Poetry Project
Boundaries and Three Beliefs
By: Lyle Bryson
In life, it is my belief that there are boundaries which obstruct our sight.
The trees and vines within the forest,
the atmospheric blur,
the horizon's crest--
these barriers tend to impede our vision.
There are some
who are not held back by the presence of these boundaries.
With machetes and swords and knives
they slice through forests
of culture,
of nature.
The horizon is but the plaything of Kings and Queens.
To behead the scenery is the nature of the nature-less.
Trees are removed, leaving nothing but rings in trunks to show their stand against time.
Trees are removed, for they desire words.
They desire words, for they hope to leave a scattered paper-trail showing their stand against time.
All this, for they seek to improve their vision,
or maybe hindsight.
From time to time, they've glanced into the future landscape hoping that it will lend to their sight,
but there is nothing there, merely another barrier.
They've torched old worlds, for they are too afraid to turn eyes upon their mistakes and admit
they built some of their own.
The overturning of every dark stone is not a muse,
it is a passion.
Discovery is the fatal concoction of revival and burial.
In the exploration of new frontiers
it is not uncommon that we uncover new threats.
In the production of man's straightest lines, we find nature's roughest edges.
It is my second belief in life that the
framework in which our thoughts exist
is an immensely and indisputably complex maze of information.
We do not always comprehend thoughts in the same way.
The wind howling, the trees rustling, the river flowing--
i heard these today.
There are times i've driven past the vineyard,
but the grapes of autumn
will never bleed as the hearts of the honest.
i've heard that this is true.
We hold a glowing blade to the heart of hope and truth,
but it is not within each of us to make the final cut.
Each boundary of our tomb is a new edge to be unburied.
Each boundary is a thought that connects the humankind.
Each boundary is severed by individual thoughts and priorities,
burning as blades on an open fire, never to be put out.
There is but only one last boundary,
this being my third and last belief,
that deters us from uncovering the truth.
It is not a boundary that you can feel or touch,
or attack or fear,
for it exists inside.
Some claim that it is gods.
Some claim that it is not.
It is the audacity to break down natural barriers that displays our most relevant human trait.
It is the man-made walls that will never be coherent with the ideals of nature.
It is forging a new path into the unknown, leaving a trail of fire behind for those that follow.
It is not our ending.
It is our beginning.
It is our everything and our in between.
The trees and vines within the forest,
the atmospheric blur,
the horizon's crest--
these barriers tend to impede our vision.
There are some
who are not held back by the presence of these boundaries.
With machetes and swords and knives
they slice through forests
of culture,
of nature.
The horizon is but the plaything of Kings and Queens.
To behead the scenery is the nature of the nature-less.
Trees are removed, leaving nothing but rings in trunks to show their stand against time.
Trees are removed, for they desire words.
They desire words, for they hope to leave a scattered paper-trail showing their stand against time.
All this, for they seek to improve their vision,
or maybe hindsight.
From time to time, they've glanced into the future landscape hoping that it will lend to their sight,
but there is nothing there, merely another barrier.
They've torched old worlds, for they are too afraid to turn eyes upon their mistakes and admit
they built some of their own.
The overturning of every dark stone is not a muse,
it is a passion.
Discovery is the fatal concoction of revival and burial.
In the exploration of new frontiers
it is not uncommon that we uncover new threats.
In the production of man's straightest lines, we find nature's roughest edges.
It is my second belief in life that the
framework in which our thoughts exist
is an immensely and indisputably complex maze of information.
We do not always comprehend thoughts in the same way.
The wind howling, the trees rustling, the river flowing--
i heard these today.
There are times i've driven past the vineyard,
but the grapes of autumn
will never bleed as the hearts of the honest.
i've heard that this is true.
We hold a glowing blade to the heart of hope and truth,
but it is not within each of us to make the final cut.
Each boundary of our tomb is a new edge to be unburied.
Each boundary is a thought that connects the humankind.
Each boundary is severed by individual thoughts and priorities,
burning as blades on an open fire, never to be put out.
There is but only one last boundary,
this being my third and last belief,
that deters us from uncovering the truth.
It is not a boundary that you can feel or touch,
or attack or fear,
for it exists inside.
Some claim that it is gods.
Some claim that it is not.
It is the audacity to break down natural barriers that displays our most relevant human trait.
It is the man-made walls that will never be coherent with the ideals of nature.
It is forging a new path into the unknown, leaving a trail of fire behind for those that follow.
