“Power Is”
Keagan Felker Power is a drug- It is addicting. When placed in the wrong hands, Power can have history-altering effects. Possession by a dictator-type figure Has the potential to create drastic, negative consequences. Power… Is the media. It is the truth And the lies They may portray… When the media is brimming with power, It could evolve into how Any genocide Can be sparked- By the media and their negative messages Like a wildfire, swallowing the pines in flames- Killing and burning everything in its destructive path. Power is the ability To tell the truth Or lies to the Innocent. Power has the ability To help or harm Any individual Or group of beings. Power holds the high chance of being misused At some point in the process. Whether it is utilized in the act of helping Or hurting a population. Power… Is having the motive To start a war… Having the strength To fight the war… Having the skill To start Separating the truth… From the lies… Creating the peace That ends wars. Power is having the advantage Of peace aid you during any fight. Power doesn’t always have to take the side of the wicked. It all depends on whose hands it is placed in Or taken from... Power doesn’t always have to have a negative side… It can be as constructive or destructive as it is allowed to be. Power is whatever you make it. |
Keagan Felker
The poetic techniques I used in this poem were mainly symbols, metaphors, enjambment, and similes. I used enjambment so I could have the effect of emphasizing certain words or phrases. I also used symbolism and metaphors/similes to show representation and comparison of certain objects and events. For example, I used symbolism in my first stanza when I compare power to a dictator in the way it can take over and never let up. I also use a metaphor when I say, “power is a drug-it is addicting”. I'm using drugs to show how addicting and dangerous power can turn out to be. In addition, I used bolding, spacing, and italics to emphasize certain phrases and words as well for a greater effect on the reader. My inspiration was the “Rock On” poem we heard earlier this year. At first, I started off forming my poem around my tredecim and the phrases, metaphors, and similes I initially used to create my first draft. My poem was one of the first two to get critiqued by my classmates and Lori. It was actually very, very helpful-I enjoyed the constructive criticism and all the great feedback I received on my poem draft. Since then, I’ve refined, and refined, and refined-and I am STILL refining my poem so that it can become the best I can make it. I want it to be very impacting for the reader. I also want to give the reader some pros and cons for power and how it affects people and societies. For the art and presentation aspect of my poem, I am planning on hopefully creating some kind of cutout or sculpture of some sort portraying the negative side of power and the dictatorship aspect by including Hitler and Stalin with a tank or army or something of that sort. For the peace and positive aspect of this poem and presentation, I plan on including a dove flying, and some other symbols for peace that show it’s strongest aspects and what represent it most. |
Humanities Poetry Project Reflection
Keagan Felker The perspective of my poem that I communicated had evolved into a more sophisticated piece over time, because of every critique I received from my peers and teacher; Tyler and I volunteered to be the first two to be included in the first group critique. By being the “test guinea pigs”, we were judged by the whole class and Lori. This meant that we each got critiqued about 20 different times and got a ton of copies of our poems back. They all included what the reader thought were the strongest and weakest points of our poem. Whether the strongest was our use of poetic devices, or how our poem was formatted and the weakness could include how we lacked poetic devices or how our poem needed more content on our subject. There were a wide array of topics we could’ve written on, from truth and war to power and peace. Like I was saying; my poem about power was highly impacted by the peer critiques and the comments and feedback that I received by my fellow students around me and my family when I let them read over it. It started out with just ideas from the tredecim we had written prior to this project. Since my first draft, I had probably taken out at least 1/2 of the original poem then strengthened each stanza by starting each with the phrase “Power Is” or the word Power. I also changed a most of the stanzas so they could include metaphors or symbols. One of the three most important changes that I made to my poem were that I added metaphors and similes to some stanzas so that it didn’t sound so much like an essay; so it was more poetic and so it would flow better. An example of how I used a simile to enhance my poem, was when I added one to the end of a stanza comparing the media to a wildfire; “…How any genocide can be sparked…By the media and their negative messages-like a wildfire, swallowing the pines in flames, killing and burning everything in it’s destructive path”. By changing this and making these additions, it added emphasis not only for the audience, but myself as well. Another change I made was that I used more prominent spacing, bolding, and italics so that I could emphasize what I mainly wanted to get across to the reader or audience. In my first draft, I didn’t utilize the spacing or any other type of different formatting for my poem. In my final draft though, I used it as much as I could just for a good reading experience. For example, I used all three in this piece of my poem talking more about the media and how they impact the power of the world; “Power…Is the media…It is the truth…And the lies…They may portray…”. With the spacing, I would pause between each line and raise my voice and such at the bolded and italicized areas. The last change I had made from my first draft to my final draft was that I had added about twice as much to my poem. After many peer edits, peer feedback, feedback from the teacher, and reading it over and over by myself, I ended up taking some out and adding a bunch. Like I stated before, some of the additions I had made were just made to strengthen some lines and stanzas. For example, in my first draft, I stated; “Power is the ability to tell the truth or lies to the innocent. Power has the ability to help or harm any individual Or group of beings. It has the ability to, When misused, possibly create Another Holocaust Effect.” This eventually changed to something stronger, which ended up being something less essay-like and I also had to take some out so it wouldn’t be so specified so I took out the “Holocaust Effect” piece so that it would flow better as well. This change ended up helping me along with all the others in the end because it made me able to show instead of tell the reader and make a stronger symbol out of the whole poem. |