"And it was at that age, poetry found me"

- Pablo Neruda, "Poetry"

I'm drawing inspiration from Neruda to start--if I ever learned Spanish, it would be so I could appreciate the words in all their unadulterated glory. 

Translation is something I'm going to be thinking about extensively in the coming weeks.

 Part of my poetry project will be translating verses by Catullus. If old Gaius Valerius was around today, I'm firmly convinced that he'd be a rapper. He wrote about everything under the sun in the same whiny voice you hear in every high school hallway: complaining about his friends to his friends, talking trash, pining for his girlfriend, pining for his boyfriend...With this in mind, I believe to truly bring Catullus to a contemporary audience, it's necessary to use contemporary language. I'm not saying that I'll translate 'superbus' as 'cool', but I will avoid the missteps I've seen others make, such as translating 'osculationis' as 'kissification.' 

 I adore Catullus's poetry and I want others to share that appreciation, and for that to happen, he has to be made accessible again: a poet of the people.

The other major part of my project is writing my own poetry. By the end of the semester, I plan to have an anthology of sorts. I chose to do this for my project because I enjoy writing poetry and I know that it's good for me, intellectually and emotionally, but I can so rarely find the time to squeeze it in to my day when everything else seems so pressing. I have only ever managed to write poetry in the past when I have a sudden burst of feeling or a stray thought strikes me from the side and jolts me into it. With this project, I will try and write at least two poems a week and translate one (though I will probably hike up this goal based on my progress in the next week or so). This will compel me to sit down and write, even if I'm insecure, even if I'm lazy, and I think I will ultimately better myself for it.

With my first few poems, I have simply let the inspiration flow, going with impulses and feelings. The onl
y themed poem I have done so far is one drawing from the style of Richard Siken--his love poetry with a bitter twist. While Siken uses imagery aligned with cowboys and monsters to construct his metaphors, I've decided to play with it a little by using knights and fairies as my governing figurative themes. Though I like some of my concepts, I don't think the poem has quite the impact I aimed to capture, so one of my goals for next week.

So far, these are the poems I have written:
"Falling, Not Flying" (the Siken-inspired poem)
"Nor Art Can Cure" (a poem I was motivated to write after passing over a quote from The Aeneid)
"So an Ex-Catholic and a Hindu Agnostic Walk into a Bar.." (something of an emotional vent--this one may be too personal to make it into my eventual anthology)
"ambition" (this is going to be a poem that accumulates two-line-long sections over the course of this project; each of these sections is a small frustration over senior year or a fear for the future)
"bring me back in your bucket of sand" (one of my metaphors in attempting to write another poem ran away with me)

What's coming up next week? I'm going to attempt a more structured poem. Because I think the irony is a lot of fun, I'm going to write a Shakespearean sonnet about how much the English language annoys me sometimes.  I'm also going to try to translate one Catullus poem, with a literal translation on Tuesday and Wednesday, a prettier translation on Thursday, and final cleaning up and sharing with friends on Friday during the day and class-time to see how I measure up.

So far, I'm thrilled about this project, and it's going smoothly. I have more trepidation about the future, though. I am nervous about running out of steam or beginning to hate the project, though it's undeniably something I'm passionate about. I think it's important to ground myself every now and then by reading poetry or just sitting down and letting thoughts come to me, writing them down with no real goal. This might help take the pressure off.

For the moment, however, it's full steam ahead!