This week’s poem is titled “Story Part Five: Waking Up.” “Waking Up” ends the story series I have been working on. I decided to end in happy note rather than the original ending I was planning. In the original ending there was only four parts and the suicide was successful. When I started to move away from that ending, I needed some sort of redemption story. My final decision and the idea I used was that of recovery. The ending of “Part Four” hints that the method of suicide was hanging. In this poem the speaker opens to being saved, but paralyzed. Paralysis allowed me to continue the story by describing the recovery process and the speaker’s motivation through that process. To fit in line with the previous poems the speaker was motivated by the person he loves. This motivation follows through till full recovery.

     For this poem I wanted to mix slower and faster tempos. One way I did this was to mix repeating lists for fast segments and the doctor quotes for slower segments. Another method I tried to utilize for pacing was pauses to emphasize a line and break up the poem. I again used repeated phrases to emphasize a point or to draw out the flow. The least stylistic tool I used was recalling elements of previous poems such as references to dancing, the meadow, and the picnic. I included these elements to make the whole story loop on itself.

     Overall I was very happy with the story, as this was not only my first story style poetry series, but also the first spoken word I have shared. At this point, I am not sure what my next project will be. I have been working on several poems that attempt to look at issues in a comical or cartoonish way as a way of juxtaposing the seriousness. The topics I have been considering include drug use, alcoholism, and again looking at mental health. I have always seen spoken word as a way to express both my,own feelings as well as to make a statement about the world as I see it. With that in mind, the method that I share my poetry may change. I believe that I will be focusing on the YouTube channel that I post the videos to as well as attempting to find opportunities to do live readings of my own poetry and others. My concern is that with the coming of college I will allow myself to stop consistently  writing and recording, so hopefully finding a group to join will help hold me to my own goals. Regardless, this will probably be one of the final post to this specific Blog. I hope anybody who enjoyed the poetry continues to follow as I improve (hopefully) and expand my library of poems.