I am writing this poem for credit
So that I might graduate
Because every day
Without a 3.8
A diploma looks less
And less
Likely
I am writing this poem for credit.
So that I might look better
In the eyes of family and college alike
Shunning and spitting
A white name on a white sheet,
The black sheep on a blacklist
I am writing this poem for credit
So that I might have something to look forward to
A slave to a corporation
In a dark basement browsing Reddit
Or sleeping under my pawn shop’s desk
Using my business bachelor as a barista
Spending 50 years in debt
Or building houses for those richer than I
I am writing this poem for credit
So that I might worry about things
Better than my 67 in English
Poetry Project
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Artist Statement
This poem was a product of my situation. I wrote it based on an unfinished poem I had written weeks before. Also at this point, I was researching The Raven, a poem that uses repetition to enhance its message and flow. I also took the use of repetition from another poem, There is a War Going on for your Mind, this poem’s flow and use of repetition kept its somewhat jumbled points structured. I used both of these poems to shape how I structured my poem.
The poem details my worries and struggles with grades and school in general. I was inclined to write about this because grades are something that never really leave my mind. I always worry about my grades and my future being determined by my grades. The poems last section says;
“I am writing this poem for credit/So that I might worry about things/Better than my 67 in English” This describes my relationship with my schoolwork and my grades because I want to get past this point so that I can have better things to worry about than a judgment of my capabilities based off my schoolwork. Throughout the poem, I speak to the idea of many things I could do in my future. This shows that, not only am I plagued by my grades in the present but by my future possibilities as well. The poem is a refined yet true message about my internal struggles with grades and how these struggles influence my life.
I was inspired to write this because I, like many others, had the idea of writing a poem about writing a poem, but due to my everlasting anxiety about whether I’ll pass or not, a poem for credit seemed like a niche and new idea. I connect with everything I wrote in the text and it expresses my feelings and anxiety around grades in a very effective form. This poem made me dive straight into that which made me wince, before this, I chose to hide from my problems and through this poem I turned my problems into a product I am very proud of.
Poetry Reflection
My poem started and ended with the same message, but throughout it was molded and refined to display this message in greater and more clear detail. My poem started with a desire to put a spin on the “I’m going to write a poem about writing a poem.” The main tagline of my poem is “I’m writing the poem for credit.” This quote stayed the same all throughout my refining process. This was the message that I was determined to display, and because of this the poem shaped and formed around this line. The poem is divided into four sections, all reasons why I would write this poem. The first section describes my need to graduate, the most basic of reasons to do schoolwork. The second spoke to my need to impress my family as well as colleges, a deeper yet still visible reason to write the poem. The third is the largest and most descriptive, it describes my pessimism about the future, it details the jobs not entirely sought after, and that those are all I have to look forward to. The final section is also the shortest, It describes that I’m writing the poem for credit so that I don’t have to worry about grades. Out of these four sections the most affected were the 2nd and 3rd. The 2nd underwent a minor yet powerful change of wording.
“I am only a white name
On a black sheet”
Was changed to,
“A white name on a white sheet,
The black sheep on the blacklist”
This change was made to emphasize the original point while adding another as well as making the section flow better. The 3rd section received a small but useful bit of change.
“Fighting fires in california”
Was changed to,
“Spending 50 years in debt.”
This was done to really hammer in the pessimism portrayed in this entire section.
Many of the changes made in my poem were not very significant. Aside from some small word changes and a couple rewrites the poem stayed mostly true to the original, therefore keeping the original message intact. The most significant changes consisted of the change in the second section listed above as it opened up much more interpretation of my original meaning of that section.
The second major change was in the first section, it consisted of changed the word “GED” to “Diploma” and “More” to “Less” this was in favor of the general public and them perhaps not knowing what a GED is. It displays the same message while being able to be understood by the masses.
The third change was the replacement in the third section seen above. This change was made to emphasize the pessimistic view I was portraying, 50 years in debt is much worse than fighting fires. This change added some needed punch leading to the outro.
