Art that helps me see and address my shortcomings:

Fear of Failure/Self-Doubt → Confidence
These are a few of the mediums that have influenced how I think about failure. My attitude of persistence and tenacity has been defined in part due to the below books, poetry, and music. My optimistic and cheerful mien can also be attributed to the art I am exposed to.
 
Good Enough by Paula Yoo (book)
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (book)
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (book)
"What Kind of Asian Are You?” by Alex Dang (poetry)
“Packing for the Future” By Lorna Crozier (poetry)
“Best Day of My Life” by American Authors (music)
 
Spotlight: Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M. M. Blume (book)
This is a book I read in the 3rd grade, from which I learned to embrace what makes me different. The main character in this book, Cornelia, is the lonely child of two musicians, who find solace in words. Cornelia’s aptitude for language sets her apart from her peers, but finds herself a friend in a new neighbor, an elderly woman who regales Cornelia with tales from her youth. I wouldn’t define myself as shy, but similar to Cornelia, I find it difficult to connect with others easily. This book taught me to put myself in difficult, uncomfortable situations, and gave me the confidence to be more outgoing.
 
Procrastination → Smart Work 
I am and always have been a hard worker. However, a lesson I still struggle to learn is how to work smart, not hard. Smart work, entailing time management and organization, is the key to success in not only school, but also everything else I am involved in, from playing tennis to playing my clarinet. Below are a few mediums that have taught me to redefine what I view as work and understand the implications of procrastination. While I still struggle daily to practice the concept of delayed gratification, these have inspired me and have given me the tools to change my habits.
 
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (book)
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (book)
“Inside the mind of a master procrastinator” by Tim Urban (TED Talk)
Gifted Hands by Ben Carson (book)
The Thinker by Auguste Rodin (sculpture)
 
Spotlight: “Postcard” by Frank Ticheli (music)
This uniquely challenging piece was one I played with my band in 10th grade. Up to date, it is the hardest piece of music I have successfully performed, and it represents months of practice and dedication. This piece represents the difficulties and joys of the learning process; to learn a skill or concept, we must always start with the basics, no exceptions, and once learned, the skill/concept must be practiced until flawless.
 
Stubbornness and Hubris → Selflessness and Empathy
Pride and a single-minded focus are not necessarily bad, if one also practices the complementary traits of selflessness and empathy. My difficulty is finding the balance. To what extent should I remain uncompromising and driven by self-interest, and to what extent must I sacrifice what I want to what is right? These mediums, especially The Mahabharata, help me understand not only the facets of my personality, but also my role in society.
 
East of Eden by John Steinbeck (book)
“Stories of Akbar and Birbal” (animated cartoons)
The Onion (website)
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (play)
Heidi by Johanna Spyri (book)
Bhagavad Gita (ancient epic/book)
Invictus (movie)
 
Spotlight: The Mahabharata (ancient epic/book)
I consider myself to be religious person, and one reason for this is that I believe that religion provides us with a moral compass and general guidelines on how to live. Having been raised with the stories of Lord Rama, Krishna, and the Pandavas, I feel that it is only natural that I take these stories to heart and allow them to shape my view of myself and the world. Reading the Mahabharata, an ancient epic that describes a war between the families (the Kauravas and the Pandavas) of two brothers, I was taught the dangers of arrogance, jealousy, and lack of discipline. I was also taught that what is right for me may not be right for someone else- the concepts of right and wrong are not as easily defined as I naïvely believed them to be. 

​Written by Sree Y.

While I was thinking about what to post tonight, looking through old writing for inspiration, I stumbled upon some old poetry I wrote around this time last year. “a mi tierra y mi lengua” is an ode I wrote to my home—to the idea of missing it, after nine years away, and to the fear of losing grip of my first language. So, in honor of Latin Pub Night tonight, and the last few months during which I’ve spent a whole lot of time thinking about what it means to be an immigrant, here’s a little bit of my language and my home:


a mi tierra y mi lengua

motherland won’t tell you she loves you

without contact; without the feeling of her tongue
on your tongue or your tongue on the taste of her streets
in an outdated vernacular--

the arms of the avocado tree cradled you five years
in a row the way orchids lined her sunkissed valleys
who cradled earth and fog and holy land;

when tierra santa and Santo Domingo
rolled off mountainsides and tongues the same way
they could not come back to you.

