Contest entry--me

1. How old are you?
17

2. What grade are you in?
12th...wow, writing that makes me really realize that.

3. How long have you been writing poetry?
Since I was seven.

4. When did you join AP and did joining inspire you to write more poetry?
I joined AP in August 2005.  It inspired me to write more because I found new styles of poetry and found poems that I really liked that made me want to improve my writing.

5. How would you say you have improved during your stay on AP? 
I have developed better meter and rhyme, and my sonnets are much better.  I don't use extraneous words or phrases as often, and my writing isn't quite as archaic as it was before.

6. How many Gold trophies have you won?
Two

7. How many Silver trophies have you won?
Three

8. How many Bronze trophies have you won?
Three

9. How many Green (HM) trophies have you won?
Four

10. How many Blue (class) trophies have you earned?
None

11. What's better to write, form poetry or free verse?
I normally write form poetry, but I have written a few free verse pieces.  I prefer to write structured poetry, because there is a beauty in the form that is absent in free verse.

12. What's better to read, form poetry or free verse? 
Again, I like both, but because of the great amount of free verse poetry that is just words dropped onto a page, I normally prefer to read form poetry. 

13. What subjects do you like to write about the most? 
Life, love, death, time and eternity, places and cultures, myths and legends.

14. What is your AP user name and how did you choose it?  Has it changed at all in your stay on AP? 
My AP username is AerinAlanna, which is what it started as, even though it has changed over the years.  Aerin came from Robin McKinley's book "The Hero and the Crown" and Alanna came from Tamora Pierce's "Song of the Lioness" quartet.  Both characters embody parts of me that I tend to forget if not reminded of them often, and the name has come to define me.

15. What is your real first name and do you like it?  Why or why not?  What would you change it to if you didn't like it?
My name is Amanda.  I like the name, because it is elegant, classic, and flowing.  It comes easily off the tongue and is not difficult to spell or pronounce.  If I were to change my name, I would change it to Katherine, which has long been one of my favorite names.

16. Do you write books, stories, or songs along with your poetry?  If so, what about? 
I write everything: books, short stories, songs, essays, and poetry.  I write stories about the greatness of humanity and the variety of ways in which it is shown.  I write songs about love and life, about the sadness and the bittersweetness of the life-story we experience.

17. How often are you on AP?  Do you write even when you are offline? 
I check AP about once every two days or so, depending on how much time I have.  I write constantly, whenever the words or images come into my mind.  Writing is my hobby, my release, my refreshment, and my life.

18. In your opinion, what makes a great poet?
A great poet is one who cannot be emulated by others, who takes a subject and looks at it in ways that no one ever has, and then shows others through his words what he has seen in a way that is different every time it is read.  A great poet is indomitable, unusual, and fresh.

19. Give me a link to one of your favorite poems that you have written.  Tell me what makes you so proud of it.
http://allpoetry.com/poem/3509670 This is my favorite of the free-verse poems that I have written.  Although it is probably of lesser quality than some of my structured pieces, I am proud of it because it expressed something that I had wanted to express since my time in Paris this summer, but had not been able to write about.  I want to read it again when I am older, after another trip to Paris.

20. Give me a link to one of your favorite poems that you have read.  Tell me what makes you like it so much.

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/poems/pity_me_not.html  I first read this poem about five years ago, and I did not really understand it.  At the time, I was getting ready to go back to public school for the first time in three years, and I had never truly felt the pangs of love that was lost.  A few years later I came across it again, and found that it had much meaning and significance to me.  When we read it in English class this year, I explicated it and was touched by the strength of mind that the poet evidenced throughout the octave and the beginning of the sestet, which is only enhanced by her admission of emotional weakness in the couplet.  How true it is that no matter how stoic our minds are, our hearts can tear down the walls that we have built against emotional pain.