Unveiling the Inner Artist: InterArts Cabinet of Curiosity

Cabinet of Clichés: Something out of Nothing

Throughout the semester, we have been reflecting on failure and an artist’s inherent need for perfection. For too long, I have viewed failure as something to avoid and resent rather something to learn from. No one improves on anything without the occasional failure, especially in art. As a writer, I always hope to stand out, or at least apart, from other writers. I want my original voice to shine through and make an impact. In writing and sharing my work, it is clear to see that it is difficult for your voice to stand out when you don’t know it yet. So much of writing and art is trial and error. For every beautiful poem or story I’ve written, there have been countless ugly ones. The trick is realizing that those ugly ones were still worth writing. I wouldn’t be able to recognize my good work without my bad work. Although art is subjective and what I think is terrible might speak to someone else, I see my work getting more creative and sophisticated over time. That’s exactly why I decided to write the worst poem I could for my final project! After all, writing is about enjoyment and self expression, and if I constantly ignore that in trying to make something perfect, I’ll lose that curiosity that made me love writing in the first place. Maybe it’s the burnout, but at this point in the semester I’d rather make something less meaningful and silly than try to be so profound that I stress myself out. This poem feels like the perfect exercise in what not to do in poetry, which in a way says more about my skill set than other writings I’ve done. I am able to recognize what I enjoy in poetry and do well by doing the exact opposite. I thought a cabinet of clichés was one of the best ways to do so:


Cabinet of Clichés
 

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Sugar is sweet

And so are you

 

The waves crash on the sand

The sun beats down

I can’t wait for us 

To ditch this small town

 

We’ll drive away

At the speed of light

Fit as a fiddle 

In the dark of the night

 

You’re a stroke of perfection

A diamond in the rough

You’ll be there for me 

When things get tough

 

I’m there for you 

When things get hard

When the cat has your tongue 

And fear haunts you like a graveyard 

 

While all that glitters isn’t gold

With every change in season

As autumn leaves start falling down 

I’ll love you without reason

 

Every cloud has a silver lining 

I feel it in my core

Time can heal all wounds

Though all is fair in love and war 

 

Your hand I will hold

Come high water or hell

Working for what we love

All’s well that ends well.


The research component of this object came from looking up every cliché in the book. Every line or simile I’ve tried to avoid in the name of originality is combined in this piece. There’s a type of freedom that came with writing this. I got to be as uncreative and carefree as possible. A line has been used to death? I’ll throw that one in here. It was a piece I worked on over time, and I think that was primarily because of how much I try to avoid clichés, even though they’re technically present in my life. It was a challenge to let myself be free to make mistakes and not try to correct them. This poem has no punctuation anywhere which is one of my biggest pet peeves in poetry. Along with that, I chose a very simple and commonly used rhyme scheme. Poetry is not supposed to ignore the rules of grammar and sentence structure just because it’s poetry, but to use and work with those rules to make a greater impact. However, writing this made me realize maybe it isn’t so wrong to ignore the rules and focus on what inspires you rather than what people say is good poetry.
 

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