she could not come back to you and she arrives
only temporarily – only it seems she hasn’t touched you
in nine years she hasn’t carried out the scent
of the local native marketplace:

now when she arrives, you forget
her tongue in the shapes of the avocado trees.
​
Written by Ana Paula Pinto

​Rice is an amazingly accepting place, with genuinely good people who care to understand. And maybe by sharing this poem I’m preaching to the choir. However, I believe that even in the most wonderful of places, there are issues and conflicts and problems that need to be addressed. We as a student body are extremely understanding and conscientious of being sensitive/respectful towards others choices, but there are always ways in which we can do more. So, to explore a few persistent gender stereotypes, I’d like to share “What do you mean equal?” Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments regarding this poem, what you believe gender equality means, or anything else!
 
What do you mean equal?
by Sree Yeluri
 
We can't be equal until we all agree,
That an individual is whatever they choose to be.
Women and men can't be defined as strong nor weak,
We are a bit of both, undeniably unique.
 
Equal means a woman can walk
without worrying that others will mock.
Equal means a man can cry
without others wondering whether he’s a guy.
 
Society expects women to be modest and compliant
but what if, instead, we are defiant? 
Men are expected to be dominant and tough,
But, surely, to be honest and kind is enough.
 
Don’t tell girls that they are to be seen and never heard,
or teach them that their only job is to cook, it’s absurd.
Don’t teach boys to be domineering,
or tell them that their future lies solely in engineering.
 
I fail to see how society has the right to decide,
The unspoken rules that individuals are constantly forced to abide.
We each have the freedom to choose,
our actions, our words, and our views.  

Written by Sree Y.

A poem’s beginning should be striking and compelling, urgent and invigorating. A reader should want to continue to the next line, and finish the rest of your work. The first line of any piece of poetry not only has a stake in deciding its artistic merit, but also its commercial value. If your first line isn’t interesting enough, no one will bother with the rest. No pressure.

But as a writer, more often than not, your first line simply represents the struggle of making a start, of beating the crisis of the blank Word document, the I-Don’t-Know-What-I’m-Doing stage of any new project. So here are ten great first lines of poetry I collected so that you can analyze what makes them stand out, get inspired to start writing, or simply admire some of the openers to your favorite poems. 
​
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical
-Allen Ginsberg
 
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
-Elizabeth Barret Browning
 
Because I could not stop for Death
-Emily Dickinson
 
Let us go then, you and I
-T.S. Eliot
 
People disappear. And go looking for a place to be looked at.
-Alex Dimitrov
 
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary
-Edgar Allen Poe
 
We were very tired, we were very merry
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
 
I would like to watch you sleeping
-Margaret Atwood
 
Drink to me only with thine eyes
-Ben Jonson
 
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky
-John Masefield
 
Written by Sanvitti S.

In this day and age, poetic form gets a bad rap. Somewhere along the line, free verse poems became considered modern poetry, and everything else kind of fell by the literary wayside. Sonnets are for Shakespeare, rhymes are for kids, and when was the last time anyone cared about a trochee, anyway?

Free verse poems are great, but I’ve always been drawn to fixed form poetry. So today, I thought I’d share one of my favorite forms with you. (Yes, hello, it’s me: the annoying girl in your English class who raises her hand to talk about the significance of enjambment).

Here, have a villanelle done by a master. This is “Mad Girl’s Love Song” by Sylvia Plath:

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"

Haunting, right? Part of the reason this poem works so well is its form. See the way she repeats some of the lines throughout the poem? This is traditionally represented as:

A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2

A1 and A2 are those repeated lines. Lower-case a and b are for rhyme scheme. Her “a” lines rhyme on “dead, head, red” and her “b” lines on “again, in, men”. This interlocking of rhyme scheme and repetition makes a villanelle easy to spot.

Other examples of villanelles you may know include “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas and “If I Could Tell You” by W. H. Auden.

Forms make you think about words in a different way. When you have limited mobility in one dimension, you have to get creative with the others. In the case of the villanelle, what’s limited is how many different lines and rhymes you have to work with. What’s not limited? Subject matter, meter, voice...the list goes on. Using forms is a great writing exercise because it forces you outside your comfort zone.

Here’s a challenge for you: try writing a villanelle. Plath wrote “Mad Girl’s Love Song” in college, after all, so why not give it a go? It doesn’t have to be your favorite thing you’ve ever written, but I guarantee you’ll be surprised by what you come up with.

