And nobody knows it but me.

I know I've heard that in a song -- not just that car commercial.

My poetry prof wrote on my paper that I got back today that I had talent as a poet. Albeit he said this in the context of "I expected better from a poet of your talent," but it's nice to know I have talent, anyway. Besides, the poem was only one-third of a grade lower than the last two, so it didn't hurt much, especially since I think I did pretty well in my presentantion last class. Yes, I had to be prompted for a line and hesitated near the end in my second poem, but it wasn't because I didn't know it but because I got progressively more nervous as I recited and thus started to panic and choke. You'd think that with all my poetry-reciting experience from forensics I'd be beyond stage fright, but I think forensics actually gave me stage fright by placing me among people who were better at it than me (or at least were thoroughly convinced they were). Oh well. I did a fabulous job with the first poem, "The Tyger," (one of my favorites), and I came back in the end with some insightful commentary, mostly just picked up from reading the textbook introduction, but a lot more than pretty much everyone else attempted. I know it sounds arrogant when I say that, but a lot of the performances and explanations were really just sad (which makes it all the worse that I got so nervous).

Anyway, I've felt some literary inspiration ever since then today. I had an idea for a story earlier, but now I've realized I've forgotten it. That sucks. I should attempt to remember tonight and sketch it out.

Today's classes just illustrated how very different the two types of writing I'm learning are. In one, language is transparent, simply a means to an end. In the other, language is opaque, an end in itself. I wonder if it's possible to synthesize the two.