I never liked poetry throughout my entire student life, and this course has not changed the fact. In general, the main issue I have with poetry is that its sole distinction and purpose compared to other forms of writing is that it allows limitless artistic creativity. As far as I am aware, that is literally the only advantage that this writing form confers, and it sacrifices everything: practicality, readability, accessibility, concision, precision, all in the name of creative expression. 

The result is that the only purpose poetry serves is entertainment. In terms of the utility it provides, it’s closer to a piece of art or music than a form of writing. Yet despite the sole purpose being entertainment, it fails to compete with other forms of media. How many people would willingly choose to read poetry as a leisure activity when given a choice against any other form of literature, much less any other form of entertainment? Very, very few. 

What I am trying to say is that poetry feels basically useless. It fails at serving the one purpose that it’s capable of fulfilling. The only “niche” that poetry has is the enjoyment for those that write poems. Poems do enable infinite creativity for the writer, something that no other form of writing can provide. While I can appreciate the fact that there are poets out there enjoying poetry writing(power to them), I personally fail to share the same enjoyment. If I do not enjoy writing poetry, if there is no purpose in developing poetic writing skills, if I know, with near certainty, that I will never have to seriously write poetry for the rest of my life after this class, what motivation is there for me to put beyond the minimal effort in writing poems? 

Fortunately, writing four poems is not a difficult or time-consuming task. I ultimately wrote all four poems in the few hours before class started. Yet despite being quick and easy, this was perhaps one of the most painful assignments I ever had to do, and this is coming from someone who had psychological issues from high school academics. It was near impossible for me to motivate myself to properly do that assignment, hence the extreme procrastination. It just felt utterly, completely, pointless. I kept wondering why I was doing this, when I could be doing anything that was remotely productive. I even had thoughts of abandoning the assignment prematurely, or even entirely, something I generally never consider except in unusual circumstances. 

In short, I hated poetry writing. It almost felt like a complete waste of time. I did not feel I gained anything for it, nor did I feel entertained by it. While there is value in experimenting with new things, especially forms of creative expression, poetry is not a “new thing.” It was required curriculum in both my middle school and my high school, for reasons that I still don’t understand. I was required to read or write poetry in high school and middle school, and like most of my peers, dreaded it. Coming into this unit I knew I was going to dislike poetry, and in hindsight, my expectations turned out to be overly optimistic.