Poetry Assignment 1

Due Wednesday, April 26

Typed, printed out, and stapled. Do not forget to type the interpretation of your poem.

This assignment has two parts. The first part is a poem of between 100 and 150 words (we will look at some of the poems from previous quarters to get a sense for an appropriate length for a poem). The second part is a few sentences that interpret the poem. In other words, restate what the poem means. Type your poem and interpretation and hand it in during class on the 26th.

The broad topic of your first poem is your relationship to a passport you have, a passport you had, or a passport you want. What does the passport represent? What can you--and no one else--do with a passport? What dream can a passport make possible or not possible? Pay particular attention to how the meanings of passports have changed or might change, either for you or for people around you.

I will be expecting the poems to be similar with regard to aesthetics. Here are some aesthetic guidelines:
  1. Use ordinary language, not "poetic" language. In other words, you should aim for words that you have heard or used before in daily life. You can also use a small number of common words or phrases that are not in English as long as you give translation and romanization (if necessary) in parentheses.
  2. Do not rhyme.
  3. Although you should use ordinary and common language, you should aim to use the words to say things that have never been said before.
  4. Make your poem accessible to the senses. In other words, your poem should focus on things you can touch, taste, smell, hear, or see or on actions that involve the bodies of the characters. That is, your poem should focus on images and on the material world.
  5. Your poem should focus on images and not concepts. Consider the passport as a material object, or describe your sensations in places you have access to because of a passport. Furthermore, do not use the words "Asian" or "Asian American."
    Here are examples of images:
    • Cancun
    • Long lines
    • Voter registration form
    • Passport stamp
    • Credit card
    • Food (specific foods in a particular location)
  6. The poem should be told from your own perspective. In other words, the poem should be autobiographical. Because the poem is told from your perspective, you cannot put thoughts into the minds of other characters.

Be clear about your addressees. Your addressees might be parents/family, international students from your country, students from your high school, or people with a specific immigration status/identity. Additionally, you should also think of Asian Americans like your classmates as your audience. However, make sure that you do not try to address everybody.

For some of you it will be helpful for you to use stanzas like paragraphs. A stanza break can show a turning point so that you can illustrate how a situation changed. You could also use the stanza break to show contrasts between points of view.

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