Poem: Men in a herd

This was a poem I wrote for an online poetry course I completed a couple of months ago on Coursera, called Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop offered by CalArts (California Institute of the Arts). I must say it was a wonderful course. I learned a lot from it and I would really recommend any poetry enthusiasts reading this to enroll...this is one course you won't regret joining! :)

Anyways, so this poem was one I wrote in response to a prompt for a conceit. The prompt was called 'You Are So Conceited: When A Metaphor Isn't Tough Enough'. A conceit is basically when you write up a comparison between two totally different subjects and is a kind of extended metaphor. 

I chose to write a comparison between men and sheep, and in my poem tried to highlight how similar they both are in the way they choose to walk in a herd and follow the rest of their kind instead of thinking for themselves. (Later on, however, I realized that this comparison was too simple, hehe ;P)

Even though I studied lots of different types of meter, this poem doesn't follow any. But I do think it sounds poetic and each stanza has seven lines (well, that was almost a coincidence). Anyway, the meters thing still seems appealing to me, and I will write an Iambic Pentameter someday, Insha Allah. :)
So here's the poem I wrote. Credit goes to other course students who helped me improve the poem by workshopping it (the course was basically a poetry workshop, in which students were required to submit their poems for review by fellow students and give feedback to fellow students on their poems, and revise their poems based on the feedback they received.).This poem would have definitely been impossible without the feedback students from the course gave me. :)

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MEN IN A HERD

One

before

the

other –

Like beads in a rosary,

They follow each other –

in an unending, perpetual cycle

like sheep in a herd,

each walks behind

the other,

none risking to deviate;

none daring to wonder;

where exactly this journey will lead

them to

Each hopes for greener pastures,

with sweeter grass and

brighter sun

but none is sure

exactly where

this trek will

lead them to

like men

who do not know

where they are headed for,

for they are only

just

following

the crowd.