A poem I wrote last year for a school assignment. The Rationale is also here, if you are bothered to read it...

The Blank Screen

I don't know what to write;
My head is as empty as a lonesome heart,
I have nothing to say.
This blank screen
Is as torturing as a sword through the chest.

My Page is as white as a cloud on a summer's day;
My brain is floating in the Dead Sea,
So saturated in nothing
That no more thinking can squeeze in.

Why do the lonely souls
Dance with the moon? 
Why do I shiver with a mind full of blankness? 
Why do I sit here staring at the screen
Until my eyeballs turn to mush?

Shall I write about love?
Or do you like the sound of a tragedy?
I must think of something; 
or I shall fail this unit.

My brain is starting to melt,
In such hotness of my thinking.
Nothing lies there.
Just an image of a bright read 'F'
On my report.

Do I just give up?
Or shall I soldier on?
I am a person with no imagination;
I am a girl I am a girl with no boyfriend
To do my homework for me.

As I stare at my blank screen,
I'm starting to feel something,
It's a sudden wave of inspiration;
Filling the lonely bay in my head
With the waters of an idea.

Perhaps I'll write a poem 
After all.
About my poetry struggle,
About staring at a 
Blank Screen 

Rationale

This free verse poem is about an anonymous person who is struggling with the concept of writing a poem for their English class. They can't think of anything to write about, but want to persevere so they will get a decent mark. They know what they want to write about, but don't know how to deliver it on to the computer word document. The person knows that if he/she doesn't succeed they will fail the poetry unit for this class, explaining why they want to do so well. But really this person has an expectation put on themselves by mainly themselves and others. They have done so well in their English unit so far, that they feel if they fail this unit, they will be judged and other people. The persona thinks that his/her peers and themselves will be disappointed in them. They want to impress a certain person in their class, even though they don't even notice them most of the time. The anonymous person wants to be the best at something they do and then perhaps they will be noticed.

This poem is written in a way that tells that the person who wrote it may have poetry talent inside them somewhere, but they just don't know how to put it into context. They find poetry writing confusing and labourious, and just sit there not really how to let their idea out of the little box inside their head. The persona really wants to do something, so badly, that they finally decide to write a poem about how they have nothing to write about because their mind is empty. They want to do well in class but have run out of inspiration and they know they'll do something better later. The Resistant reading is that this poem may or may not be a true story, about somebody who I know very well. That is where I got my inspiration from.

I have used stanzas with varying lengths to show that the writer doesn't really know what they're doing. There are certain themes in each stanza. For example, in the third stanza, there are 3 rhetorical questions about the struggle of not knowing how and what to write. In the sixth stanza, in has metaphors which are a statement of identity. 'I am a person with no imagination', Tells us that the persona can't think at that moment, and has no creativity. This is also a hyperbole, because they obviously have imagination somewhere. If they had no creativity, they wouldn't be making up metaphors or trying to write poetry. 'I am a with no boyfriend to do my homework for me.' Is both a metaphor and an allusion towards my sister, who has one of her friends (who is a boy not a boyfriend) to help her with her homework. This metaphor tells us that the persona (whether a boy or girl) wants help with her poem, and wishes for guidance. In the second stanza there is a mix of both metaphors, similes and personification. 'My page is as white as a cloud on a summer's day' helps us visualise what the empty and plain screen looks like in front of her. 'My brain is floating in the Dead Sea, so saturated in nothing that no more thinking can squeeze in.' This metaphor tells us that the persona can't think of anything, and when she does try to think, it just brushes through their head quickly. It is also an allusion to the actual Dead Sea in Israel. It has so much salt in it, that humans just float on the surface. This phrase is also personification because the concept of thinking cannot literally squeeze into something. The phrase is also a hyperbole because the persona is over exaggerating, and is obviously thinking about something.

This poem reflects the expectations we put upon ourselves and how we need to aim for what is possible. If we aim too high, we may disappoint ourselves and feel like we didn't do anything to help our situation at all. The depth in this poem may not seem obvious and first, which is why the resistant reading is stronger.