​Written by Megan G.

On the WWW trip to Ho Chi Minh, we stayed in this beautiful house on the river in the Mekong Delta for 3 days. It was a refreshing experience that gave me a newfound appreciation and respect for the “simple life.” 

Living Simply in the Mekong Delta
Dawn breaks with the whir of the river boats and the rooster’s morning call, I open my eyes and, not wanting to use the outdoor restrooms, try to stall. The bright green leaves and breezy air strongly contrast,
with the lizard infested shanties that never fail to leave me aghast.

In the 21st century, where we have cellphones, artificial hearts, and indoor plumbing,
why are some places in the world forced to suffer from problems so numbing
like pollution, corruption, poverty, and disease?
I am astounded by how the people of Vinh Long live so simply with such ease.

However, their lives are also filled with joy and beauty.
They are one with nature, humble and focused on their duty.
The river is their everything,
it’s where they work, live, play, bathe, eat, learn, and sing.

Floating in a boat down the river, I was able to see:
a little girl bathing, having fun and carefree
a young man navigating a flatboat of his sole source of income, wheat, to the marketplace,
a mother washing dishes and ignoring us tourists who were invading her personal space.

I got to see a glimpse of their lives from inside a boat,
and although I don’t know much I can connote
that the Vietnamese culture is one of hard work, strong families, and good food.
I have learned from them that the best life is one lived simply off the Earth’s riches, such as seafood. 
​
Poem by Sree Yeluri

In "I Interview Rice Students About Poetry", I, you guessed it, interview Rice students about poetry, that oft perplexing arrangement of words.
 
How would you define poetry?
Student 1: I guess poetry is the use of words to paint a picture of something?
Student 2: Poetry is for people who want to express a sentiment but don't have enough words to make it prose.
Student 3: Words?
 
How frequently do you read poetry?
Student 1: Never.
Student 2: (laughs) Every goddamn day.
Student 3: I don't really read poetry, but I used to watch a lot of spoken word shit.
 
Can you name any famous modern poets?
Student 1: Rupi...shit.
Student 2: Shel Silverstein.
Student 3: Modern poets? What do you mean by modern poets?
From the last 30-40 years.
Student 3: There's that one guy...Robert Frost. Oh, Dr. Seuss, Dr. Seuss!
 
What do you think poetry's role is as a creative or artistic genre?
Student 1: Its role is to allow people to express themselves in a way that they might find typical writing limits them.
Student 2: I think that it's good for expressing emotions, because sometimes you write too many words to where you lose the feeling you're going for. So I think that poetry is good for feelings. Like in the ambiguities, it lets people understand what you're trying to say.
Student 3: It's like an outlet for expression...I guess. I don't know, poetry's weird. It's like, you can literally make some grunts, and then title it 'Grunts', and that's a poem.
 
What's your least favorite poem?
Student 1: I pulled this up because I read it in sixth grade and I was really mad at poetry then because I thought it was really stupid.

The Red Wheelbarrow
By William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

And that's the whole poem! That makes me really angry.

Student 2: Also William Carlos Williams: I find this super funny because from what has been described to me about this poem, they just found it on his desk after he died, and
no one can figure out if it was an actual poem or just a note on his desk.

This Is Just To Say
By William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold


Beautiful.
 
What is something about poetry that confuses you?
Student 1: So you know when you're little and you learn that poems rhyme? And then you get to fifth grade and they stop rhyming. And that just like really threw me off.
Student 2: If you only keep reading Shel Silverstein, you never have that problem.
 
What makes a poem good?
Student 1: Not The Red Wheelbarrow poem.
It makes you feel something. I know that sounds really corny, but when I read Rupi Kaur, I'm like, holy shit, do I feel it. When I read Milk & Honey, I just like sat there and was like, this woman just put her whole life on display for everyone in the most beautiful way. And that's why I struggle with the genre of poetry because I feel that very few poems do actually make me feel the way her writing did.
Student 2: I really like the extremes to which you can go with poetry, which was kinda why I really liked Shel Silverstein. His poems are always weird, and I feel like people don't write enough weird poems.
Student 3: When it speaks to you. When a lot of people find that they can connect with it.
 
Written by Sanvitti S.​
Inspired by The Adroit Journal’s We Ask Our Parents About Poetry.