Nick Vadala Poetic

Joe Brainard’s book was very helpful to me in writing this poem, as his memories evoked similar memories in me and therefore provided me with constant inspiration for my entire poem. Overall, this poem was very different from writing all of the other poems because it consisted entirely of my memories, and not of any of my ideas, opinions, or observations. In a way it was somewhat easier than the other poems because I didn’t have to organize my thoughts as much, but it was also somewhat harder. It was harder to edit in terms of choosing what memories should stay or go deleted, and it was harder to stop writing this poem than the other ones. I found that I would get into a groove where I would remember a lot of memories that I wanted to include, and as a result I ended up with a few more pages than what I edited the final draft down to. Additionally, it was very difficult to choose what memory to end the poem with.

I learned from my poem that I am a very sentimental person that has a strong attachment to his childhood and family members. I also learned that I am able to make bad memories funny to myself and therefore be able to talk about them. Overall, this poem allowed me to analyze myself through my memories. Initially, I was worried that I would include only depressing or bad memories in the poem, but once I got started I found that I had a lot of humorous and light-hearted memories to include as well. Some of the memories I included I am not very proud of, but I thought it would be beneficial to include them because they give a more well-rounded picture of who I am as a person; additionally, some readers may be able to identify with these memories due to similar experiences in their lives.