The Devil’s Advocate
Written in March of 2017
He who does not withhold his wit nor demeanor.
His conversation travels a two-way road filled with intersections and roundabouts.
He understands that his words are not to be redeemed.
A man whose beliefs are strong and sure, but longs to walk on both sides of the path without crossing the dotted line.
A jack of all trades who fears commitment, but was called upon to embrace his true purpose through mediation and moderation.
Nevertheless, communication is irreversible and concrete to its full intention.
Open his eyes and see that contemporary conversation is much like wine that longs to be restored unto water.
For only water may be used to quench the thirst of those it has abandoned.
After stumbling across The Devil’s Advocate poem this morning, I instantly recognized a variety of things that I really liked about this piece. Upon further reading, I also found an assortment of things that I thought I could improve on.
To start it all off, the reason why I was searching through my old journal is because I have not been writing nearly as much as I feel I should be. Part of this situation roots itself in my new found hobby of editing pictures on GIMP. Nevertheless, I feel like I could use some writing momentum to jump right back into writing poetry. I have picked up a new book that serves as an introduction into poetry. As a result, I now realize that I have not been using any form of structure or prose within my writing. My mission now is to cover the fundamentals of poetry prior to my attempt at writing a collection.
There are 2 main aspects of The Devil’s Advocate that I am proud of when observing in hindsight:
- I am proud of the message and theme being addressed
- I am proud of the subjective connotation that encourages the reader to look over the poem more than once.
At the time of writing, I was taking a Human Communication and Technology class at Texas State University. I was also reading a lot of books that revolved around mindfulness which paired well with the lessons being taught in class. I was really frustrated with how little people talked around campus and even more frustrated at the amount of students walking around staring at their phones. The Devil’s Advocate lays out this hope for a genuine conversation.
Finally, the two main points that I think I could have done better are:
- The Poem is confusing and hard to follow along.
- There is not nearly enough Imagery of the road. I think more imagery would allow the reader to better grasp the message underneath.
All in all, I feel more confident now that I have started learning the fundamentals of poetry, and I am excited to finish the Introductory book. Hopefully next time I post about a poem I will have already grasped the concept of rhythm and structure. Thanks for reading and I hope to hear your thoughts soon!
Semi-Poetic 