Poetophile
Poetry comes in various forms: haiku, ballad, free verse, sonnet, and more. All these styles are studied in Mr. Dick’s poetry class at Park High. One student taking his class, Vicki Gasparakis, junior, has written many of these types, from list poems to descriptive poetry focusing on something as simple as the color green.
Green is a poem Gasparakis wrote a while back; she explained that the assignment was to pick a color and then list things about that color, turning them into a poem later. The color green reminded her of a trip she had gone on to Dublin since her elder sister was starting college there. Dublin reminds her of her fondness for Irish folklore. The folklore would become the whole energy of her poem which is now her favorite that she’s written. Green became her favorite because it told a story that wasn’t so personal for her, just about a mysterious little deer in an Ireland-like setting.
Gasparakis enjoys all kinds of poetry and knows how to carry a good conversation on the subject. Formatting was one thing she said she wanted to get better at; after looking at other poets she felt that she could improve in that area. Passionate about the style of writing, she said that she is very much enjoying the class, and if the class hadn’t been offered by the school she had even planned to take it as an independent study to further pursue poetry. The one thing she disliked about the class was how much she had to analyze instead of getting in and just writing, saying she’d rather be more involved in a way. Writing is the part she prefers, “ I love being able to write poetry with all these new ideas,” she said.