Creative Writing

In my class for creative writing we are assigned the task of poetry. Each term he has a different theme (Fall is Screen Plays, WInter short stories, and spring is poetry) Now, I have always been a fan of poetry- though, I must admit, I don't know to much about it. The class though, has done a fairly decent job in opening up poetry to me- that one dosent just sit down, poop it out, and then be done. They, like stories, take revising.

Right now were focusing on free-verse. I have always liked free verse, to an extent. However, I cannot stand, with any bone, self-indulgent poems. (You know the ones.. "I prick myself with a rose, the blood red is my pain flowing") One new poem we found today was Russell Edson. He's a prose poet, which means his work reads like prose, though it is acctually a poem. My favoritve, thus far, is called;

The Automobile

A man had just married an automobile.

But I mean to say, said his father, that the automobile is not a person because it is something different.

For instance, compare it to your mother. Do you see how it is different from your mother? Somehow it seems wider, doesn't it? And besides, your mother wears her hair differently.

You ought to try to find something in the world that looks like mother.

I have mother, isn't that enough that looks like mother? Do I have to gather more mothers?

They are all old ladies who do not in the least excite any wish to procreate, said the son.

But you cannot procreate with an automobile, said father.

The son shows father an ignition key. See, here is a special penis which does with the automobile as the man with the woman; and the automobile gives birth to a place far from this place, dropping its puppy miles as it goes.

Does that make me a grandfather? said father.

That makes you where you are when I am far away, said the son.

Father and mother watch an automobile with a just married sign on it growing smaller in a road.

This poem makes me giggle :D But for tomorrow, I have to write a free-verse poem.. goody. I'm nervous. I can write, sure, but not poetry. I was just lucky my teacher liked my first poem, considering I spit it out in a few minutes!