I have both loved and hated working with the Muse throughout the semester. The Muse has been a great tool in helping me dig deeper and show more emotion in my poems. It also allows a greater range of imagination and word choice. In using the Muse I have been relating a lot of my work to my childhood and experiences that have occurred earlier on in my life. I have realized that when I was younger I had better sensual perception and made connections not just based upon what I saw but also on what things sounded or smelt like. This made it easier to add more concrete details into my poems and make the words on the page more personal and specific to my life. The more specific I got the easier it was to write and make it all flow together. In making things more relatable to my life it is easier for other readers to understand the meaning I am trying to convey. They are not left confused about what I am trying to say like if I was to use broader concepts. Also in using the Muse I don't think about what I am writing I just let the words come out on the page. They might not be organized but they usually have good ideas that I can later revise and expand on. In not thinking so hard about what I am writing about, I have no limits or boundaries.
The Muse is also very frustrating which I have experienced through some of the exercises we did in class. I had difficult with having to look at a certain picture of listen to a song and then expand on it. I feel like I already had a set beginning or something that I needed to work off of which in a way confined my creativity. I like starting from nothing and letting my imagination take me wherever it goes. I find it easier to write more concrete poems given fewer directions and guidelines. All in all I think Muse work had provided the groundwork for not only writing better poetry but also writing in general. I now write more direct and to the point instead of using broad, rambling statements to get my point across.
