Writing: When I think of poetry, I don’t think about entertainment like a creative short story or TV show. Poetry makes me think of feelings and emotion, and those should not be faked for the sake of the reader. In other words, I wanted to write about what I was feeling, not what I thought would entertain a reader. I had two combining thoughts when making the book: First, I have recently been feeling in my life I have things to “cut out.” Secondly, I physically had no scissors in the house to properly make the one sheet. So, I decided to combine the two feelings and make the book out to be how I was feeling. Each day I tried to reflect on myself and write something related to the theme of wanting to cut out the bad things in my life, but perhaps having trouble doing so. Some days, my feelings did not change much, which is shown when the poem didn’t change much day to day. Others, there was a bit more to change, which is shown when the wording changed from the previous poem. The last draft of the poem was me going through the previous ones to pull together my thoughts as a collection.
Bookmaking: To go along with the theme of the whole project, I made the book without using scissors to cut the slot in the middle. As a result, it left a rough edge in the book and caused the fold to be screwed up. However, this is what I wanted. I also burned the corners with a lighter to make the corners look burned out. The book, in my head, represents what happens when you can’t cut out what is weighing you down. You aren’t as sharp and you are slightly torn apart. I also added some detail by adding rips into the book to make it overall look beat up. The front cover was my best attempt at drawing a pair of scissors, a task that seemed monumental because I am not a great artist. I actually ended up having more fun than I thought I was going to make the book because I was afraid I wasn’t going to have deep meaning with it. Once I could put some passion into the project, I really enjoyed my time making it. I am hoping others can see the meaning behind the poems and maybe apply it to their lives as well.
Final Poem:
I wish I had scissors
because this would be
a lot easier.
I could cut away
what I no longer
want to hold on to
Instead my edges are rough
my pages are left uneven.
I wish I had scissors