It is not our ending.
It is our beginning.
It is our everything and our in between.
Growth as a Poet Project Reflection
When I began formulating the perspective of my poem, I centered my thoughts and ideas around a picture or idea of what I wanted my final visual art piece to look like. As we progressed through the project, however, I began to see how my poem and art piece both changed based on refinements and how they evolved via critique processes into a more sophisticated presentation. Originally, my poem was choppy and jumped around from idea to idea, and didn't accomplish the message or mood that I aimed to create with my poem and art piece. Because I identified the idea of “boundaries” in my poem, I was able to create more cohesion by refining areas in my poem that didn't contain this idea. For example, in one of my earlier drafts, I wrote: “We peek into the future hoping that it will lend to our sight but there is nothing there. / We burn the past because we are too afraid to turn eyes upon our mistakes and admit / We were wrong.” Looking back, I can see how this verse accomplished the general idea of my poem, but I feel that it was stronger after I revised it in later drafts to match the idea of boundaries and also the idea of landscapes/nature to aid my more complex perspective: “From time to time, they've glanced into the future landscape hoping that it will lend to their sight, / but there is nothing there, merely another barrier. / They've torched old worlds, for they are too afraid to turn eyes upon their mistakes and admit / they built some of their own.” After looking at these subtle changes in my poem, I can see that the use of more complex language and particular arrangement of words can impact how a poet conveys the message of a poem better and also how the message is received in a more understandable way.
The first most important change I made in my poem was adding cohesion/flow throughout. An example of how I implemented this change was reorganizing my stanzas in an order which made more sense/that flowed easier when read. An example of this idea from an earlier draft was: “The horizon is but the plaything of Kings and Queens. / To behead the scenery is the nature of the nature-less. […] We hold a glowing blade to the heart of hope and truth, / but it is not within each of us to make the final cut.” When I had these two stanzas together, it created a unique dialogue or perspective for the reader, but it did not accomplish the imagery or flow that I desired with these two separate ideas. After thinking these ideas over, I decided to rearrange these ideas in my final poem to create more vivid imagery: “There are times i've driven past the vineyard, / but the grapes of autumn / will never bleed as the hearts of the honest. / i've heard that this is true. […] We hold a glowing blade to the heart of hope and truth, / but it is not within each of us to make the final cut.” By placing the two lines that used the imagery of “hearts” next to each other, I created more cohesion and made my ideas more easy to comprehend by the reader and created more dialogue for the reader to digest in my poem. In this case, I moved the “King and Queen” stanza to the 4th stanza in my poem, and moved the “hearts” stanza to the 13th stanza in my poem. Emotionally, I do not think that this change made any dramatic difference within my poem, but strengthened my idea which when read could have a more impactful resonance than before.
The second most important change I made to my poem was removing unnecessary spaces where I didn't need them or where the spaces didn't accomplish the desired poetic affect. An area where I did this in my earlier drafts of my poem was in my first stanza: “In life, it is my belief that there are boundaries which obstruct our sight / The trees and vines within the forest, / the atmosphere, the h o r i z o n / these barriers tend to impede our vision.” Although the spacing of horizon looked unique within the layout of my poem, there was really no specific reason I put it there, and when read aloud, the expected drawn out reading that would accompany this wording felt uncomfortable and didn't flow with my reading rhythm. In my final draft, I removed these spaces and added to shorter phrases so that I had a more rhythmic introductory verse: “In life, it is my belief that there are boundaries which obstruct our sight. / The trees and vines within the forest, / the atmospheric blur, / the horizon's crest-- / these barriers tend to impede our vision.” In this revision, not only was the final version more grammatically correct after removing the spaces, but when recited it felt more comfortable to pronounce and I was able to read it just as it was written without having unnecessary pauses or awkward phrasing. Emotionally & intellectually, this change did not have a huge impact, but for the sake of the reader and speaker, this change made the flow of the poem more easy to understand and also made it so that I wasn't unintentionally using poetic devices where I didn't need to be.
