4 Husky Poets

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Poetry Emulations and Reflections by Ava Marie Vaeth, Jaden Wang, John Wang, and Roman Emperor Constantine.

Emulated poetry and song sources: "If" by Rudyard Kipling, J.Cole's "Change", and "There's a Man in the Woods" (Animated Short Film by Jacob Streilein

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“If-” (Emulation) by Ava Marie

If I can keep to myself when all goes wrong

And you keep talking and blabbing all day long

If I can stop speaking when I am told

But you can’t quit the whispering, quite bold

If I can wait and wait all day

But you whine and complain away and away

Or when I look after myself and don’t rely 

I can calm myself and not at all cry

 

If you can grumble and groan all day

With all those minutes you could help yourself change

If you can dream and say you want those dreams

Wake up and sit up with such eyes that gleam

If you can listen and keep quiet

You’ll be able to take anything in

Or when someone says nothing but doom and despair

Keep smiling and all will be fair

 

If an old man wanted to be a painter

Would you stop him and say “you can’t be a creator”

If a little girl wanted to be an astronaut 

Would you laugh and point and say “you better not”

If your brother wanted to be a soccer player

Would you stare at him and say “you’d be a better ballplayer”

Or imagine if you said what you wanted to be

And everybody laughed because they just could not agree 

 

If anyone wants to be what they want to be

Don’t put them down, it’s embarrassing to see

If anyone wants to say something

Let them say it and don’t treat it as a dumb thing

If anyone wants to cry

Let them cry or else they’ll stay shy

Or when anyone wants to do anything at all

Allow them to do it, you’ll be a man afterall 

Reflection: In this poetry emulation, I used 4 Truby concepts: weakness + need, motivation/plan, and battle which leads to character self-revelation in my poetry. My goal was to be able to connect it with 培う so that the character could cultivate and grow better. I had started off the first stanza with the weakness + need of the person in the poem, and slowly made my way to writing about what the person could do to become a better person in the second stanza. In the third stanza, I implemented the battle of the person who treated others wrong/rude, and showed the reader that the person was also suffering by the end, since after all their wrong doings, they received the bad treatment back. In the last stanza, I wrote about how the person should act and how they would be a better “man” after all they had gone through if they did the things listed. Overall in the whole poem, I used the Truby concepts so that the reader will know that character growth comes from anything, including your personality and how you act towards others.

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“If You Would Grow” (Emulation) by Jaden

If you can face the mirror in the morning
And see not pride but purpose in your eyes
If you can meet the day without adorning
Yourself in masks or a well-rehearsed disguise
If you can seek the truth though it may scare you
And speak it through it earns the world’s disdain
If you can let the pain of failure char you
Yet rise and walk through fire again

If you can read and never bow to knowing
But let each page make space for something more
If you can feel your faults within you growing
And lend them like a garden to restore
If you can build a voice from honest labor
Not echoed from the loudest or the proud
If you can serve both stranger and your neighbor
And never need to say your worth out loud

If you can own your anger not be owned
And hold your silence when it would be cheap
If you can stand by friend when they’re disowned
Or walk alone when courage will not sleep
If you can greet your flaws without excusing
And shape them into lessons not regret
If you can spend a life in slow refining
And still believe your best may not be yet

If you can watch the world chase fast and hollow
While you choose roots instead of fleeting fame
If you can lead and still be proud to follow
And guard your soul when praise begins to swell
Yours is a life no riches could replace it
And you will grow a character that held

REFLECTION: I tried to emulate Rudyard Kipling’s “If—” by attempting to capture his structure and tone of wisdom. I followed the ABAB structure that Rudyard originally had in his poem. This gave my poem a nice, steady, and similar rhythm to the original poem. Furthermore, I also started the beginning of the second stanza with “If". This gave a more impactful start and hooks the reader's attention, as I used repetition. Starting with “If” gives a hypothetical thought at the beginning of each line.Finally, I stuck with a similar theme with the original poem throughout the entire emulation. Since I believe that this message is very important and related to our writing theme this year which is “Tsuchikau”. So I attempted to add more to the theme, while doing so I tried keeping both the original message and the theme. Not only that, I had tried experimenting with new vocabulary and ways in my writing since I wanted to try matching with the original.

Process: I read the poem multiple times to make sure I fully understand how Rudyard Kipling wrote this poem and how he had used his techniques. After doing so, I used AI by asking how I can use his techniques in my own writing. I practiced a bit with the help of AI. Once I got the hang of it, I started to do real emulation (this is where I stopped using AI). I started by writing a few rough drafts of the first stanza until I felt I had achieved somewhat close enough to the original. I wrote with the techniques I had learnt and remembered my theme, which was a blend between Tsuchikau and the original poem “If-”, and my main ideas in mind. Then I pieced together my poem, writing a few lines each class and a bit at home. The poem took about 2-3 weeks total, with each stanza taking roughly a week to complete. 

