God,

I know you can be both nice and mean.

But I was surprised when you handed me candy

just to take it away again

I guess I needed the lesson

but

God.

Interlochen Reference :)

The Shower Opera from coolstudyguides on Take180.com

hey hey hey wanna do me a favor?

For all three of you reading this, sign up and vote and favorite!

Submission of Awesomeness from coolstudyguides on Take180.com