"Untitled" and "United"
Untitled and United are two short poems I created as final pieces for an Introduction to Creative Writing course focused on poetry. Untitled is a piece written with express care given to the meter and beat of the poem, and is meant to be a reflection on the behavior of humankind as a whole, reflecting on the freedom we each have to decide our fates. United on the other hand was composed as a reflection on the spirit of America, taking pieces of famous American literature and redacting parts to create a blackout poem. It is meant to be both a statement on literary censorship as well as cultural issues still facing the country today, such as racism and social inequality.
United
We hold █████ truths to be ████-evident, that ███ men are created █████
We █████████████████ United ██████, in Order to form ████████████████████
With silent ████. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe ████,
The wretched refuse of your ███████ shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to ███
█████████████████████ the ██████ door!”
██ soldier shall, in time of peace be █████████ in any house, without the consent of the owner
Misty taste of ██████████ teardrop in my eye
O beautiful for █████████████
Whose █████████████████ stress
██████████████████ freedom beat
██████ the wilderness!
Thine alabaster cities gleam
██dimmed by human tears!
Past████ scene of the ███████ South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
It is not, however, my design to dwell upon observations of this nature.
Untitled
The birds that sing and mountains stand upon
Their sturdy studies plentiful. And so
We spawn of man mimic their humble traits.
And so we breathe, our tender breaths forgone
We fly like birds and in the ground we sow
Our dreams and hopes and worries deep, these weights
Of brilliant minds. We grow like trees and roll
Like waves, those humble forms caught in their throes
Our paths though wide and many faced, our fates
Too are our own. No packing of the coal
We’re free