My AP Language & Composition class is organized to trace the changes in literature through American history. When we finished learning about the transcendentalism era, my teacher assigned a homework assignment to go out into nature, think about life, and determine if we are a romantic (i.e. we glorify everything), transcendentalist (optimist), or realist (pretty self-explanatory).
WARNING: Contains Spoilers Original post on VistaNow
I love poetry; I have since I was very young. But when I think of the years leading up to my first publication (coming sometime this year - wahoo!), I always think of the short stories, essays, and unfinished novels I wrote. It hit me the other day that I've actually been writing poetry longer than I have books. I dug through my chest of old notebooks and found my first poetry journal. That journal has over 20 poems in it; all written before I reached middle school. I shouldn't have been surprised. Poetry has always come naturally to me. Whenever I was bored I was writing poetry. Whenever I was sad, mad, frustrated, dejected, hopeless or furious, I was writing poetry. So in honor of my love for poetry, here is my Top 20 Poems list. I am a fan of both slam and classic poetry, so I tried to include an equal blend of both. In the interest of fairness I didn't choose more than one poem from each poet (or else this whole article would have been dominated by Neil Hilborn and Langston Hughes). I highly suggest you check out more works by these poets though, since many of them have a number of fantastic pieces. Each poem listed below also has three descriptive words that I feel encompass the feel of it. Everyone interprets poems differently though, so I encourage you to read/listen to these poems on your own and formulate your own opinion of them! I was re-organizing my bookshelf – as I do in my free-time – and I stumbled across a journal my parents bought me a long ago. It’s called: Read, Remember, Recommend. For Teens: A Reading Journal for Book Lovers. It was created by Rachelle Rogers Knight and it’s really cool. It has hundreds of books organized by the awards they’ve received, and there are dozens of awards in this journal. I decided to sift through it, and I was pleased to find that I’ve already read a lot of the books listed. The whole purpose of the journal is to rank books you’ve read and recommend your highest ranking books to others, so here is a Top 10 list of books I have read that are listed in this journal. Have you ever read The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott? A beautiful narrative poem about deep love and passion, With beastly men and humane beasts? I have. At the time of the Civil War, It was imperative that war leaders knew how to read and write, As written communication was the key to success. Kit Carson was a Civil War colonel, a pioneer, trail-blazer and sharpshooter. And... he was illiterate. In today's society, the words "education" and "learning" are thought to be synonymous with each other. They are constantly used inter-changeably, but they actually couldn't be more different! These are their definitions according to Merriam-Webster's dictionary: I was eight years old when I watched Jurassic Park for the first time, and when I say "watched" I mean I stole peeks around the pillow I was hiding behind. I absolutely loved it. I loved it so much, in fact, I constantly asked my parents to play it for me. They refused most of the time, due to the fact it gave me nightmares, but after three years I was able to sit through the entire thing without hiding behind something or simply leaving the room. My parents always thought my nightmares were troublesome, but I consider them one of my blessings. Without them, I may have never become a writer. Let me explain. |
Kit MillerKit is a poet and the author of the book "Sailor Uncovered". |