Poetry Outloud: My Poem

  My poem for Poetry Outloud is "Retired Ballerinas, Central Park West" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. This poem describes ballerinas who have retired from their craft dancing through Central Park. During the summer after my tenth birthday my grandma took me to New York City. It was short trip, but very enjoyable. We took a horse and buggy ride around Central Park and I can picture in my minds eye these dancers and their companions, as described in the poem. Though I went in summer, and the poem depicts winter, I can still clearly imagine the poem. Ferlinghetti writes with such great imagery and descriptive word choice it is easy to mentally picture the poem.
  The meaning of my poem was harder to find at first because I just wanted to focus on the great imagery. I found the meaning though. The meaning is about seeing beyond what is right in front of you. It is about finding the beauty in everything. It is about not taking for granted what you have, and recognized what you have while it lasts. I think that this is a really good message, and that it relates to me a lot. I take things for granted a lot, and I forget about all the things that I have. I can be judgemental and I realize that I just need to let go and find something good about everything.
  When I am performing this poem I am going to change my tone of voice throughout the poem to reflect the meaning into the words. I am going to make a few gestures, but this poem doesn't really seem to need any so I'm not going to have too many. I am going to have my face be serious, but still have expressions. During the lines that seem darker I will be more serious, and when there is more whimsical imagery I will be more relaxed.