’Til The Day Breaks

Click to see larger on DeviantArt. These are symbols to make your way around a zoo via map and on the actual zoo turf!


Zoo Wayfinding Pictograms by ~nippyfrog on deviantART


Zoo Wayfinding Symbols by ~nippyfrog on deviantART

Here are some poems and then a short story I wrote over last summer for my creative writing class. I've decided to post them here. This is in the format my portfolio was in including my introduction about my feelings about what I got from the class and my writing experience.

Introduction
Rachel Farley
August 3, 2006

This semester I started out very overwhelmed by the amount of work I had to do. I never seriously wrote poems before and I had only written some sort non-fiction in the past. I found out that I really liked working on the verbal sketchbooks in order to come up with ideas for poems and stories. I thought it was interesting to be able to let your mind wander and pick up information, then be able to go back and think about it.
Sometimes a poem idea came into my head and I wrote it down in my sketchbook, like what happened with “Desperate”. Other times I had to really work the poem like in “Angel” I felt there were good parts at first but there were things I found awkward about it.
I found it really interesting to start to really be in a different place than where I am or think about emotions of things I am not involved in. I found it easier to distance myself from the poems and let a character who really was not me immerge. I found it fascinating to explore these characters. I had a harder time distancing myself from the short stories, especially “Prepared Funeral” because it was inspired by some real life events. As the story grew, I also grew away from the true events and was able to play with the story.
I feel that just inside this class my writing has improved. I feel like I have a better idea on how to start a story and play with the characters, but of course, I hardly feel like I know what I am doing either. I can see imperfections in my work, but sometimes I don’t know what to do with them. I think this class has helped me deal with some of the problems my writing has a little better.
I liked the readings we had, and they inspired me when I had to sit down and do my own writings. They gave me an idea of how to write and ways people write. I never really looked at a story in the sense that I would need to know how to construct one before and I found that beneficial.




( The Dwelling )


( What Happened to the Fruit Market )


( Desperate )


( Running Away )


( Angel )


( When Daisies Grew )


( Rubble House )


( Prepared Funeral )


( Mary )