My Mother Used to Say
What is the TITLE and what is the significance of the TITLE?
‘My Mother Used to Say’ was the first piece that explored “darker” topics such as suicide; that being said, I didn’t want to have a dark title so I chose ‘My Mother Used to Say’ which is also repeated throughout the piece.
In 17 words summarize what your piece is about in terms of theme and what happens.
This piece is about one girl’s struggle with mental health as a result of the bullying in high school and the rejection of a first love.
What was your purpose and audience for your piece?
The purpose of this piece was to bring attention to how important it is to be kind everyone, you never know how your words may impact someone. In terms of audience, I intended for this blog to be read by as many people as possible so I put it up on this blog.
What/who influenced the creation of your written product?
There are multiple inspirations for this piece such as the following quote:
“Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud” – Maya Angelou
I also pulled inspiration from my own experiences with bullying and how it impacted my mental health and ability to succeed in school. Additionally, while scrolling through Instagram one night, I saw the quote “Strong women begin as girls” which was a major source of inspiration for this piece and my entire blog.
Discuss the craft/ style decisions you made, provide examples.
I chose to focus on style and imagery while writing this piece because I believe that I can write well when using them. For example, I repeated the lines
” My mother used to say that strong women begin as broken girls”
“Endless daydream”
“Just point and shoot”
I believe that through repetition specific themes are being reiterated, in my piece, I chose to repeat these lines to add to the mania and darkness of the piece.
I also to be quite descriptive in this piece, in order to paint pictures in the readers’ mind, as exemplified here:
“Maybe her soul is too far gone – lying in shatters at her feet?”
Discuss your process for experimentation, revision, and feedback and any epiphanies you achieved.
Originally, this piece was much much longer because I had chosen to explore the girl’s relationship with her “lover”; however, I edited this out because this piece isn’t about him, it is about her journey and how she is affected. An epiphany that I achieved was the importance of repetition and despite how simple it might sound it can transform a piece and make it more lyrical and beautiful.
In terms of feedback I was given the idea of exploring more opportunities to add style into the work; unfortunately, I have yet to do that.
Ephemerality of Love
What is the TITLE and what is the significance of the TITLE?
I chose to title this piece “Ephemerality of Love” because of my URL – EphemeralLove. Also, I realized that a lot of my poetry deals with the concept of love and how short it lasts.
In 17 words summarize what your piece is about in terms of theme and what happens.
This piece is about the characteristics of love such as time. It is written in Haiku and flash poetry and reads as a spine poem.
What was your purpose and audience for your piece?
The purpose of this piece is was to share my perspective on love. Which is one full of inexperience and innocence which is new to a lot of people. I am writing on a topic that I have virtually no experience with.
What/who influenced the creation of your written product?
Hope’s blog was a source of inspiration, specifically her flash poetry section ‘Heart Murmurs’, ‘Wishbones’, and ‘Birthmarks’. I have always adored Hope’s flash poetry which inspired me to write some of my own.
Discuss the craft/ style decisions you made, provide examples.
The first half of this piece is written in Haiku whereas the second half is a collection of flash poetry. I was also given an idea to create a spine poem down the middle of the piece, it read as:
Love is
a sliver
embracing
the past wonder
searching for
a
place where
we live as one
soon a
haunting
full of
the pain of
an ending
this is love.
I also chose the titles of each poem to read as a continuation of the previous poem, thus adding more fluidity into the piece.
Discuss your process for experimentation, revision, and feedback and any epiphanies you achieved.
I was given a lot of feedback on this piece and when I went to revise it, the piece transformed into one of my favorites. I edited the titles of each poem and added in the spine poem. I also edited my diction in order to fit more with the theme of love and add to the spine poem.
Dearest Victoria,
What is the TITLE and what is the significance of the TITLE?
The title is quite simple because I wanted readers to easily identify the piece as a letter.
In 17 words summarize what your piece is about in terms of theme and what happens.
This is a letter that depicts the type of year that I have had this year. I hope to one day read it when I have grown past this period.
What was your purpose and audience for your piece?
The purpose of this piece is to serve as a reminder (for myself) about how hard grade eleven has been, but also as a source of growth that shows how far I have come throughout the year. I orginally intended to keep this post to myself, but I ended posting it because I don’t to hide my feelings, anymore.
What/who influenced the creation of your written product?
This piece is mostly a compilation of various pieces I had in my journal, and most are inspired by the funk I have been in and how I have been feeling this past year.
Discuss the craft/ style decisions you made, provide examples.
I was given the idea to start and end each paragraph with similar themes such as
“I know that at seventeen-years-old” … “This I know.”
“I want you to get this letter”… “This is what I want – the best.”
I also feel that this piece is the perfect example of how much my style has improved.
Discuss your process for experimentation, revision, and feedback and any epiphanies you achieved.
This piece is one that I had heavily edited because I was the most self-conscious about posting it. I was scared of being judged about what I was going through and how it made me feel. I ended up changing the order of the paragraphs around multiple times, in addition to editing every paragraph until I was completely happy with it.
