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Posts from the ‘Poetry’ Category

Apr 3

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Read and share your favorite poems during National Poetry Month

It’s time to celebrate poetry.

In the U.S., it’s National Poetry Month, and you’ll find plenty of ways to enjoy and share poetry this month. Attend a poetry reading (or organize one yourself), carry a poem in your pocket, or send someone a letter with a poem enclosed.

For more ways to celebrate National Poetry Month in your community, check out this list of 30 ideas.

If you’d like to enrich your life with poetry all year long, sign up to receive a poem a day via e-mail.

To mark this month, many state’s are holding events. Choose your state to find local poets, poems, events, literary journals, writing programs, poetry organizations, and more.

Feb 28

How one award-winning writer finds story ideas in unlikely places

I find that the oddest moments or most unlikely observations have a way of providing material for stories and poems.

In an interview with Amy Purcell, who won first place in The Writer magazine’s Short Story Contest, she says she loves nature, is an avid reader of National Geographic, and often tears out pages about subjects that could serve as metaphors. She uses imagery of bees in her award-winning story, Home Repair, which was inspired by a trip to Home Depot. (See the February 2013 issue for more details, including winning entries for second and third place).

Random interactions often reveal details and nuances of people that I find I can use in poetry. Last summer, a landscaper who was sleuthing the source of a leak in my yard’s irrigation system inspired a poem about the hardness of life. Read more

Jan 11

Carry a poem or other piece of writing for inspiration

What do you carry in your purse or wallet? Do the contents include a piece of writing?

One of my writer friends carries a letter she received from a man and his wife who aren’t related to her by blood but treat her as if she is their daughter. The man wrote the heartfelt letter telling her how proud they were of her and how they read her writing and share it with their friends and coworkers. The man taped two dollar bills to the letter and told her to buy herself an ice cream cone. When I read it I wanted to cry, it was so sweet.

I’ve known others who carry love notes, a fortune from a cookie, and poetry that has meaning. Read more

Dec 10

Three popular posts about fueling your writing through journaling

I was on a reorganizing binge recently and realized I had way too many notebooks, even for me, a notebookaholic. They’re full of notes from writing workshops and observations about life that I felt compelled to write down in case I could turn them into a story or poem. My next rainy day project is to review them and pull out the ideas to spark some new writing. If you’re like me and love journals, you might like these blog post from our archives.

A twist on the writer’s journal: The commonplace book is another approach to creating a journal.

Writing in a journal is a powerful way to create the bits and pieces that become literature. See how these writers did it.

For excellent tips about using a journal to record our evolution as writers, read, Two great reasons to keep a writing journal.

Nov 14

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Improve your power of observation: Write a poem a day

Do you want to be more observant? Try this: Write a poem a day.

I’ve been trying it and it’s taken my observational skills up a notch. Even if you don’t see yourself as a poet, try it anyway. Not only will you enhance your ability to see more of the world around you, you’ll begin to tune into your writing in a new way. You’ll become more conscious of words and their connotations. These skills will carry over into other forms of writing that you do.

Here are several tips that might help:

1. First, don’t freak out. Relax and just tell yourself that you’re going to go with the flow. You don’t have to write completely polished poems here. Just write. Your poem doesn’t even have to be “finished” the day you write it. Shoot for having a “draft.” Read more

Oct 5

Discover your art as you go along

Write something truly awful to find the good stuff. That’s what poet Brendan Constantine promotes in his post “Idle Hands are the Poet’s Playground: Brendan Constantine on Taking a Chance.”

“Furthermore, it will always be true that our poorest work lies ahead of us. We’re going to write something truly awful in the future. We have to. Why do we have to? It’s often the only way to uncover the good writing. Like going through a kitchen drawer, sometimes we have to take out things we don’t need in order to get at the things we do.” Read more

Jul 31

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How to write in your sleep

A few days ago, I had a flash of insight about a story I wanted to write. I quickly wrote out a draft and after making some changes, I looked at it and decided I was missing some of the deeper meaning.

I’m going to rely on my subconscious self to delve into the deeper meaning. I have a strategy to do this. If you’re also looking for ways to build out a piece of your writing, you may want to try it.

Here’s how:
1. Print a poem, short story, or a few pages of a manuscript you’re working on and read it right before you go to sleep. If you have any outstanding questions about its direction, write them in the margins of your page and think about them as you drift off to sleep. As you sleep, your story will be simmering in your subconscious. Read more

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