05-13-2012, 03:48 PM
Recently, my girlfriend had to give a speech for the members of the company she works for during a concluding dinner (roughly 150 people attended). She had enough faith in me to ask my opinion on some of the things she wanted to say, so we went back and forth through a revision. A number of the points of advice I gave her came, I feel, from my work with trying to write poetry. For instance, pointing out cliches, trying to work from general to specific to general, vice-versa, etc. To this end, I feel that poetry has had an influence in life.
Other times, when I'm teaching my international students, I feel as though I pay special attention to idioms, cliches, expressions, and phrases. I blame at least part of this attention on poetry, what with its need to be fresh; in order to avoid cliches, you have to know what they are, and so they stick out much more noticeably. My students are learning English, so knowing how to avoid using cliches / explain them is key. Additionally, I find that poetry influences, to some degree, the kinds of writing assignments I give in the sense that I try to create more creative prompts than other materials and teachers provide. I'm not giving it complete credit for my actions and thought process, but I think it deserves something.
My question is how has poetry influenced your life beyond the actual writing and reading process.
Other times, when I'm teaching my international students, I feel as though I pay special attention to idioms, cliches, expressions, and phrases. I blame at least part of this attention on poetry, what with its need to be fresh; in order to avoid cliches, you have to know what they are, and so they stick out much more noticeably. My students are learning English, so knowing how to avoid using cliches / explain them is key. Additionally, I find that poetry influences, to some degree, the kinds of writing assignments I give in the sense that I try to create more creative prompts than other materials and teachers provide. I'm not giving it complete credit for my actions and thought process, but I think it deserves something.
My question is how has poetry influenced your life beyond the actual writing and reading process.
Written only for you to consider.