Poetry

I enjoy writing poetry. I don't know why, but I've always disliked writing stories, however, poems are just a lot of fun. I used to think that absolutely all poems had to rhyme, but now I emphasize more on the rhythm, as you can see by the short poem I've put in the margin of my page. (All I can write about right now is China.) The poem below has some rhyming, though. Some parts of it I find are better than others, and some parts of it you wouldn't completely understand unless you'd been here yourself.



I step into another place,
It’s almost like another time,
So many people staring at me
Like I’m some sort
Of celebrity
Otherwise simple parts of life
Have no rhyme
Or reason

I search for things
I used to have
And used to take
For granted;
Now I see
How much I loved them
Once they are taken from me,
Like Scout when she was told
That she was no longer allowed
To read*

I think I’m going crazy,
I must be getting mad,
Just thinking of all the things
That yesterday
I had

I see the “modern” buildings made
With no rhyme,
No reason,
And nothing in between
I feel like, any second now,
They’ll fall
To smithereens

I’m walking down the sidewalk
And forget to watch my feet,
I trip on something jutting out
And my face now meets
The street.

We’re living in this crazy place
Trapped one hundred years in the past;
Always building,
Then tearing down,
Since nothing new
Will last


–Emma— Jan 12, 2009



(*This refers to a part of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Upon first starting school, the main character, Scout Finch, is dismayed when her teacher informs her that she must "forget" how to read and write, which she has been doing as long as she can remember, so she can learn it again from scratch. Scout then proceeds to tell the audience that she never truly loved to read until the right to do so was taken away from her. For some reason, this thought has always stuck with me.)