Joe Rioux
Stalin’s Secret Genocide
The Holodomor was a Soviet-induced famine that lasted from 1932-1933, the famine killed anywhere from 2 million to 10 million people. The famine was induced by the Soviet Union to weaken the Ukrainian people enough that the Soviet Union could control them without resistance. The Soviet forces removed all the food from the people's homes and took all the food they produced. The people soon started cannibalizing each other in large riots. Ukraine had been weakened severely by the time the famine was over. The famine/genocide, however, was hidden from most the world for most of the twentieth century. Soviet influence and propaganda made the exact number of deaths hard to pinpoint as the genocide had been mostly covered up by the time the world knew about it. I chose to research the cover up of the genocide as it is an interesting thing hiding the deaths of millions.
The Soviet involvement in the genocide was severe. They did most of the reaping of the Ukrainian food and, through their influence, closed off most of the country. The country was closed so the only thing the outside world heard from Ukraine was the propaganda shipped out by the Soviets. An example of how this propaganda affected the rest of the world is featured in this quote said by the American government after the genocide was over. “By camouflaging the extent of the Ukrainian famine as just food difficulties, Soviet authorities mixed small amounts of truth into their denial, thus making it more difficult to figure out what was actually happening.”(1) The Soviet propaganda was very effective in shaping what the rest of the world was aware of.
The people involved in the Holodomor were silenced during and after the genocide. The goal of the genocide was to weaken the government enough so that the Soviets could take over the country without resistance. Doing this they had to effectively silence the people of Ukraine. One Ukrainian during the genocide said, “Our collective farm workers do not have a piece of bread and there are those who have nothing at all and are swelling from famine.”(2) This quote spoke to the reality of the famine and its effect on the people. This is why the quotes of the people are small and at the bottom of the poster.
Stalin, despite him never being in Ukraine, had plenty to say about the genocide. Stalin said early in the staging of the Holodomor that “The Ukrainians have more than enough food.”(3) He said this to either rally or justify the taking of their food to his forces. Stalin gave many of the commanding orders during the Holodomor and this is why his quotes are positioned at the top of our poster.
I haven’t delved much into the artistic field and it shows in my general work quality, but I have delved quite a bit into writing which I believe also shows in the literature aspect of the poster. In doing this poster I focused mostly on the quotes and how they fit into each category. I really enjoy how me and my partner Nick’s ideas blended into a full project.
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“Letter to Stalin.” Received by Joseph Stalin, Baban Raion, 10 Feb. 1932, Baban Raion http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/hdocuments.htm#2
2. Sirko. “Summary of Letters on Grain Procurements and Famine from the Agitation and Mass Campaigns Department .” Received by Joseph Stalin, 28 Apr. 1932. http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/hdocuments.htm#4
3. “Letter from Stalin.” Received by To Kaganovich, 2 July 1932.
Joe Rioux
2/26/18
P.2-3
Project Reflection
What I’m most proud of, in context to my project, is that my partner and I had to restart the project a week before the exhibition date. We had spent the majority of the time working on the first draft and refining only to learn that the base image was not a vector and therefore it came out extremely pixelated when printed on the plotter in it’s full size. When this happened we had to completely remake the poster and it came out much better looking than the first draft.
If I had one more week to work on this I would incorporate more interactivity to my poster. It was more like a presentation than an interactive exhibit and this showed in my dialogue. Instead of letting the people discover the genocide themselves I presented it all to them and they didn’t have much time to ponder what they heard as they moved on to the other exhibits. I might have also refined the poster so that it was even more visually appealing.
This project proved difficult to produce as it was not able to be printed in full resolution due to an error my partner and I had made early in the process. This issue forced us to remake the entire poster in full resolution, using a different base image in the process. This changed the visual presentation of the poster greatly. This problem was for the better because the poster looked much better with the new design.
Over the semester we did this project I learned a lot about good note taking and research formatting. My research notes proved infinitely helpful in deciding what to put on my poster. If I had not organized them in an understandable way I would have struggled writing my artist statement and choosing what to put on my poster.