Artistic Tips - Repetition Repetition Repetition

Repetition is a really useful literary device. Repetition is a really fun literary device. Repetition can be a really annoying literary device. Repetition is useful in creating a specific rhythm, connecting lines or ideas, making a phrase stick out as memorable, and making it easier to memorize. Repetition is fun because it makes it catchy and it's easy to get into both as a writer and a reader. Repetition can be annoying if it's overused like probably by this sentence you're annoyed at the repetition of the word repetition.

Here's a quick glossary of different types of repetition.

Anaphora - repetition of the first part of a sentence
Epistrophe - repetition of the end of a sentence
Refrain - a phrase, line, or group of lines regularly repeated throughout a poem, usually at the end of a stanza

Alliteration, assonance, and consonance are repetition of sounds which I have defined in last week's Artistic Tips.

I use "I am" and "I'm" as anaphoras for the first and fifth stanza (also "I can"). Stanza 2 and 6 are the same stanza. This is loose definition of a refrain since it's only repeated twice and is an entire stanza in such a short poem. In a song it might be considered the chorus. But in the theme of the poem of relapsing, the same exact words carry a different meaning because of the change in context. "It" in stanza 3 is an example of an epistrophe. It's an excuse to rhyme a word with itself. But it also works well because of the assonance in "damn" and "had." "Good" and "golden" are an example of alliteration, and "better" and "embolden" are an example of consonance.

"Relapse"

I’m good. I’m golden.
I’m better. I’m embolden.
I can do this. I am steady.
I am driven. I am ready.

Day after day. Step by step.
I’m working hard to rebuild my rep.
I don’t know what’s going to happen next.
But I will do my best to not be vexed.

Damn it.
I had it.
All together again.
I had found my zen.

Now I’m back.
Exposed to attack.
It all happened so very, very fast.
I thought the last time was really the last.

I’m not okay. I’m broken.
I’m battered. I’m choking.
I can’t do this. I’m shaking.
I am trapped. I am breaking.

Day after day. Step by step.
I’m working hard to rebuild my rep.
I don’t know what’s going to happen next.
But I will do my best to not be vexed.

Artistic Tips: Stream of Consciousness

Stream of consciousness is just free writing. Writing without thinking. Thoughts. Feelings. Put into words. Not necessarily complete thoughts. Just ideas that flow together. One thing leads to another like links in a chain. Not all are created equal. Some are strong and hold. Other are weak and break off. It might not make sense to anyone else, but it still creates a picture. It's a raw, pure form of poetry extremely open to interpretation. It doesn't have to rhyme, but it helps it flow better.

Scars remain

I remember the pain

The blood stain

The pouring rain

The smiles I feign

The fears that reign

Good old memory lane

Feeling insane

Shackles, the mental chains

The beating of the cane

Alone against the grain

The nightmare bane

The energy wane

Emotions drain

The burdens I retain

Artistic Tips - More internal poetic devices

Here's a quick glossary of poetic devices you can use within a line.
Internal Rhyme: words that have the same ending sound that's not part of the line-ending rhyme scheme
Alliteration: a group of words strung together with the same beginning sound (constant or vowel)
note: beginning with the same letters does not guarantee alliteration
Assonance: a group of words with the same vowel sound anywhere in the words
Consonance: a group of words with the same constant sounds anywhere in the words

(I'll make a video for this eventually although it might not be until after I graduate.)

Artistic Tips - Internal Rhymes and Irregular Lines

There's a lot more to say on this poem in the Soul and Therapy sections, but every poem is also an example to learn different styles and techniques. In this poem I use internal rhymes to make up for irregular line length.

This poem is written in tercets with an ABA rhyme scheme and no particular meter. (There might be one I used subconsciously. If you can figure it out, let me know! Refer back to some of the earlier Artistic Tips to help you identify and count meter.) 

The seemingly random capitalization in the last line of every stanza indicates where it could be a line-break making it a quatrain. I chose not to do that because I didn't like the rhyme scheme of ABCA and that with most of the stanza the line lengths would look incredible irregular. People often say that poetry should be focused on sound and rhythm because it's meant to be spoken. I highly disagree.

Artistic Tips: Inspiration and Thought Process (part 2)

Continuing from the last post moving to other poem for this week.

"I Think, That's What Makes Me A Man"
So this poem plays off of "I think therefore I am" as I think about what it means to be a man.
I tried to figure out what it means to be a man by looking at the "checklist" that society had made. But you know, being mostly gay makes it mostly hard to match that list. And if that's what it means to be a man, then maybe I don't want to be.

To be a man or to be at all. I wouldn't mind blinking out of existence. Not stop existing i.e. death. But rather never existing at all i.e. never have been born. But that's not really an option, to my knowledge. So yeah, by my biological sex I identify as a man. But that doesn't quite sit right with me.

There's nothing new under the sun, so the words I'm writing, the thoughts I'm thinking, what I am -there's nothing new about all that, but why I write, what I do with my thoughts, who I am - that's all absolutely unique. So what I am is a man, but who I am? I'm not so sure.

So the part about my likes and dislikes goes back to Bridgit Mendler's song "Postcard." I like some guy things and some girl things, but I also don't like some boy things and I don't like some girl things.

I know myself and I can exist just fine even if I don't fit your definition of who I am suppose to be.