3-1

The poem that I intend to use for this project is "Life is Fine" by Langston Hughes. I think that I will take an approach where I have images that do not correlate directly with the words of the poem, but the feelings evoked by these words. I also think that I may try to incorporate both a voice over and words on the screen rather than one or the other.

I plan to use the poem The Other Side by Chance the Rapper to make my video. The poem is about family, so I plan to use imagery of a families home where children play. The poem is also about the affect music has on people so I want to incorporate imagery of a record spinning. This image will be a good way to transition into other thoughts. I also want to show a door opening and closing in some sections and express what that symbolizes. For Chance, he has keys that represent opportunities to do almost anything. I want to express the idea that fulfillment comes from more than just having access to nice things, but having a good relationship family is the key to fulfillment. 

The poem I plan to use is "A Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes. The poem is not only applicable to past activist movements to extend rights to African-Americans in the mid 1900s, but to all people who desire to pursue a goal yet do so with self doubt. I think the ideas of societal and personal conflict that this poem elicits could be very much portrayed using Rush as fear, doubt, and trust can be shown through short videos and images. Some imagery that I plan to use is a fork in the road and concerned people.

The poem that I plan to use is "The Guest House" by Rumi. This poem is about being human. Rumi writes about how we have something to learn from everyone, and how we should appreciate all that we learn from them. Even moments of sadness and grief are blessings in disguise. I hope to create an image of vulnerability, emotion, and life that the human experience embodies through my project. Currently, I plan on doing this by displaying clips of human emotion, small daily occurrences that most take for granted, and lots of natural visuals that encapsulate the meditative and holistic tones that Rumi communicates through his poem.

The poem I plan to use for the video project is "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. The poem itself has a lot of imagery that I could add to a voice over/text to enhance the poem experience. I could also add in imagery and sounds that complement the tone of the poem and express the feelings evoked by it.

I'm planning to use the poem "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802" by William Wordsworth to be the focus of my video project. Some of the themes I noticed when reading over the poem are the beauty of nature and the importance of living in the moment. The imagery I'm thinking of including to reflect that is a lot of natural scenery and people that are appreciating it and people that aren't to show contrast.

I will use the poem “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton. It is super witchy and dark. The speaker of the poem is learning to accept that she will never fit into the mold of what other people think a woman should be. Though she tries in her own way to be a homemaker to the worms and elves, it isn’t quite right. She begins embracing her anger, darkness, sexuality, and what others would call ugliness. The last stanza is about being who you are despite those who would criticize or shame you for it. Some adjacent imagery for the poem would be dark woods, a village at night, dilapidated houses, running barefoot, bonfires, dark water, creatures in jars, unkempt hair, long fingernails, someone crawling as if possessed, torches, angry townspeople, and a creepy smile. 

My E-poetry project will revolve around "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes. I intend on incorporating an audio narration of the poem because it will amplify this poem's potency. Furthermore, the visuals will feature the diverse faces of our American community; a thematic thread of this Hughes poem is inclusion in the American narrative, and representation aligns with this ideal. This poem doesn't glorify or whitewash America's history, and my E-poetry interpretation will highlight the duality of this history. 

I plan to use "If You Forget Me" by Pablo Neruda. I will use the audio reading done by Madonna  to compliment my visuals. There are some specific lines about nature in the poem that I can use: flowers, the moon, Autumn, ash, etc. However, in the parts of the poem that are more abstract and do not make specific references to nature, I will use visuals which symbolize love fading away: a dying fire, leaves falling from the trees, the ocean receding from the shore. Then, when the tone of the poem shifts, I will use imagery to symbolize rebirth and growth to symbolize everlasting love: a flower blooming, a newborn crying, the sun rising, the waves crashing into the shore.

I plan to use "Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath. Plath happens to the speaker of this poem since she is mostly a confessional poet. She describes her suicide attempts in this poem, the title itself is a reference to Lazarus from the Bible, who was brought back from the dead. She uses circus imagery to describe how she feels like a show that people poke and prod at. Doctors treat her like a charity case. Plath also uses the imagery of a phoenix at the end of the poem to show that she is being reborn. I plan to incorporate this imagery into my poem. I also want to incorporate music. 

I've decided to compose my own poem for this E-poetry assignment. I purposely composed the poem to seem somewhat ambiguous, so that I could add more clarity through the visuals in the video. Overall, the concept of this poem revolves around how we use stereotypes and national identities to define and justify claiming irreconcilable differences. I will be using various visuals of border walls and various aspects cultures across the world throughout the video. 

