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It is often said that music is poetry. Not only is there a certain structure for the form of
literature, but it also is a different form of story-telling altogether. Unlike the usual novels we come
across and read, this type of art is more lyrical and less direct to the point. In addition, as mentioned
by Cirilo Bautista, poems are not only meant to be products of print, they are meant for “oral
discourse with necessary cultural configuration.” I realized that poetry is such an important
literature form because it allows writers to express themselves in ways they want to without being
direct to the point about it or even having to express it in lengths as long as essays. Poetry gives
words so much life in a way that they need to be heard on the same, if not more, level that they
need to be read.
After reading “Of Water and The Art of Poetry” and “Stalking the Great Heron,” I learned
how great poetry is attained through revising and revising until satisfied. Although poetry when
read can be seen as somewhat flowing and rhythmic literature, the writing process in itself takes
more than jotting down a few lines and calling it a day. As seen in Cirilo Bautista’s drafts, there is
importance in the selection of each word when it comes to poetry. Although it is not as long as a
Harry Potter novel, the same if not more effort is given in writing poetry even if it does not even
reach a quarter of a book’s word length. It is the same with Evasco’s “Heron Woman,” where it
took her a significant amount of time to make changes and ensure that what she wanted to
Even in Marjorie Evasco’s “Stalking the Great Heron,” she consulted her community of
fellow writers to read drafts of her poetry to better her craft. She says that “rereading and revision
are conscious processes, these are perhaps the only processes of the poem’s making about which
one can write more usefully. I shall then try as much as possible to backtrack to the very first draft
in August and describe what I tried to do.” With her, not only does she revise and rewrite, but she
maintains her original vision. And I think that with poetry, where it is most often writing wherein
one says something but meaning another, it is important that a writer does not get himself/herself
lost in revisions to the point of losing the real message she wants to put out with her writing.
What I like about poetry is that it requires readers to decode and give their own
interpretations of the poem they are reading. You do not only read the lines directly but you really
have to get in between them as well. Not only does it empower writers to freely express what they
want to say without being direct, but it also gives readers the power to create their own