The inspiration for this article comes from an assignment in one of my classes, Introduction to Creative Writing. Now, don't get me wrong I love writing and reading in all forms and styles. I can appreciate the beauty of prose or of a poem. I am always fascinated with the way that words flow and connect. How, alone, one word is not impressive, but when strung together with others - can change your life.

Ever since I was little I've always enjoyed writing. I have oodles of notebooks at home filled with drawings and short sentences. Drawings and sentences that will never be finished or will never be made into stories. And I have always able to write decently well, or so I've been told. It has never been hard for me to write a paper or a story once I get a topic and really delve into it. But for some reason, I just cannot find myself to write poetry very easily - and sometimes I would prefer to not at all.

For one, I feel like I need a very deep and unique topic and sadly most of my poetry is a bland topic that someone somewhere has probably used before. I wrote about an airport terminal for my first poem of this semester and my second one is about passing out. Riveting, right? Not particularly. You see, the ideas seem forced and overused - as much as I try to put a new twist to them - and no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to find a topic that someone hasn't written about. Instead, I always find a topic and then find someone that can write about it better than me.

Secondly, I always have an internal debate about rhyme. Too much rhyme and it sounds like a joke, but not any and it seems like it could just be a piece of prose. Plus, it is always stressful having to find words that rhyme because what if I wanna use a word at the end of my line that doesn't rhyme with anything? My whole poem is basically screwed at that point and it's a horrible feeling. So most of the time I have to try to find the perfect mix - and even then it's either too much or not enough.

Next, let's discuss when to even do line breaks and stanza breaks? Because figuring out where those should be is crazy stressful. These breaks not only give your poem a pace, but it also helps to emphasize certain parts. Therefore, you have to be super cautious. I've found that I like to use a widow line at the end of my poems and that not many people support my decision to do so. It's like going 100 miles and hour and then hitting a wall, but how else am I supposed to get my point across or really show the reader what my poem is about? Now that's the stuff they don't teach you, instead they expect you to figure it out on your own - which I continue to struggle with.

Lastly, titles. No matter what I'm writing I always struggle with titles but poems seem even more difficult for the shear fact that you don't want to give away the ending of your poem. I spend more time figuring out a title and being clever instead of writing the poem. And I feel as though titles shouldn't be so difficult. Heck, could I get away without a title sometimes? I believe so.

So, as much as people tell me I'm good at writing poetry, it doesn't change the fact that it's stressful or that I'd rather be writing prose. Maybe someday I will grow to appreciate the art that is creating a poem, but until then I think I'm just going to complain.