Fake Poetry

Language is a remarkable thing. It can convey every thought, feeling, and emotion with perfect accuracy. Almost exclusively, language has taken awkward, unfit animals out of nature and made them rulers over the earth and many of its elements. When used well, it has the power to change an individual's view of the world, make someone believe they have seen something they have not, and even more astonishingly, look inside one's self and see what exists. If language is mixed with the tempo of music, something new arises; poetry is born. When words and ideas are set to a beat, they can far more subtly convey concepts that would otherwise need to be explicitly stated and the poem can be appreciated more as a whole,

|Spend about 1 hour on this section. Think carefully about the poems before you write your answer. |

Spanish is my native language, however, my mother advised my siblings and I to speak only English. This was because she was afraid that we would be rejected from professional careers if our English wasn 't unaccented, fluent, and similar in refinement to the working class whites. With time, I became a fluent English speaker with a developed Central American accent but like, any other young girl, I thought nothing of it. That is until one event, in particular, occurred that would cast a shadow of embarrassment onto my Spanish language. This event not only led me to desert my entire native language but a sense of my cultural identity, as well.

Even though my mother was Mexican it was hard for me to speak to my friends who knew mostly Spanish and a little English because Spanish was not my first language. As years went on, I went to high school, where now I can have a full conversation with my Spanish speaking friends, and since it is an international high school, it brings in more cultural diversity. With this international high school in El Paso, it has helped me learn new cultures and experience the dozens of traits they do for activities or how they celebrate

Spanish has given me a chance to be able to acknowledge all the different cultures and traditions there is. It gives me the privilege to be apart of many celebrations and holidays such as Las Posadas, Los Tres Reyes Magos, and El Dia De Los Muertos. Las Posadas is a tradition that they do towards the end of December where the neighbors get together for a party, representing Mary and Joseph on

Poetry is about the emotions or feeling of a person. Poetry always follows a rhythm to keep the poem organized. The words used in poetry are always specific whether they are good or bad words. People may decide to write poetry because they can freely choose their own words without caring about the reader’s reaction. Although, Poetry is mostly interesting to read, it can sometimes end up being a shock to the readers.

When I first thought about taking poetry writing the first thing that crossed my mind was when I took an intro poetry course at LaGuardia Community College. While the course was intriguing it was quite difficult because we had to break down every poem to discover the meaning. That meant paraphrasing the words into your own words without changing the meaning but also trying to understand exactly what is being said. I had always believed that this is an abstract idea; this course did not allow that. So when it was time to take poetry writing I avoided it until I could not anymore. However, as the course began I was pleasantly surprised at what I was able to learn these past seven weeks. One of the things that I was excited to discover was that

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

Poetry is a powerful way that we can experience language, make connections that are not always apparent, as well as discoveries about ourselves, our emotions, and out connections with the world. Mary Oliver's poem, Wild Geese, for instance, speaks directly to the reader with encouragement, wonder, and hope. It does not rhyme in the conventional sense, and is more prose oriented. But, using the allusion of wild geese, soaring high above the basic cares of the world, we can completely understand Oliver's view that all things are possible. Too, the poem is quite musical in its rhythm:

Looking around on an average day, things seem very basic and plain, but by investing your time into reading such works as poetry, we are able to dive deeper into the atmosphere around us. Christopher Hart, writing "Drunk on Words: Why You Should Read Poetry Daily, explained how "Poetry, at its very best, inserts an image into your mind which becomes un-banishable, un-impeachable. It gives you new ways to experience the world and express your thoughts". The mud seems to be wiped away from our eyes and the world that is filled with color, is now filled with words and

I have known my participant for many months previous to this interview so some of this information I already knew while other information was new to me. It is interesting to me to see the different cultures within the same language. Angie is from Columbia so she speaks Spanish as her first language. Within our swim team there are two different cultures within the Spanish speaking teammates, they are from Spain and Bogota, Columbia. All four of our teammates including Angie that are from Columbia have their own little subculture here. When talking about the settings that she speaks each of her languages in it was interesting that she only spoke Spanish to our teammates from Columbia. She discussed how it is natural for her to speak Spanish to the other Columbians because she already knew all of them before coming to America. Unlike the people that are from Spain, she speaks English to all of them. When I ask both types of Spanish about what words to use it is interesting that both of them give me different answers. I feel that the Spanish that the Columbians speak is easier to learn with already knowing English because they do not have as many phonetic differences such as the “z” sound in Spain Spanish is pronounced “th.”

Many people think that poetry is a beautiful thing to either listen to or even write about. Personally, I don’t like to write poetry because I believe that it is very boring. It is just not that interesting to me at all personally. I love to write anything from short stories to essays, but I do not like to read and write poetry. The one and only thing I enjoy and like about poetry is listening to someone who is really good at writing poetry and reading it aloud to people.

Poems are the most simplistic way to express one’s feelings and beliefs through writing. Poets mostly try express love, loss, death, some may speak from their own experience or for the sake of their characters who tend to be quite sophisticated. They tend to write about these 3 topics commonly due to the fact that practically everyone has experienced this sort of emotion. Poetry has existed since man could write, to Aristotle, to Victorian times and now to the present day where it is internationally used. Poems are now used to promote movements for the benefit of the world, varying from poverty to the sustainability of the environment; of which most have been successful due to poetry being able to connect with the reader, even if they are not in the same situation. However they are still able to feel what their character is feeling and what state of mind they are in. Poems also tend to be short so that the reader does not loose concentration nor loose the power of the poem, but instead the poet chooses to write to a short limithowever they choose their words carefully so that the reader will be intrigued and contemplated the whole way through the poem however leave the poembeing fascinated.

“The unity of human ingenuity and intellect to express and evoke emotions, completely open to interpretation” is my definition of poetry. Poetry is personal and emotionally evoking. Poetry is intrinsic to communication in art. There is a perfect balance between thought and emotion in poetry. Kim Addonizio’s “Collapsing Poem” is proof that I feel poetry is the personal balance of thought and emotions.

My interest in Spanish emanates from my experiences growing up in a town that is predominately Hispanic, as well as being placed in a Spanish based dual language program in kindergarten up through eighth grade. Being one of four students in my class who spoke only English, I experienced the challenge of having most of my peers speak a different language than I did. If I had not learned Spanish, I would not have made as many close relationships as I had in those 9 years. I had the unique opportunity to learn Spanish mostly through immersion, as well as assist my Spanish speaking classmates in learning English. Becoming bilingual is a challenge, but language barriers break down through the years and productive communication becomes effortless.