Original Poetry Reflection: Youth

I am surrounded by youth every day, both at work by my students and at home by my son. I am young myself, at least relatively young for having a 14 year son, and I am envigorated by the wonderful energy that comes from both my students and family. I used the Chain Poem method to write this, deciding that Youth was my title and then gave myself 30 seconds to write as many free-association words as possible. I looked at my list, delighted by the variety and the turns taken by the brainstorming mind, and started to make connections. Because this poem must be free verse, I played with line-length and structure, attempting to keep the emphasis on the free-association words. The Chain Poem worked well for my theme as well. As I have been discussing, I am examining how poets subvert the expectations of their readers as a way of getting to a hidden or unrealized truth. While there are so many beautiful attributes to being young-- especially when it comes to the breakdown of my aging muscles and joints!-- there is such tragedy in the idea of youth cut short, when a life doesn't mature to old age. Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde's iconic youthful but corrupted beauty, speaks to the naïveté that comes with youth that doesn't mature. There's such beauty in youth, but it cannot be realized without the passing of youth in maturity and, later, old age. A boy and a girl who never become a man and woman are unformed and tragic.

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