Thursday, September 11, 2014

Exercise one--Poem Inspired by Philippe Petit-- One Moment by Amanda Bracey

My poem, One moment was inspired when Philippe Petite was on the wire, the police show up and he smiles at the police before breaking into a mini show. I tried to put myself in his shoes in that moment.I mean not only was that nerve racking moment for me to watch him up there in between the two towers with nothing else to support him outside the wire and his pole. I would think that it was the same for the people of New York City waking up, going to work and not knowing that they are going to see something awesome.

I would say the initial writing of it maybe took all of an hour before I had to get into work.The revision process, for me usually takes the most time as I think about how I want it to flow and what I am trying to say. Usually, I go through about 6 variations of anything that I write before committing it to the computer. This time around for revisions, this is revision copy number 3. I forgot to add in a stanza originally and I tried to break it up so that it would not be a run on sentence, so I am happy that this was less revising. So, without further ado I hope you enjoy my poem.




One Moment
Above the world I thrive,
Teetering between life and death,
With my balancing pole to keep me from straying,
I walk hand in hand with my creator.
The wind races up from the street below,
Throwing it's rage at my body,
Trying to scare me,
To take me off the thin metal path I set forth.
My resolve is solid as a rock.
My body as light as a feather.

Knowing my dream has become reality.

8 months of the candle being burned at both ends,
Many masks were called upon, in order for this one moment.

The long arm of the law stands before me,
His face holds the promise to uphold the rules of man,
Yet, his eyes sparkle with the desire to be entertained.
I smile,
I, gave him a show,
One, all the world will know.

Beyond the mist of the cool, damp morning,
Screams and shouts fill my ears,
Pushing me forward, sending encouragement and strength in the air.
It is then I realize,
All the world is my stage,
I am, but a mere artist,
One who has proven the impossible, possible.

3 comments:

  1. That's awesome that you take so much time to write and revise and put so much emphasis on revisions! The structure that you used to write this is how I wrote mine too; using multiple stanzas to break up ideas and varying from long stanzas, to short ones. I think its awesome how you wrote through the eyes of Petite and your diction makes this very entertaining to read.

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  2. Hi Amanda! I liked that you chose to write your poem about when he was getting caught by the police but he just smiles and breaks out into a little dance. I thought that was a very couragous thing of him to do. My favorite line in your poem was "8 months of the candle being burned at both ends". I can't rememeber if that was a quote that Philippe said or not but I really thought it showed how long the process took.

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  3. I liked your usage of end-stopped lines and enjambed lines! Especially when you write, "Knowing my dream has become reality." it really puts a powerful meaning in perspective because the sentence is all alone, and it is terminated with a period at the end. Nice job! Your poem was very entertaining to read!!

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