Sophomore explores poetry through his blog

About three weeks ago, sophomore Michael Tang was inspired by a random phrase he heard his P.E. teacher say about “a sprinting feeling.” For some reason, those words stuck out to him, and he decided to write a poem with the same title.

Since he was young, Tang has always enjoyed writing, and he found himself especially interested in poetry starting last fall.  

“I like poetry because it’s easier for me to express my thoughts since the structure isn’t very established or organized,” he said. “I also like that each poem is not a huge time commitment so I can experiment with many different styles.”

In order to push himself to write more frequently, he decided to create a poetry blog called “Pleonasm in Poetry,” where he has posted over 30 poems in the past six months.

It usually takes him around 45 minutes to write a poem. The process of coming up with an idea is quite random, he said, and the subject of his poems can be pretty much anything.

“I find inspiration from what is going on around me, and when I find something I just follow where it goes,” he said. “Usually it’ll be a random epiphany that connects two things together in an interesting way.”

For example, in “A Sprinting Feeling,” he uses several metaphors and imagery clusters that describes the feeling he gets while sprinting. In one line, he expresses the loud sound of thunder to represent how painful sprinting is.

Tang wishes that poetry and creative writing in general were a bigger part of the English curriculum, but he realizes that the education system is mostly centered around literary analysis and would be difficult to change due to students’ lack of interest. The English Department offered creative writing classes in the past two years, but not enough students signed up for it this year.

Although there is a poetry club at school, and despite being a member of the club, Tang said he would rather focus on his individual growth as a poet.

“I’ve never really written poetry with other people,” he said. “Poetry is something I like to do by myself when I’m alone with my thoughts.”