1st Quarter Poetry Journal Reflection

Sailing

Rising and falling with the tide and the wind,
lulled to sleep by incessant waves lapping against the side of the boat.
Sunset glittering on the water,
the hues reflecting off the sparkling water.
Bright pinks,
oranges,
reds,
wispy clouds dot the sails.
The purple sky slowly creeps up on the sun,
stars ready to emerge from their hiding places,
light glistening on the water.
Paintbrush resting on the canvas,
gliding gracefully across the surface of the water.
The shapes morph into the little boat,
swaying in the waves,
sun being chased along its path by the stars.
The canvas takes form,
beautiful,
billowing white,
tinged with the colors of the sunset.
Bristles on sail,
one brushstroke,
one sunset at a time.

When I first wrote this piece, the poem on the board mentioned the first time the author went sailing. I decided that I wanted the piece to be about sailing. However, as I was writing, I chose to morph the idea of sailing in the sunset into a painting that an artist might create. When I revised the piece, I had to play a little bit with the transition from boating to painting. I used the sail of the boat to transition into the canvas of the painting. This transition is evident when "". Since the sail of the boat and the canvas of the painting are made of the same material, I thought it would be appropriate to use this as my transition.

Originally, this piece was in paragraph form. When I revised it, I turned into a poem. In order to make this change, I had to play with the wording a little bit, so that it would flow more neatly and make sense in poem form. I had to think about phrasing, especially in the lines "Bright pinks, /oranges, /reds, /wispy clouds dot the sails". At one point, those lines were all a part of one sentence and one line. However, I chose to break this up, in order to make the piece flow better as a poem.