This week we went over different forms of poetry, creating it and finally writing about poetry. Although I find it easier to analyze poetry than writing it, analyzing poetry has allowed me to better understand how I can use poetic elements in my own writing. Before writing about poetry, my poems lacked structure and although I would categorize them as free verse, my poems lacked elements that would give them a poetic feel. I realized how language and structure create a poem and give it a feel that has to be accomplished in a few lines. After writing about poetry, I learned how I can use certain elements in my poems that will help give the poem a deeper meaning compared to simple words describing an event. Finally, after creating our piece, our class participated in reading our work aloud which gave me an awareness of language and poetic structure. Hearing everyone's piece was also interesting because it gives you an idea of how creative and personal poems can be depending on the writer. Although I enjoy analyzing poems over writing one, I will say that having ownership over the work I created is better than never truly knowing if my analysis aligns with the writer's interpretation.
The process of writing about poetry, to then writing my own poetry is a structure I can use in my teachings because it can help students understand poetic elements. While learning how to analyze poems is important, creating poems will allow the elements of poetry to be better understood and carried throughout their school years. In learning to recognize these elements, students will be able to analyze poems and later use these elements to enhance their own poems.
When writing my own poem for class, I reflected on the current state of the world focusing on the mass deportations that have been happening in Los Angeles, particularly in Latino communities. Coming from immigrant parents whom came here with hopes of living a better life and giving their children better opportunities, it saddens me to see how people are being targeted and categorized as criminals for simply being Latino. While no one has to agree with my perspective, this is my experience and the events that led to me writing this piece. When creating my poem, I thought about money, and how money has been the main incentive to get anyone to apply to become an I.C.E agent. In addition to money, the simplicity of my poem comes from the idea that only uneducated people become I.C.E agents. I wanted my poem to be an easy read that reiterates the idea that the actions committed by these people are not because they care about the law but because money drives them to become puppets for the government. Not only are they puppets controlled by the government, I wanted my poem to capture them as animals who attack out of hunger. They are hungry for money which leads them to follow orders regardless of how they are dehumanizing people. While my poem might seem like a homage to these agents, the title and structure reflects how I truly feel about what they are doing and how their animalistic actions mirror their lack of humanity and how they treat others for the sake of money.
Here is my poem:
F*CK I.C.E
Fuel me with money and see how quick I run.
Use me to hunt, and I will get the job done.
Cash me out, and you will see what I’m about.
Kids, rodents, families, criminals, anything you want out.
Insert money in me and watch me attack.
Constitutional rights, I don’t know a thing about that!
Evacuating, terrorizing, and tyrannizing the innocent is what I am good at!
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