Poetics 1

My object poem was about a pencil. I chose to write about a pencil because I wanted to focus on a simple object thats detail tends to go unnoticed on a daily basis. I titled the poem "Matita," which is Italian for the word pencil, to generate some curiousity and intrigue when the reader sees the title. Someone unfamiliar with the Italian language may not immediately know what the poem is about while others may just question the reasoning for a foreign title. I find that using its foreign name makes the pencil a more interesting object from the very start. I wrote the poem using the pencil I was examining. The poem is an examination of the pencil as I write with it, from what I see first to what attracts my attention next. Its shape and size are most notable, and so that detail is found in the first stanza. As the poem ends, its description is focused more on the result of its use. The challenge writing the poem was observing the pencil as a whole. I didn't want to drift from the pencil as an object so I avoided focusing on what the pencil does. I also didn't want to use words like "eraser" and "lead" because they alone are objects that make up the pencil. Writing the poem and my word choice came naturally. I didn't force anything or try to substitue a word or phrase for another, I just wrote it as it came to me. I think the most interesting thing about the assignment was just that so much can be said about something so simple by just giving the object some attention.