The Typewriter
Fingers burn empathetically at the touch
Of my cold, charred metal letters. I sit,
Silently tap, tap, tapping away,
Writing past, present; creating future:
Expressing hopes; dreams; uncovering soul’s wish,
Translating desired thoughts to paper,
Silently tap, tap, tapping away,
Whilst my immortal shell slowly turns to rust.
‘The beast and the beautiful sociopath’
I am a child; creature of night,
Constantly living in daylight’s fright,
Living in silence, never growing,
I can read thoughts, forever knowing,
I have scouted the earth for thousands of years,
With emotions heightened I am shedding tears,
Years of affliction curdling out of me,
I’m becoming numb; no one has my heart’s key,
My parents are six feet under and gone,
Struggling to breathe I have to stay strong,
My voice speaks expressionless monotone,
And I stay the same, forever alone.
Halloween Sonnet
On all Hallow’s Eve sleep with eyes shut tight,
When monsters under your bed come out to play,
The moans and witches cackle cause a fright,
And children remain with parents to stay.
Pumpkin’s eyes along with hungry mouths carved,
The night that the dead spirits come alive,
Zombie’s tyre being six feet under starved,
The party starts when all creatures arrive.
Be sure to have garlic around your neck,
In case a vampire yearns for someone’s blood,
And keep a silver bullet gun in check,
For werewolf’s howls and footprints in the mud.
For tonight is the night that spirits rise,
And all good souls will avoid their demise.
Criticism of The beast and the beautiful sociopath and The Typewriter
In The beast and the beautiful sociopath I used a structure of four lines in each stanza each having 9, 11, or 10 beats per line. I used this to empathize the struggle the speaker is going through. Although I did not use a traditional structure, I used an usual form to contrast the rhyming couplet scheme. I used this scheme to give a child-like and hopeless feel to the poem as they are (although immortal and powerful) just lonely. I renamed this poem from The Vampire as I felt the reader should have their own interpretation of what the “creature of the night” is. Hopefully this adds a more mysterious tone to the poem. I should have used more descriptive words to add atmosphere and I would have described the being itself. However, some emotion is conveyed throughout the poem “shedding tears” and “struggling to breathe”. I was inspired by the vampire culture in television and cinema.
In The Typewriter I had to change the original poems form as it had no structured meter. Although I tried to give the poem an iambic pentameter, there are a few lines which slightly vary to 9 or 11 beats. In retrospect I would have changed the speaker from first person to make the poem more interesting. I should have made it clearer that I was personifying the typewriter as the first words “Fingers burn” is misleading. I was inspired by Carol Ann Duffy’s Text, I liked the repeated “We text, text, text” and decided to include an onomatopoeia of “tap” into my work. I changed the last word to “rust” highlighting how an inanimate object would decay in contrast to a living body that would decay to dust. I would have liked to make the poem longer so I can express how the typewriter would ‘see’ images and life.
Both poems link through their subjects, as they both are about ‘immortal’ beings.
The Halloween Sonnet was just for some festive fun!
Happy Halloween,
Sofiee
Sofiee
