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Posts from the ‘Poetry’ Category

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

Jun 29

See how other writers are following Ray Bradbury’s advice to read each day

Because reading is so important to learning the craft of writing, I wrote recently about the late Ray Bradbury’s advice to read a short story, a poem, and an essay each night.

So when I saw this post from Michael Haynes (@mohio73), who has also been influenced by Bradbury’s advice, I had to pass it on. Read more

May 21

How listening to poetry sparked my muse: ode to Billy Collins

Recently, while on a six-hour plane ride, I listened to former poet laureate Billy Collins’ CD “Billy Collins Live.” After the hilarious introduction by comedian and actor Bill Murray, Collins reads nearly thirty of his own poems.

As mentioned in a previous post, “Three Ways to Feed Your Muse,” I often find inspiration in other writer’s works. As I was listening to the flow of words and ideas from Mr. Collins, one particular poem nabbed me and before long I found myself writing a new poem. Read more

May 17

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How to use symbols in your writing

As a poet, I collect symbols. Because poems are usually shorter than novels, we have less space to get our meanings across, and a symbol can convey a mood or theme in a few words.

In a longer work like a novel, symbols can help deepen the plot, add to characterization, and expand themes.

But what exactly is a symbol? I like this definition from http://fictionwriting.about.com:

A symbol is a person, place, or thing that comes to represent an abstract idea or concept-it is anything that stands for something beyond itself. Read more

May 11

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A poem from my son in honor of Mother’s Day

 

One of the benefits of our recent remodel has been finding treasures as I put the house back together. Below is a poem I found that my son wrote when he was seven years old. He liked to create little booklets of poems and give them to me for special occasions–Mother’s Day or my birthday.

Books have been a part of my life since I was a young girl sitting on my mother’s lap, lulled by the stories she read to me. I, in turn, cherished reading books to my son when he was young. I guess you can say we have “book love” in our family. See for yourself:

Read more

May 1

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What I learned by reading poetry in front of the Rotary club

Yesterday was the last day of National Poetry Month. We had a fun month here in the Pacific Northwest. It seems as if each year, more and more local community organizations get involved in promoting the arts.

Last night, I joined eight other poets for a reading at a local Rotary Club where we were featured in their program. I almost didn’t go to the reading because reading your work in front of other poets who you know is one thing, but reading your work in front of a group of strangers with probably no poetry background is quite another.

But, forcing myself to go fearward, I attended the event and I’m glad I did. We ate great food, had fun, and shared our poetry with others in the community who weren’t familiar with poetry. And, I think we dispelled a few myths about poets along the way: only one poet wore a beret, only one poet wore all black, and nobody dangled a cigarette from their lips while reading (though one poet did read her poem “19 Cigarettes” about when she tried to quit smoking). Read more

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