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Explanation of What Inspired My Poetic Works

There are five poems in my collection, including one Shakespearean sonnet, two free verse poems, one “We Real Cool Remix” poem and one current events poem. The poetry themes are diverse, ranging from describing about a friend, thoughts about poetry, ice cream written bilingually to personal perspective on what is considered nonconforming about students nowadays and the current US-China trade war.

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Starting with the “Poetry from a Reader’s Perspective” poem, it expresses my thoughts about poetry, which is also a response to Nikki Giovanni’s “Poetry.” I totally agree with what Giovanni said about poetry, which is the powerful ability to convey emotions, such as happiness, anger, sorrowfulness and so forth. The freedom of expressing feelings also led me to think of how diverse subjects of poetry are, which can be everything. Besides, one thing I can add to her poem comes from the reader’s perspective, which is the difficulties in understanding poems. However, by composing poems by myself, I realize that sometimes, poets do not want to trick us at all, but with a strictly prescribed rules, they have no choice other than writing something which do not make sense.

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Next, along with a classmate, we composed a bilingual poem focusing on ice cream. It is a food that we both love, which helps to us to easily come up with ideas to write about. Ice cream is sweet, yet it helps the brain work more effectively by its carbohydrate. Also, we chose ice cream as our theme because while taking the Maymester class, it is almost summer with such a boiling weather. Ice cream is an indispensable food to eat when we feel so thirsty.

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Perhaps, writing the sonnet is the most difficult one, not just because we must follow such a strict rule about rhyme scheme, the iambic parameter and prescribed contents in each stanza, but also to come up with a metaphor. In my poem, “A Touchable Star,” I was inspired by stars in the night sky to compare with my friend, Thu, in Vietnam. Thu is quite slim, tall, enlightens me lots of things, which is the same I feel about stars. Looking from the Earth, they are quite tiny even though, in fact, they are not. Additionally, they are shiny, and when I look at them, I must look up to the sky, just like what I did with Thu because she is taller than me. Another similarity is that it is impossible to reach a star, which holds true to Thu because given the fact that I am studying abroad, I cannot meet her.

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Next, in my remix version of “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, the nonconforming subject I chose to write about the is the group of rebellious students because it is relatable to me, who has witnessed these things for almost 13 years. I was triggered by their disruptive behaviors since it takes teachers a lot of time to deal with and makes me not concentrated on the lessons. However, what I wrote about was quite personal, because I believe what considered inappropriate in my culture would be accepted here, in a much freer society.

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Last, my current events poem talks about the trade war between the US and China now. It is worth concerning because it affects our life, since we are a part of the economy. When tariff is imposed, consumers lose because we are no longer to buy cheaper imported products, which in turn, allows domestic firms to raise the price.