final Reflection
My topic is “Creative writing.” My project mainly aims to improve my creative writing skills and my understanding of Pacific literature. After finishing the brief 2, I believe that I have accomplished most of the weekly posts very well.
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Some of my posts are weak and not strong enough compared to the other poems that I have written. I think they are weak maybe because I somehow could not relate to them, I found no connections with them. For example, the poem in week 8 was about the western education. The poem was about how the poet did not appreciate the British educational system, but my poem was about how I enjoy the British educational system. The poet Ruperake felt he lost his culture and money to learn something that he was not interested. In my poem, I felt the education made my family aloof from me, but I still like the education system.
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The goal of this project is able to understand the Pacific literature, I tried to understand all of them, but still, I failed to understand some of them. For example, I thought the poem Cross was aimed to Christianization, but it was actually pointing to colonization and the missionaries. So that is why I can’t relate to the poem, and I created a poem related to something entirely different for the original poem. I have written a poem to appreciate my school, but the original poem was to express the hate for Cross and the strong feelings for his desires to save their traditions. I think it is a good idea to write it in a contrary way, but my poem was not strong enough comparing to the original text. I will have to put the poetry in week 7 as my least favorite.
I think in my project if I want to write a good poem. I have to connect with the poem to genuinely appreciate the poem. If I hold different opinions or I disagree with the original poem, then I somehow could not write a similar or a strong poem. The inspiration from the original poems is important for me to write a good poem.
The poems on week 5, week 9 and week 12 are the strongest poems that I have written. They are my favorite poems as well because I can connect to the original text and the poets. I agree and appreciate the original texts; I can completely get inside of their minds. For example, the poem on week 5 was the one that I had the similar experience, and I can understand the poet along with his poem. That is what made my poem strong. For week 9 and week 12, they are both related to identity and helped me to be proud of my own identity. Because Asians and brown are somehow not the strong communities in the world, people held the negative stereotypes of the brown and Asian. Their poetry both inspired me to write the poetry and I can learn how they rhythm the poetry.
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In the last post in week 12, I tried to apply my own language in my poem. Because the Pacific poems usually applied their languages in their poems. For instance, the Afakasi or Palusami in the poem. It was a challenge for me to understand their poems due to the reason they used their languages, and I need to find the definitions online. Sometimes, even I found the definitions, but I still failed to relate their languages. Because that was not the culture and language that I grew up with. I think the people who grew up in Pacific island will connect to the Pacific poems. I think it is funny because I thought the pacific poems aimed to anyone, but the poets mainly aim to their own kind and secondly to other people. I believe that is why they applied their languages to make the Pacific people feel connected. In the previous posts, I used the English instead of to apply few of my own languages to attract my Asian community. Because my purpose was aim to everyone and I tried to express what I felt. In Pacific literature, they particularly aim to help their communities to feel strong and to keep their cultures, and most importantly to remind who they are. Secondly, they tend to break the stereotypes of Pacific Islander. But I just realized some of my poetry did not have a specific community that I was speaking to. They were mainly my week thoughts, and I think that could be another reason why it was weak.
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I think every literature has its meaning and what I learned it is to have a scheme in the text that I have written. I need to speak to the readers and the people who can relate to my literature. It is just like what I have written in week 5 and 6; I tried to tell the readers that employees are people with heart and they deserve respects. In week 9 and 12, I tried to tell the readers that Asians deserve more understanding. They are not the typical people that you think they are. We should not hold stereotypes and discriminations to the people of color.
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I think the poems also need to apply some personal experiences because that will make the poems reliable. If the literature is all fake, readers will find it hard to feel connected with the writing. I think that is why the Pacific literature is successfully written because it was real and powerful. It was just like in week 12; Grace talked about what she had faced and how she felt. She eventually managed to attract and connect the people who have two different cultural backgrounds. I tried to do that as well, but my poem might not be that successful as hers. I tried to make my poetry rhythming and enjoyable; I think some of it did apply what the poetry needed.
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In conclusion, I think I have learned a lot through this project. I learned how to write a poem and how to approach other poet’s poems critically and creatively. I think I needed to improve how to approach more rhythms and better vocabularies. I believe it is crucial to find the poems that I felt connections, especially when there are more opportunities beyond the paper requirements.