poetry

NEW short film: “Nothing, a Wish” now on YOUTUBE

/ Michael Metzler Jr. / Leave a comment

Hey ya’ll, I finally posted my short film “Nothing, a Wish,” on YouTube! I’ve completed the primary filming for this short within the first several weeks of this semester, and have been sitting on it for a bit now, adding incremental touches to the sound editing and taking additional B-roll.

I was inspired by the movie Paterson (2016), primarily for its nonlinear narrative structure, as well as its poetry element that drives forward the “story,” which is really more of an observation than a straightforward plot. I even found font that was incredibly similar to the font used in Paterson to write out the poem, which is narrated while being shown on screen.

Here it is:

“Two Strangers” – A POEM

/ Michael Metzler Jr. / Leave a comment

Hey, coming at ya with some freshly made poetree. More surreal and metaphorical than most of my other poems (wait I take that back, all of them are already super metaphorical I think). But definitely more dream-like and intangible. With an interesting ABAC rhyme scheme, where only two of the four lines rhyme. Perhaps that does something in the way of propagating the story content of the poem, where there’s organization and reason to events, but at the same time, an ungraspable abstraction.

Yes, the structure of a poem can portray something about the conceptual, the ideas being expressed within writing, sometimes:

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Various Forms of Poetry

/ Michael Metzler Jr. / Leave a comment

When we think of a poem, no doubt there is one specific poem stereotype that surfaces in our mind. Perhaps Louis-Stevenson’s “whose woods are these, I think I know,” or the over-used “roses are red, violets are blue,” or something of the sort. Some may think poetry is merely any combination of rhyming words.

Oh, but poetry can take on an infinite array of formations. Oxford Languages put it well, defining poetry as a “literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.” No mention of rhyming, or repeating patterns, or certain number of syllables. A poem is a poem for its expression of feelings and ideas in which there is marked style and rhythm. What that style and rhythm you use, as the poet, it completely up to you.

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“Island in a Water” – POETREE

/ Michael Metzler Jr. / Leave a comment

“Island in a Water“

by Michael Metzler Jr.
Behind my house, on the other 
Side of my garden,
There’s a hill, and through this hill
There is a burrow, that leads to a
Different somewhere.

I’m not certain
Where this certain somewhere is,
But it’s a place I like to go
When the sky clams up 
And the stars in outer space
Run away,
I think.

Down through my garden,
Passing rows of cauliflower,
Escorted by the bees
As they make their way from
Tree to tree.

Entering the tunnel, where the
Darkness comes to greet me
And I leave behind my garden
And my rows of apple trees.

The musty dampened clamor
Of the millions in the city
Square, pummeling each other
With their tongues, this
Noise.
Tries to reach me through the tunnel
But my tunnel doesn’t care.

Silence.

It’s then I sit on an island in a water
My reflection looking back
Into my soul.
And I become still.
Stiller than the water that
I’m sitting on. 

No one else knows of my 
Tunnel, or my 
Island on the water,
If they did, then I am sure
It would not be there
Anymore.

the end

Analyzing My Poem – “Swimming Pool”

/ Michael Metzler Jr. / 1 Comment

You, or anyone else, I’m sure, has had that difficult moment in their lives when they are asked to analyze a literary piece for a school project – whether that be a novel, short story, essay, or poem – and find themselves in a very suddenly-constructed DIY writer’s block. Who knows WHY the author said what they said? Who knows what themes they were attempting to convey? The author isn’t around (or alive) to explain their writing process to you, and so you are left to your own devices.

It’s much easier for me to analyze my own writing, however. Below is a poem of mine I wrote recently. Go ahead in read it and hopefully the meaning I was trying to portray is hidden in there somewhere. After the poem I’ll breakdown my writing process – why I chose the words I did, random rhyming patterns, and methods of symbolism and metaphor I utilized throughout to convey a central idea or theme. In the end, I hope this breakdown process helps you understand analytical techniques when reading poetry in general. Hopefully it gives you some food for thought on your next poem/story/screenplay as well!

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