Artist Statement
At the beginning of our project we wrote many different poems, trying out different styles and ideas. At one point I wrote a poem about time and thought that it sounded cheesy and would never be able to write a poem about it. But when we wrote tredecims, I decided to revisit the idea. I realized that I could explore the truth of time and make the idea abstract. So I decided to roll with it and the idea ended up becoming the main subject of my final poem.
My poem was inspired by many things, from my life to things I have heard on the news. The biggest inspiration came from realizing how fast time goes and that I am almost done with high school. This came as a big shocker to me. Once I started thinking about how time can seem to go by so quickly I started seeing other odd ways in which time works. We live life and think of time as when we need to get home, what time we wake up in the morning, and how long it is until lunch. But once I realized time to be this larger abstract idea, I began to pay attention to how it affects us and the world. This seemed like an idea that would be best explored in a poem format.
The idea of time being like an old man came to me when I thought about how time never seems to stop for anything. Even if we are bored time still continues on. It's like time senses things, but no matter what it continues on, infinitely. That’s how I came up with the idea of the blank canvases. Time stretches on and our lives revolve around it. There are tragedies and celebrations in our lives; they paint themselves on the stretched canvas of time.
The inspiration for the stanzas about giving and taking away time came from listening to the radio. In the media you hear lots of things about celebrities dying in their 30's and 40's, lots of times because of drugs. It seems as though celebrities believe they have an unlimited amount of time, so they waste it on things that end up reducing their time. People who run and enjoy their lives and live them to fullest, a lot of times, end up having a great deal of time. And even if it isn't as long as 100 years old, they still lived life to the fullest so in a way received more time.
The inspiration for the form of my poem came from a poem called "Rock Out" by Anis Mojgani. In his poem he started each line with "Rock out," and then went into a description. I really liked the way the poem sounded and decided to apply it to my poem. I started each of my stanzas with a metaphor because I felt that to understand such an abstract idea such as time that it would need to be connected to something concrete that people can understand. I feel as though the metaphors help with the flow of the poem. I like to think of them as actors for time, they are just different interpretations. None of them are perfect for the role, but they each clarify time in their own way.
My poem was inspired by many things, from my life to things I have heard on the news. The biggest inspiration came from realizing how fast time goes and that I am almost done with high school. This came as a big shocker to me. Once I started thinking about how time can seem to go by so quickly I started seeing other odd ways in which time works. We live life and think of time as when we need to get home, what time we wake up in the morning, and how long it is until lunch. But once I realized time to be this larger abstract idea, I began to pay attention to how it affects us and the world. This seemed like an idea that would be best explored in a poem format.
The idea of time being like an old man came to me when I thought about how time never seems to stop for anything. Even if we are bored time still continues on. It's like time senses things, but no matter what it continues on, infinitely. That’s how I came up with the idea of the blank canvases. Time stretches on and our lives revolve around it. There are tragedies and celebrations in our lives; they paint themselves on the stretched canvas of time.
The inspiration for the stanzas about giving and taking away time came from listening to the radio. In the media you hear lots of things about celebrities dying in their 30's and 40's, lots of times because of drugs. It seems as though celebrities believe they have an unlimited amount of time, so they waste it on things that end up reducing their time. People who run and enjoy their lives and live them to fullest, a lot of times, end up having a great deal of time. And even if it isn't as long as 100 years old, they still lived life to the fullest so in a way received more time.
The inspiration for the form of my poem came from a poem called "Rock Out" by Anis Mojgani. In his poem he started each line with "Rock out," and then went into a description. I really liked the way the poem sounded and decided to apply it to my poem. I started each of my stanzas with a metaphor because I felt that to understand such an abstract idea such as time that it would need to be connected to something concrete that people can understand. I feel as though the metaphors help with the flow of the poem. I like to think of them as actors for time, they are just different interpretations. None of them are perfect for the role, but they each clarify time in their own way.