Poetry Portfolio

By Darlene Cheong

A portfolio full of original poems

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Table of contents Dedication Page……………………..……Page 1

Introduction………………………………..Page 2

Escape by Fall………...…………………Page 3

The Extrication of my Life…………….…Page 4

Treated Found Poem……………………...Page 5

Imprisoned Thoughts……………………...Page 6

The Difference…………………………..Page 7

Work Cited……................................Page 8

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Page 1

Introduction What is poetry and how can it be used to communicate freedom?

Poetry is a lot of things to people. Typically, it is an art using language like, literary art. It could also be creative expression of language. It can describe the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling or just simple experiences in daily lives. Poems can affect the world of just a single person. Poems are made with figurative languages, imagery and other poetic expressions. Poetry can be used to communicate freedom, and almost everything else. Poems can communicate freedom using figurative languages. Since almost everything in a poem is made out of figurative language, this gives the reader and image and if the poem is about freedom, when the reader gets the image, it is about freedom.

Anything can be a poem. As the great poet, Walt Whitman says, "And your very flesh shall be a great poem." Page 2

Escape by Fall

A haiku written by Darlene Cheong

Page 3

I got the idea of this poem because one day, I went to the supermarket with my mum and I someone dropped a fruit on the ground. That fruit which I didn’t know what it was, looked somehow different from what the rest of the batch looked like. That experience inspired me to write this poem because somehow that fruit represented freedom because it was different but special. I also translated the haiku to Malay, my country’s language

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The Extrication of my Life

Page 4

This poem was inspired by a picture I saw when I strolled down through a blog. It was a picture of someone with a huge smile at the edge of a cliff. I wrote this poem because the picture impacted me a lot as if all things will be let go if a person could just do whatever he/she wants and that one thing he/she wants, is to let life go. This poem is all about it.

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Treated Found Poem

Voiceless, starving, poor,

Eyes of capture.

Sweat and blood ,

from their very souls,

wasted on those who exploit.

Police may be looking for me,

I might be trapped in the corner,

but I ‘ll take the risk ,

To fight for freedom.

Come along,

Drift freely as clouds float in the sky,

I will continue fighting till the end of my days.

Page 5

~ I watched a movie on television of a recreation of Nelson Mandela’s Life and it impacted me a lot of the racism towards black people. I searched him up in real life and he was imprisoned before but when he got out of prison, he made a whole difference towards racism. I wrote this found poem from his speech about freedom, “The Struggle is My Life,” which was spoken on June 26th, 1961.

on “The Struggle is my Life” speech by

Nelson Mandela

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In my mind,

Through the maze of thoughts

On the way I will find

A clutter of knots

It was not a melee

Of freedom and creativity

It was freedom suffering from waylay

In a cage of captivity

All ideas and inventions

trapped in a cornered cage

Through my brain's dimensions,

my imprisoned thoughts in rage

Page 6

A rhyme poem by Darlene

I got this idea of this poem from, “The Jaguar” by Ted Hughes. The main idea of “The Jaguar” is freedom of your mind and I took that concept into a whole different poem with the opposite meaning, imprisonment of your mind. This poems is quite depressing but the rhyming makes it stronger.

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The Difference

Flexible, unrestrained

Departing, enabling, ruling

Imprisoning, limiting, restricting

Captured, incarcerating

Page 7

I got the idea of this poem when I went to Thailand. I was laying on the beach and until then, I realized that the world is a beautiful place, unique with its own abilities. Then in the city, people were being robbed and chaos was everywhere. It was such a difference of two aspects of the world. That is why I wrote this diamante to differentiate the two aspects which are opposites of each other.

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A diamante by Darlene

Tree Branches. Photography. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 3 Apr 2013.http://quest.eb.com/images/131_2178896 Cliff Jumping. Digital image. G Static. N.p., n.d. Web. <https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTDaWYd90gc-zoIoyL290zCrf5waAGNF-tEoExs5JY8KJ-vG0kZL>. Rose White. Digital image. Amal Colmson. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://amalcolmson.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/rosewhite-741938.jpg>. Dream Catcher. Digital image. Picasa. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-utDQ64S7Fu8/T4xjtb1m4eI/AAAAAAAAAGY/Bn1KQTLp46w/s1600/dreamcatcher.jpg>. Tribal Stripes. Digital image. Tumblr. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://25.media.tumblr.com/81cc61a3f6249799539bcb7ddbb4d825/tumblr_mijujmyUWj1rkvitto1_500.jpg>. Tribal Design. Digital image. Tumblr. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdks75Menw1rlp4txo1_400.jpg>. Mandela Statue Unveiled. Photography. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 4 Apr 2013.http://quest.eb.com/images/158_2454883 Blue Freedom. Fine Art. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 4 Apr 2013.http://quest.eb.com/images/525_2908123 Eye. Photography. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 4 Apr 2013.http://quest.eb.com/images/132_1285572 A Cage Lid. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 4 Apr 2013.http://quest.eb.com/images/118_797943 "Speaking out for Justice." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2013. <http://www.un.org/en/events/mandeladay/inhiswords.shtml>.

Work Cited

Page 8