Reflect Writing:

My writing process for this poem was, arguably, much messier than the rest. It was difficult for me not having a prompt to go off of, as I had way too many ideas in my head that took a lot of sorting. I began with an idea I had wanted to use in my last poem but couldn’t find a way to make it flow. I wanted to create a poem off this idea of 2 people falling in love – in a way, and connecting it to the changing seasons in nature, as the ending of their relationship was actually predicted by the nature of change. However, I had a difficult time connecting and finding the right way to convey these ideas, which lead to me restructuring entire stanzas through the drafting process to try doing it justice. I wanted to keep certain repetitive phrases, but eventually decided they were limiting the poem. By the end of the book, I had what felt like a completely different thing. In my final version, the time frame of the poetic relationship is set between the end of spring and end of summer, where a mutual love had a chance to bloom but couldn’t because the other person involved did not see or view it the same way. I’m not very content with this poem and would describe this drafting process as being frustrating. I would like to eventually go back to my original idea and take another shot at it.

Reflect bookmaking:

Forget the poem, the bookmaking process was even more frustrating for me. The poem I ended with did not have much imagery in it, which is part of the reason I am disappointed with its outcome. It was very difficult for me, not an artistic person, to try to visualize a way to express this poem. Some of the ideas I had included making the cover like a stained-glass window, but I didn’t really have the supplies for it, and I’d rather wait to spend money on the final project. I also had this idea of making the cover a sun crossed with a moon for the idea of star-crossed lovers, but I didn’t think it related as well to the final poem. I ended up decorating the cover with 3 panels of dawn, a midday, and dusk. I did this because in the poem, there is a bit of a story happening. The story could be explained as a failed summer love. Before the speaker knows the other person, they are hopeful, like the beginning of a new day. By the time they come in contact, the speaker feels like they are the one, only to be let down by their unreciprocated love. So on the cover I synchronized the changing time of day with the changing seasons from spring to fall. I didn’t include winter because the poem does not yet reach into that season and ends with the speaker acknowledging change is constant, and winter, or their grief, is going to come. I didn’t have much room to decorate the inside of the book, and since all of the versions were different (changing like seasons perhaps?) I did not include inside detail except underlining the key phrases I was trying to keep in mind during the drafting. Ironically, one of the words was “certainty”.

Final draft

Breadth of a love’s breath

In the dawn of May I had not known
anything of you with certainty.
But in the gloam of August I know with
certainty I am nothing to you, 
but your quiet summer dalliance.
I am stained - in a way 
by your transient breadth of love
in the shadow of my love's breath.

Though you were everything I had ever wanted,
nothing in nature stays the same,
nor cares what is wanted.