‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’, he said, and that’s perhaps why the words from one of his poems, not joyous at all, but beautiful have stayed with me for over 45 years now! I’m talking of the poet John Keats. His poem ‘Ode To A Nightingale‘ tugged at my heartstrings the first time I heard it read out and now all these years later, I can almost recite it by heart.
I don’t write poetry, but I love it.
Beth Kempton invited us to ask ourselves :What is poetry? What is a poem?
I don’t write poetry. I read it slowly. I underline lines. I copy phrases into notebooks. I pause when a sentence lands somewhere tender and true. Poetry has always felt like something I admire from a little distance—beautiful, mysterious, slightly intimidating.
I’ve also realised that despite all the ‘rules’ of rhythm and metre, there are times when an experience, a prompt or even another poem will move me to write something that feels like a poem! Ah! The feels!
Every now and then, I come across an exercise, a prompt or even another poem that moves me to attempt my version of a peom. It feels like a way of paying attention. More about expressing my deepest feelings in verse of some form.
I found this online and thought I’d share it with you:
12 Ways to Write a Poem
- Make a list of five things you did today, in the order you did them.
- Quickly write down three colors.
- Write down a dream. If you can’t remember one, make it up.
- Take 15 minutes to write an early childhood memory, using language a child would use.
- Write a forbidden thought, to someone who would understand.
- Write a forbidden thought, to someone who would not.
- Make a list of five of your favorite “transitional objects.” Choose one and describe it in detail.
- Write down three questions you’d ask as if they were the last questions you could ever ask.
- Write down an aphorism (e.g. “A stitch in time saves nine”).
- Write down three slant rhymes, pairs of words that share one or two consonants rather than vowels (moon/mine and long/thing are slant rhymes).
- Write three things people have said to you in the past 48 hours. Quote them as closely as you can.
- Write the last extreme pain you had, emotional or physical. If the pain were an animal, what animal would it be? Describe the animal.
So although, I could take the time to really learn the art of writing poetry, for now, I’ll settle on keeping it simple. Enjoy reading poems. Share them with others. And when the muse calls, attempt to write my version of a poem!
What about you? Do you write poems? Do you love them? Or do you think they’re too complicated to understand?
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