The third most important revision I made to my poem was cutting unnecessary lines and adding new ones that helped convey my message more clearly. The first stanza that I cut from my earlier drafts was: “We exist within a spiderweb of information / Now i'm not saying we're trapped / Now i'm not saying we're trapped.” I can't really explain how this line played into the perspective of my poem, but then again, I guess that's why I cut it. Although this line went along with the ideas of boundaries I initially wanted to convey, it couldn't relate it back to the idea of nature, so I decided to cut it in my final version. One line that I added to my final poem to strengthen my message was after the 4th stanza of my final poem: “Trees are removed, leaving nothing but rings in trunks to show their stand against time. / Trees are removed, for they desire words. / They desire words, for they hope to leave a scattered paper-trail showing their stand against / time.” By adding the nature imagery to my final poem via this stanza, I strengthened my idea of natural boundaries and man's interaction with nature, which made the perspective of my final art piece much easier to understand and brought all elements of my project together. Emotionally, adding the tree stanza solidified the destructive side of my perspective, and I think that this also impacted the intellectual message by adding onto this idea of natural barriers along with improving my language usage.
The first most important change I made in my poem was adding cohesion/flow throughout. An example of how I implemented this change was reorganizing my stanzas in an order which made more sense/that flowed easier when read. An example of this idea from an earlier draft was: “The horizon is but the plaything of Kings and Queens. / To behead the scenery is the nature of the nature-less. […] We hold a glowing blade to the heart of hope and truth, / but it is not within each of us to make the final cut.” When I had these two stanzas together, it created a unique dialogue or perspective for the reader, but it did not accomplish the imagery or flow that I desired with these two separate ideas. After thinking these ideas over, I decided to rearrange these ideas in my final poem to create more vivid imagery: “There are times i've driven past the vineyard, / but the grapes of autumn / will never bleed as the hearts of the honest. / i've heard that this is true. […] We hold a glowing blade to the heart of hope and truth, / but it is not within each of us to make the final cut.” By placing the two lines that used the imagery of “hearts” next to each other, I created more cohesion and made my ideas more easy to comprehend by the reader and created more dialogue for the reader to digest in my poem. In this case, I moved the “King and Queen” stanza to the 4th stanza in my poem, and moved the “hearts” stanza to the 13th stanza in my poem. Emotionally, I do not think that this change made any dramatic difference within my poem, but strengthened my idea which when read could have a more impactful resonance than before.
The second most important change I made to my poem was removing unnecessary spaces where I didn't need them or where the spaces didn't accomplish the desired poetic affect. An area where I did this in my earlier drafts of my poem was in my first stanza: “In life, it is my belief that there are boundaries which obstruct our sight / The trees and vines within the forest, / the atmosphere, the h o r i z o n / these barriers tend to impede our vision.” Although the spacing of horizon looked unique within the layout of my poem, there was really no specific reason I put it there, and when read aloud, the expected drawn out reading that would accompany this wording felt uncomfortable and didn't flow with my reading rhythm. In my final draft, I removed these spaces and added to shorter phrases so that I had a more rhythmic introductory verse: “In life, it is my belief that there are boundaries which obstruct our sight. / The trees and vines within the forest, / the atmospheric blur, / the horizon's crest-- / these barriers tend to impede our vision.” In this revision, not only was the final version more grammatically correct after removing the spaces, but when recited it felt more comfortable to pronounce and I was able to read it just as it was written without having unnecessary pauses or awkward phrasing. Emotionally & intellectually, this change did not have a huge impact, but for the sake of the reader and speaker, this change made the flow of the poem more easy to understand and also made it so that I wasn't unintentionally using poetic devices where I didn't need to be.
The third most important revision I made to my poem was cutting unnecessary lines and adding new ones that helped convey my message more clearly. The first stanza that I cut from my earlier drafts was: “We exist within a spiderweb of information / Now i'm not saying we're trapped / Now i'm not saying we're trapped.” I can't really explain how this line played into the perspective of my poem, but then again, I guess that's why I cut it. Although this line went along with the ideas of boundaries I initially wanted to convey, it couldn't relate it back to the idea of nature, so I decided to cut it in my final version. One line that I added to my final poem to strengthen my message was after the 4th stanza of my final poem: “Trees are removed, leaving nothing but rings in trunks to show their stand against time. / Trees are removed, for they desire words. / They desire words, for they hope to leave a scattered paper-trail showing their stand against / time.” By adding the nature imagery to my final poem via this stanza, I strengthened my idea of natural boundaries and man's interaction with nature, which made the perspective of my final art piece much easier to understand and brought all elements of my project together. Emotionally, adding the tree stanza solidified the destructive side of my perspective, and I think that this also impacted the intellectual message by adding onto this idea of natural barriers along with improving my language usage.
My art piece for poetry project