#2 ‘Why’

“Poetry is the conversation your soul has with the world when you decide to start telling the truth.”

-Anisa Nanduala

Over the past few weeks a lot has happened in class, and my attitude towards poetry, as well as my beliefs about it have changed quite a bit.

Since I last posted, we been to the Brisbane writers festival, and seen a phenomenal poet, had a workshop with an incredibly talented guest speaker, and had a crack at writing some of our own poetry. While some of these things were more successful than others (it’s safe to say I’m no Oscar Wilde), they have all influenced how I think and feel about poetry.

First, we had Angela Pieta come in as a guest speaker, which was undoubtedly a really fun lesson for everyone. Somehow, she managed to transform us from 18 kids, who didn’t think they were creative, to 18 poets, writing about school being placebo medication. Angela showed me that poetry, can be about whatever I want it to be about, and there is no right or wrong way to write a poem.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite enough to make me an incredible poet, and when we started writing poetry in class, my first few, were pretty rough. To start, I wrote a metaphor poem, about metaphors. I compared metaphors to sand, music and a computer. I also managed to rhyme computer, with router. However, with more practise, I am happy to say that I definitely improved, and with that, my confidence in writing poetry skyrocketed.

Finally, we went to the Brisbane Writers Festival, and while the poet we were there to see, couldn’t make it, his replacement, exceeded all our expectations. Anisa Nanduala shared some of her poems with us , gave us some handy tips, and asked us all some pretty tricky questions. While I couldn’t personally relate to the things she spoke about through her poetry, the way she wrote them made me feel like I was right there next to her in every situation she described. During the talk, she asked us about our ‘why’. Why do we write poetry? What is important to us? What are we passionate about? I don’t really know my ‘why’ yet. There are so many different reasons I write, and it will be hard to narrow it down to just one, but I can see why knowing your ‘why’ would be so important to give you direction.

It 8 weeks into this unit, and the question of why we turn to poetry at key moments of our lives is still out there. A new answer I have been introduced to is ‘truth’. Poetry is the easiest way to share the truth, how you truly feel, and who you truly are, but maybe we turn to poetry at key moments in our life for different reasons, maybe, just like the. definition of poetry, there is no one answer, maybe everyone has a different reason, and maybe, your ‘why’ is your reason.