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“Reloaded” (Emulation) by John

V1
Every headline feel the same, just another name
Another mother cryin’, another frame of pain
Every march fade quick when the news move on
But the grief stay stitched in the quiet dawn
I walked past schools that feel like battlegrounds
Kids know the sound of shots before bell sounds
Prayers on hoodies, candle line the street
Another life lost where the lost still meet

Chorus
I know you desperate for a change, let your pen glide
But the only real change come from inside
The only real change come from inside
The only real change come from inside

V2
Glock in his hoodie, sixteen with a stare gone cold
City taught him fear before he learned control
He said, “It's either me or them, that’s how it go”
But no one told him that fear been runnin’ the show

Politicians talkin’ numbers, not names
Debates on screens, while parents drown in shame 
Ain’t no safety when the laws love steel 
You can’t heal a wound you refuse to feel

[Chorus]

V3
I seen some homie fade tryna prove they strong
But strength ain't killin, its admittin when you wrong
I ain’t here to preach, I’m just tired of graves 
Of young kings buried before they’re brave

I don't want no fame if the world still bleeds
Just peace on blocks where the siren feeds
Change ain’t laws, it’s hearts reborn
Reloaded souls, a new world sworn

[Chorus]

V4
Homie got hit walkin’ home from school
Wrong place, wrong time, another headline tool
His brother swore revenge, said, “This ain’t fair”
But that's how hate breathe its second air

The news ran clips till the views ran dry
Then silence took the block where his soul still lie
Another candle, another march, same fight
Another promise to change the night

Reflection: I have the vinyl of J. Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only, an album that’s always felt more like a story to me rather than just music. In fact, I only found out, after attentively replaying Cole’s clever wordplay, that this album was dedicated to his deceased friend James. Last year, I spent over 10,000 minutes playing Cole, drawn to how he turns real struggle into reflection. For ‘Reloaded’, I wanted to emulate that same weight; how he can rap about pain, pride, and purpose all in one breath. I followed the structure of Change, keeping Cole’s AABB rhyme pattern and the way he stretches emotion across each verse. Like him, I used pauses and repetition to give certain lines a space to breathe, to let the meaning sink in rather than rushing to rhyme. However, Cole ensures his smooth storytelling by incorporating longer verses paired with intros and outros. To not overcomplicate, I decided to shorten each verse on ‘Reloaded’ and exclude framings. I made sure each verse was built off the last and used a storytelling approach where vulnerability grows with every stanza to make up for this issue, mirroring the original. In the end, the process felt like more than imitation. I felt like it was a way to write with intention, and it let me cultivate something real through song and reflection.

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Dreams of Haumea by Roman

Dream of Haumea.

I trust you’ll make it right.

My dear, up for a fight?

How silly of you, my little ferrite.

Floating so far away from me…

 

When I was born, all I saw was void

All the rocks in creation, such drew forth sordid things

until they sorted into a fortified body shining like tin.

This one that arose struck me aroused.

I could no longer stand back

You were entitled to me, floating around away

I was yours.

And you were mine.

 

All those other horrid planets came about,

Including two: Theia, and Jupiter.

That small one came at ‘ya first in my horror

Your beautiful body collapsed like a vehicle crashing into a pillar.

I cried and cried tears of sorrow. But out of the calamity was beauty.

Your moon came into existence.

I don’t care much, that is the end of my issues with that.

Because you are still alive

 

Then there is my Red Spot.

I saw a megamassive meteor with a point on the top

headed  straight for you, my love.

I threw myself in the way of the space clot,

and from that I gained my bloodshot Red blotch.

I brutalized myself for you, Earth. And how do you return the favor?

Nothing, absolutely NOTHING?!

You give ALL the credit to Jupiter for stopping your meteorettes.

Because it’s bigger than me I bet.

I am deformed because of you.

I learned about you, I saved you, I love you, 

You blue bitch 

you don’t listen to me because of Jupiter and it gives me an itch

That you ditched me.

After all I did for you

 

I am on my way now, baby.

I have studied you and your children so longingly.

I will tell you now that

you must give up your children post-hastily

They erode your surface structure fascinatingly.

Interestingly, it doesn't seem to affect the rest of you.

What I love most about you,

Your Core

 

Here now I give you one last chance to take me in my whole

Say you are mine

Your children would answer to me, worship me, and you will love me how I want.

Like I said, I am on my way. IF I hear any other than an emphatic “yes” 

Then your loyalty to me will be put to the test.

 

Oh I see it now.

I live in sorrow, in my very marrow

I have been and will be lonely until tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

My time for love is due from you

and yet you say no.

You must live in sorrow too.

Yes it must be a job to Juipiter far away

The substance of Theia inside you

The cries of your children.

I will end it all for you my love.

We will collide in an explosion of ardor

Our suffering for being apart will forever end

in our deaths

I am approaching close orbit

You will forever dream of Haumea.