Why a Poetry Workshop

Ever since I was in elementary school, I have always had an interest in poetry. Poetry intrigued me at the time, because I really enjoyed rhyming words. In elementary school, most poems that are read focus on rhyming. When I heard a rhyming word it was like a bell went off in my head. “Oh these words sound the same, but mean something different. That’s cool.” I wanted the skill to be able to write rhyming words with a sort of message, however simple or complex it may be. However, I did not start writing until about 7th grade. You know, when puberty hit and all my emotions and hormones were in a frenzy. I wouldn’t write daily but I would write enough to where I considered it a hobby. Going in to high school, I stopped for 9th and 10th grade however. It was a transitional period, and I was still trying to find myself. But by late 10th grade I got into rapping, and consequently writing poetry again, which I still do today.
Even though I still write occasionally, I don’t write as often as I should in order to get better. I think I am a very emotional person, and my thoughts sometimes tend to get scattered or lost. Poetry gives me a safe outlet for my emotions, as well as providing a method of organization for my thoughts. However, my skills are barely even worthy of reading, and I often find myself at a loss with what kind of techniques I should use to express certain things. I have taken literature classes before, so I am not unfamiliar with writing techniques, but I also realize that depending on your style of writing, what you’re trying to convey, and the style of poem, that some techniques are more effective at expressing than others. “So how do I improve my skills?” I asked myself recently. To answer this I signed up for the creative writing workshop.
Through this workshop I plan to gain sufficient skills involving analyzing other poems and writing my own. I like the idea of getting feedback from other people as well, as I can compare myself to my peers and reconcile people’s advice with my own preferences. The poetry workshop will be a fun and educational method of improving my all around knowledge of poetry, and thus an improvement in the organization of my thoughts and the control of my emotions. I don’t plan on becoming a professional poet but poetry is an art that I take to heart. Poets from Edgar Allan Poe to Emily Dickinson to E.E. Cummings and everyone in between have all inspired me to pursue poetry as an art. I want to gain more influence from these writers, and rather than just reading their poems and deciphering them, I want to dive deep in to the heart of what made them the great writers we know today. What drove them? How did they find their voice? How can I find my own voice?
Perhaps, then, finding my voice is the unifying purpose that binds all my other reasons for writing. If I can become more confident through my poetry, an art that I take to heart, then maybe that will help me gain confidence or understanding in other parts of my life. My voice is not just confined to the poetry that I write, but also manifests itself in how I live and interact everyday. The poetry workshop will help my voice grow on paper, and hopefully in my everyday life as well.