Drafty-Poem

Reflect-Writing:

This project has been both challenging and easy at different times. Initially, I completed the small artist book with a poem that changed completely from draft-to-draft. When I looked this over, I noticed how bad it was and how lacking substance it had become after being filtered too many times. Because of this, I chose to redo the entire booklet with new paper, a new poem, and brand-new drawings. For this new poem, I tried hard to start off with a strong underlying meaning, so that I could transform elements easier as I went on. Once I had that part solidified, the rest of the drafts became easy to compose. Redoing this project was vital in my case. If I had kept the first booklet that I made and turned that in, it would have been a disaster for a couple of reasons. One, I really didn’t understand proper use of metaphors or similes and how to make them track properly in my poem. Second, I was not thinking about the cleanliness of my work. The first book had scribbles and random lines everywhere to indicate stanza breaks. Overall, it looked very messy. The entire process was difficult the first time, both in motivation, and in construction. I am glad I made the choice to complete a second book.

Reflect-Bookmaking:

At first, it was unclear in my mind how I should go about illustrating the booklet, but after coming up with the poem’s material and looking at past samples, I came up with a couple ideas. From the sample books on Jesse’s website, I found a very cool idea that stuck with me. The individual had written the poem in the same structure that I did, and they showed the progression of the poem’s drafts through images at the bottom. The first drawing was of an apple, and throughout the poem the life of an apple and its seeds were shown, eventually ending as an apple on a tree or vine. Whether or not this related to the poem that they were writing, it caught my artistic attention and triggered me to come up with a similar concept. My booklet’s illustrations cover the passage of time. The waiting for things to happen and the timing of things happening. All that I hope when people see my book is to have them understand where I came from. I am optimistic that people will understand the flow of time both in terms of my poem’s content, and the drafting process, it is kind of a double meaning.

Timing

A stranger, but also a

familiar presence. They

were a forgotten memory,

but the sight of them breathes

clarity.

You wanted them to be gone,