you know nothing of the crunch!

It's the final crunch. I fly home in a month for three weeks of lovely Californian free time until I start my internship.

In between then and now, though, are 6 papers, 1 exam and 50 lines of poetry.

At least I have part of the poetry done!

My intro to creative writing class covers three genres: non-fiction, fiction and poetry. That's also the order of my preference. We have come upon the last third of the semester and so we begin poetry.

I don't like poetry. I think that anything that is written in poetic form could be put into sentences. I've never liked poetry. And I still don't think I ever will.

toothpastefordinner.com


But my professor is a decent guy. Instead of saying "WRITE POEMS!" he is giving us creative ways to learn how to create poetry. Our first assignment, due Tuesday, is to "translate" a poem.

Let me explain:
1. Take a poem from another language, written phonetically
2. Using just the sounds, write it out in English
3. Smooth it out, begin to make it your own
4. Cut, paste, rework, rewrite until it's new!

We were provided with already phonetically written poems and I chose one written in Persian/Farsi. Look at the evolution of it!

1. [farsi-> english, first two lines]

Dideh-I to ‘ankabur-e biqarar

Dar khiali migozarad ruzegar

2. [first draft, first two lines]

D-Day, I to anchor bury big car

Door key ally me go far ahead rosé guard

3. [second draft, first two lines]

D-day, I bury anchor, big car

Door key, rosé, guard-ally goes far

4. [final draft]

I buried an anchor on D-Day

the door key broke; rosé

a bay of sod, full of dummies

marred the door; rosé

Peace, Jared

the door is in disarray; rosé

you cannot bar me from coming

rosé

bashing the red surrey

bar the door; rosé

buried in anchors and maggots

bar the door; rosé

buried in anchors and maggots

Cool, huh?