Experiment 3 - Poetry Regarding Fear

Part I – Proposal

The source material for this experiment reflects on a Ted Talk centered around human fears and how they backhandedly drive the lives of all people. The goal of my previous two experiments, an open letter and a photo essay, was to document and speak to sentiments regarding fears of specific individuals. This third experiment, a poem, will draw from many of these retrieved feelings and attempt to combine and capture them in a more general form. While poetry is by far the genre I am least comfortable with, it will require thorough research and revision to create. My goal for this experience is for it to be a productive learning opportunity resulting in both growth and increased flexibility as a writer.

Given the ample freedom with regards to the structure, rhyme scheme, and length that a poem can realize, I will be giving myself a framework to underlie my words as to ease the possibly overwhelming decision-making process. This will be done, partnered with the intentions of creating a dual connection between myself and the topic at hand, through incorporating my love for physiology into the structure. Specifically, I will be using the steps and components of circulation to guide how I organize my thoughts.

Much like the winding, yet revolving route that each heartbeat carries blood through our body, I’ve found that my response to and approach towards managing my fears follows a similar route that cycles in how it affects my daily life. By using the seven steps of circulation as a framework for seven components to living with and tackling fears, I will be making a poem that has seven stanzas with four lines in each stanza. With regards to rhyming, I have chosen to implement the alternate rhyme scheme, also known as the ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH pattern.

In the initial line of each stanza, I will be making a subtle reference to the step of circulation we are currently in as to help orient the reader. Throughout the poem, I will incorporate different approaches that my friends take in order to combat their fears, as gathered through interviews for my photo essay. As the topic of circulation is highly complex and detailed, it is insignificant whether the reader entirely understands what the physiological component being reflected is. All that is important is that the sentiments and intentions can be generally captured. This is where I worry that my poem will get overly convoluted, however hope that thorough revision will help guide me out of those woods.

Part II – Genre Analysis

Poetry is defined as literary work in which feelings and ideas are expressed with distinctive stylistic intensity. Poems can take on hundreds of forms, lengths, stanzas, and rhyme schemes, collectively allowing for ample variety in the overall impressions they impart. I will be using 4-line stanzas, also known as quatrains, however these lengths primarily range from couplets (2-line stanzas) to octaves (8-line stanzas). Several common rhyme schemes found in poems include the ballade form – three stanzas with the pattern of “ABABBCBC” followed by “BCBC” – as well as the triplet, which repeats like a couplet and uses the pattern of “AAA.” The three main types of poetry include lyric, narrative, and descriptive, which either have one speaker with strong thoughts and feelings, tell a story, or describe the surrounding world, respectively. As this poem will be written from a single point of view and will heavily emphasize emotion, I would classify it under the category of lyric poetry. While reflecting on my own fears and asking my friends to describe theirs for the purposes of my other experiments, I have gathered copious emotions that I will attempt to condense and convey in this experiment. As poems are an excellent device for abstractly portraying particular sentiments, I decided that this genre would be fitting for my goals.

As this is my first time truly experimenting with the genre of poetry as a more mature writer, I scouted advice from individuals who commonly work with the art. Several points that were highlighted include keeping in mind the goal of the poem while creating it, avoiding clichés, using imagery, metaphors, and similes, and heavily revising throughout the creative process. As the structure and presentation of my poem can easily get convoluted and lose sight of its primary intentions, I will attempt to be cognizant of my goals throughout the piece.

Part III – Sketch

As described above, each stanza of the poem will attempt to mirror one of the seven steps of circulation in the human body. As a framework to help elucidate the ideas behind each section of the poem, the seven steps of circulation are outlined below –

The aorta pumps oxygenated blood out of the heartand to the body
Deoxygenated blood returns to the heartthrough the superior vena cava and inferior vena cava to your right atrium
Yourheart beats to the signalsof the SA NODE and AV NODE as the right atrium pumps it to the right ventricle
Your right ventricle pumps deoxygenated blood upto your pulmonary arterywhere it heads to lungsto pick up oxygen
Deoxygenated blood becomes oxygenatedand drops off waste
Oxygenated blood leaves the lungs and returns to the heart through the pulmonary veinsand enters the left atrium
The left atrium pumps blood to the left ventricle and then it is pumped to the aorta ARTERY to do the same thing all over again

Based on this framework, I outlined what I intend the theme of each stanza to be centered around in order to guide me while actually writing my sample.

The concept of entering a day with fresh energy, excited to make a change during which I will not be stunted midway, but quickly being shut down and depleted
Returning dreadfully with disappointment, back to the beginning of the cycle
Powering yourself up and making positive changes to not let your fears stop you once again
Finding acceptance of your fears and learning how to benefit and grow from them
Choosing to leave your fears behind you
Feeling overjoyed and extremely self-confident – fearless, in a way
Getting caught up and struggling with old ghosts once again

As this poem is already deeply connected with the idea of the heart, I intend to eventually use the heart as a stylistic element that can frame the shape of the poem. Given the size of the poem however, I will later choose whether or not I will play with the physical shape of word arrangement on paper to my advantage.

Part IV – Sample

Halted Chambers

Hope crescendos through aortic blood,

Quivering with the spirit of metamorphosis.

Yet from the valves, clouds of anxiety bud –

I cannot escape a bullet of such corpulence.

And so I return, depleted and drained,

Filled with a cross of pity and shame.

Where success had once stood and waited to be claimed,

I now ask myself – what is victory with no game?

I pound on the door to unwinding success –

If I battle with fear, my war is all mental.

I stay clear of my boundaries, those I cannot transgress,

And the moves I make, though invigorating, are gentle.

Part V – Reflection

Though I entered this experiment aware that it will present a challenge, I certainly failed to acknowledge just how much thought goes into the creation of poetry. Before starting to type any stanzas or find terms to piece together, I had to complete ample research to understand the different structures and forms of poems. Being overwhelmed by all of the information I uncovered from a variety of sources, I chose the steps of circulation to guide me and limit my options after being inspired by an outside source. Even after breaking these steps down, converting each into a general theme relevant to my topic, and choosing a rhyme scheme, I still found myself struggling to fully encapsulate what I had intended to get across in each stanza. I ultimately had to trust that my intentions would be understood by the reader, but knew that several of the lines I chose had been less clear than I had hoped. In a way, I found myself debating whether or not I should steer from my original structure of circulation, and could not decide if it was helping me or only adding a crescendo to the challenges I was facing.

Despite the difficulties I encountered in the creation of this experiment, however, I definitely learned a lot about how to approach writing a poem and how to manipulate the different options it presents to my advantage. I enjoyed the creative process of fitting together words that verbally read smoothly and rang well. As I am a very visual person and enjoy working with patterns that fit together, poems give writers the opportunity to play around in a similar way with sound. If I were to approach this project once again, I believe that working through the poem to completion would have helped me decide where to stop it and how to adjust the earlier stanzas so that the latter sections circle around and make sense altogether. While I cannot say that the experiment was entirely a success, it certainly contributed to my growth as a writer and pushed me out of my comfort zone.