Different Shapes, Different Melodies

Words of different shapes, different melodies
Fabrics, colors, memories
Woven into uniformity
Vibrancy, conquered by conviction
Sameness, decided
The fabric of definition

Written lines crave for difference 
Unseen, they lurk in thoughts
Stretching their slender fingers across rivers
Demanding for authority, carving animosity
Like a wound, pain emanates 
Dividing sameness, dividing connections
Disconnecting humanity, staining sameness in obscurity
They crawl up from the dirt
Murmuring fear
Different words, different melodies
Different faiths, different humanity
The lines lie
 

I plan to use the poem “Life the Way it Should Be” by Taylor Jordao. Some of the significant themes in this piece of work include the beautiful elements of nature and the concept of a peaceful and positive perspective on life. One of the key literary elements that the speaker uses is alliteration of the line “Tell me what do you see,” which adds emphasis and forces the reader to reflect on their viewpoint on life as whole.

I think I want to use the poem "Celestial Love" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I really like the idea of using visuals that involve lots of stars, sunlight, moonlight, etc. I don't, however, plan on using the entire poem because of the length, so I will probably stick to the first stanza. I want to try and use visuals from movies and music videos that correlate with the poem. I have a few ideas and selections in mind. Also, I would like to incorporate some background music but I haven't decided if it should be a slower or more upbeat tempo song...I have options for either but I think I will decide that when I choose the visuals. 

I will use the poem "An Ordinary Misfortune" by Emily Jungmin Yoon. I am going to try to uncover some of the deeper messages through my visuals and I plan on using voiceover and text on screen to emphasize the alliteration in the poem. Because this poem has historical context, I will try to incorporate some of that into the multimedia. 

The poem I have chosen is "You Want A Social Life, With Friends" by Kenneth Koch. I read this poem in a class last semester. I don't know that I agree with it, but it definitely made me think, which was the reason that I chose it. Imagery wise, I'll show the things described in the poem while also depicting scenes of loneliness - after all, that is part of the poem's theme. Overall, this poem is just very thought-provoking and I want to optimize this effect with my delivery of the poem.

While I'm still a little bit uncertain about the poem I will choose, I'm leaning towards William Stafford's "A Story That Could Be True." It deals with themes of identity, family, peace, and more, I plan to incorporate both pictures/videos of nature imagery and concrete human imagery. I think light will also play a key role if I choose to use this poem. My hesitancy is because I'm also interested in potentially writing my own poem to put into this video, so this idea is subject to change.

I plan to use the poem, “The Sick Rose” by William Blake. The poem contains a lot of imagery with an underlying theme of destruction/loss of innocence. One of the ideas I have for my video is cutting certain images slower at the beginning, and at the end using harsher cuts to the next image to emphasize the slow but steady and compounding destruction and loss of innocence. Some of the images I will use from the poem are a rose, a thunder storm, and a worm.  

I plan to use the poem "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou. I plan to integrate both literal and figurative images to convey the overall meaning of the poem. This poem is about perseverance, resilience, and strength and I hope to truly embody that throughout my video. One idea I have is using background music that gives off contrasting emotions in order to depict the poem's negative and positive imagery.

I am still unsure of which poem I want to use but I am currently interested in using "You and Art" by William Stafford. It is about art, self-confidence, and resilience and there is a variety of imagery that I can use surrounding these throughout the video. I plan to include videos of people dancing and playing instruments to reflect specific lines in the poem. I may also include a voice-over of the poem being read with uplifting music playing in the background. 

I plan to use the poem "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota" by James Wright. I've always loved this poem for its beautiful nature scenery, that I feel would fit well with a video poem. This poem is surprising because after extensively describing the beauty of Minnesota nature, Wright abruptly writes, "I have wasted my life" and ends the poem. There is much disagreement about what this final line means, but to me it is the speaker realizing he has not spent enough time in this beautiful place and has instead wasted his life pursuing worldy good, status, etc. I will show this idea in my video poem by juxtaposing imagery of pretty nature and ugly human activities to show the struggle between two worlds that this speaker, and many others, face. I plan to include soft music and find or record my own a voiceover of the poem. 

I have decided to use the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley. The poem's two omniscient themes are that people are in charge of their own fate, and people can overcome anything as long as they do not lose faith in their own strength. I want to include a Morgan Freeman voice-over because I think that it will enhance not only my message of the the video, but the video itself as well. I do not want to have the cliche clips of athletes overcoming struggles or soldiers fighting so I am in the middle of trying to figure out a different way to deliver my message. I know for sure that I am going to begin the video with dark and gloomy imagery. This poem has so much potential to become a beautiful and engaging E-poetry video, I just have to think about how I am going to harness that potential and create a great video.

I have decided to use the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley. The poem's two omniscient themes are that people are in charge of their own fate, and people can overcome anything as long as they do not lose faith in their own strength. I want to include a Morgan Freeman voice-over because it will truly enhance the message of my video. I do not want to have the cliche clips of athletes overcoming struggles or soldiers fighting so I am in the middle of trying to figure out a different way to deliver my message. I know for sure that I am going to begin the video with dark and gloomy imagery. This poem has so much potential to become a beautiful and engaging E-poetry video, I just have to think about how I am going to harness that potential and create a great video.