Poetry Assignment 1

Due Wednesday, January 20

This assignment has two parts. The first part is a poem of between 100 and 150 words (we will look at some of the poems from previous quarters to get a sense for an appropriate length for a poem). The second part is a few sentences that interpret the poem. In other words, restate what the poem means. Type your poem and interpretation and hand it in during class on the 20th.

The broad topic of your first poem is your experience with rules or roles with respect to gender and sexuality. Hopefully the feedback for your Telling Your Story assignment will give you an idea for the first poem.

Here are a few guidelines:

  1. Most likely you will be transforming a story into a poem. There are two key differences between stories and poems. First, there are fewer words in poems, and every word must be absolutely necessary. Second, images instead of ideas should be the focus of your poem. Images are accessible by the senses - taste, touch, smell, hearing, and seeing. Note also that good images seem appropriate and not random.
  2. Do not use the words "gender" or "sexuality" in your poem.  The focus should be on an experience that is important for you.  You can leave it up to your audience and the class to come up with the relationship between your poem and the broader topic of gender and sexuality.
  3. More generally, avoid terms in the analytical glossary on the course web page. The analytical glossary was generated from your feedback to your group members' telling your story assignments. The terms in the glossary are mostly conceptual. You should aim for images rather than concepts.
  4. For this poem, focus on an aspect of gender or sexuality that is particularly meaningful for you.
  5. Focus on a specific scene where rules or roles concerning gender and/or sexuality were important.
  6. You should communicate your feelings about a role or rule.  It is ok if you have mixed or complicated feelings.
  7. Be clear about your addressees. Your addressee might be the person affected, parents/family, international students from your country, or students from your high school. Additionally, you should also think of Asian Americans like your classmates as your audience. However, make sure that you do not try to address everybody.

Several of you will be writing poems about other people. In that case you should use a frame. For example, the immediate scene for your poem might be your parents telling you a story, but the poem should be focused on the characters in the story your parents are telling.

For some of you it will be helpful for you to use stanzas like paragraphs. A stanza break can show a turning point so that you can illustrate how a situation changed. You could also use the stanza break to show contrasts between points of view.

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