Pillow Thoughts discussion

1. The first thing I learned about writing while reading this book was that rhyming can convey just as deep as a meaning and message than free verse poems or any other formatted poetry. This only applies to poetry within writing but it is something I have been pushing myself to apply to my pieces. Courtney exemplifies this in a hand full of her poems throughout this book. A spinet of one of her poems goes " connected beyond our quests as we lay face to face i want to stay caught tangled restless in these bottomless depths." Just the slightest bit of rhyming can still draw the reader in and not leave them thinking it's the normal " rhyming format " of poetry.

2. The second thing I learned about writing while diving into this book was that even in poetry writing you can add different types of language that aren't normally found, for example verbal irony. This is a literary device that isn't common to pick out in poetry writing but Courtney adds a sense of this throughout her poems. In which she writes one thing and means the other, using words to convey a meaning that is opposite of the literal meaning. Verbal irony is just one specific example that I learned and saw commonly used throughout her poetry. This is something that worked my mind, because it is something I have little knowledge about and how to go about adding this into a piece of poetry.

3. The third thing I learned about writing while reading this book was to include literary devices like personification and specific diction can add so much richness and life into writing in general. Showing that something is not human and giving it human like characteristics is something I have never really learned much about through writing. This really enhanced the meaning and the beauty of the poems that Courtney's book contains. I found her giving love and pain human characteristics like they were alive and that was something as I reader I found myself relating to more because of that literary device she used through those feelings to convey such a deeper message. She wasn't just talking about love or pain, she was giving them their own identity which is something I learned through this book.