Poetry Reflection

        Poetry has small importance in my life. It is important because I like to hear poems about peoples backgrounds and life experiences. I don’t enjoy poems about nature, made up things, or fictional stories. I like to hear poems about how people feel and about people. Some of my personal favorite poems are about Chicago. Where poets express their feeling about the violence and crime. Most of the poets who write these poems had grown up in the bad areas of Chicago. I like to hear these poems because they speak the truth and say how bad things are and how they need to change. They are written because the poet wants the violence to stop. Those are my favorites because it shows how a person if affected by where they grow up and how it affects their choices and opinions. So poetry is important to me because it allows me to know about different places and how things are in the world through a persons feelings and emotions.

        Poetry can belong to everyone. I know this because poems can be about anyone or anything. For example there are love, hate, war, sport, humorous, and all other sorts of poems. Therefore a person can relate to a poem because there is poems about everything and anything. Poems express someones feelings or opinions to something. Everyone has feelings and emotions so anyone can write a poem. Poets come from everywhere. Poets can come from all around the world. So poetry can belong to anyone and everyone. 

        Many poets write based on their background, past, and life experiences. I heard a poem written by one high school student where he wrote about his cousin who had epilepsy. This poet was clearly writing about events in his life and personal experiences that affected him. This is an example of how a poet uses life experiences in their poem. Another high school poet I heard talked about gangs and crime in Chicago. How he grew up surrounded by the crime and how something needs to be done because students had less of a chance to learn and grow in these areas. His message was that there was not an equal chance for kids in these areas to become great or make it to college. He said that they were being cheated and something needed to be done. This poem is written based on the poets background. Where he grew up affected his feeling and poetry. He expressed how he felt about where he grew up and how it was through his poem.