The Red and Black

People write poetry for many different reasons.

Maya Angelou writes poetry to tell stories about her life. Langston Hughes wrote about social issues. No one really knew why Emily Dickinson wrote because she died before anyone read the majority of her stuff.

And I write poetry to relieve my mind and convey my feelings.

I started writing poetry back in my junior year of high school. I had to write a poem for a sociology class and my classmates were rather impressed with my writing ability.

One hundred and twenty poems later I can look back at everything and remember how I was feeling at the time.

I'm not saying I'm as good as Maya Angelo, but I know I'm not as bad as Barney.

My poems generally talk about love, God, social issues and personal experiences. I try to take a different approach with each piece of work.

When I need motivation and inspiration, I can write a poem to lift my spirit. Or, if I have something that is bothering me so much that I want to explode, I can release that tension through writing.

I generally write in phases. I may write 15 poems in one week and not write any for a whole month.

My most unique poem is entitled "The Reason." The poem tells an explicit story, written with realistic word usage, about how a guy had sex with a girl he barely knew after his girlfriend told him she was a virgin.

After the poem conveys the story, the last two lines read "years later, this is the story that I told my doctor." The poem tells "The Reason" he told his doctor he is HIV positive.

My favorite writing style involves writing as the person in the poem. In the poem lies "My Story":

"I am used to abuse and kidnap, and I force people to disintegrate. Humanity uses me to destroy itself, because it's too ignorant to contemplate."

The poem is not actually my story, it's the story of a gun.

And love. In December, I wrote a poem entitled "120 miles." The poem was about one love, two people and no communication. And when you added it all up, it equaled three reasons why we shouldn't be.

Since every poet writes about love, you have to give it a different and unique approach.

The first 18 poems I wrote were all about love. After awhile, you realize that they all say the same thing and if you're single, you're only writing them for yourself.

Now, I tend to write more about young adult issues. The older that I get, the more I have to write about. And with age comes better writing ability.

I don't want to write on the same level at 35 that I did when I was 17.

Even now, when I look back at my first few works, I see words I would not have used if I were to write the poem today.

Right now, I'm compiling about 40 poems into a book that I hope to release before I depart from the University.

But, for those of you who want to read some of my work before then, drop me an e-mail and I'll send you a few.

– Mark Anthony Thomas is a staff writer for The Red and Black.

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