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Posts tagged ‘poetry’

Apr 25

Get your RDA of poetry here

As National Poetry Month draws to a close, make sure you get your RDA (recommended daily allowance) of poetry!

This 15-minute Ted.com talk by former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins  should give you the boost you need. With his trademark wit, Mr. Collins shares a project in which several of his poems were turned into animated films in a collaboration with the Sundance Channel. Five of them are included in this entertaining and inspiring talk — don’t miss the hilarious final poem!

Apr 13

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Three poetry sites to inspire your muse

In honor of National Poetry Month, here are three poetry websites I subscribe to and why:

Academy of American Poets at www.Poets.org.  I lead a busy life, so I especially love receiving the poem of the day in my email. I may not have time to peruse the entire site each day, but I do have time to open an email and read the poem of the day. I feel as if I’m enriching my life a poem at at time. Read more

Apr 11

A poem about a poem becoming a poem

Considering my love of all things related to writing, it makes sense that I like poems about writing.  A friend recently sent me the poem “Workshop” by Billy Collins–a poem about a poem becoming a poem.

You’ll have to read the poem to understand what I mean.

Collins’s poem sparked my own idea for a poem. Double bonus.

Exercise: Pick a favorite poem about writing and use it to inspire your own.

Happy National Poetry Month!

Apr 5

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A new poem for National Poetry Month

 

In honor of National Poetry Month, I’m posting one of my poems below. Ideas for poems are everywhere. Most of my ideas come from daily life–like this poem below, “A rice farmer from California.”

Please visit us again this month for more posts about poetry.

Read more

Mar 23

Super charge your writing with these three posts

In need of some creative fuel to finish off the week? Power up with this trio of blog posts about writing craft.

Marla Madison reviews Don’t Murder Your Mystery by Chris Roerden and reveals 11 tips to create compelling sample chapters that will entice readers to buy the whole book. As it turns out, these tips are just plain good writing advice.

Darcy Pattison at Fiction notes writes about her search for a scene to avoid a “sagging middle.” Learn more about her exploratory techniques and find other great links to scene writing tips.

Poets and writers of any genre will find a burst of creative energy from Keith Jennings’s guest post at The Write Practice about collecting and connecting images and words. At the end of the post, you’ll find a writing exercise to practice connecting the images you’ve collected.

Mar 13

Check out this poetry class in a book

I’ve always loved poetry. But it wasn’t until I studied for my MFA that I really began to delve into the craft of writing it after one of my advisors gave me the assignment to annotate poetry. By directing me to study poetry, she knew I would understand the power of words in a new way.

While poetry wasn’t my main focus, that taste of learning about it at a deeper level spurred me to continue studying on my own. Besides writing and reading poetry, I’ve found several books in which poets discuss their approach to writing. Read more

Feb 16

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Use this technique to create a poem from your subconscious writing fragments

In my last post, I wrote about a writing practice that I was using to try to generate material for poems, essays, and even memoir. If you joined me in my quest to write from the subconscious, you may be accumulating some wild pages of words by now. So I’m going to give you the next step in the practice.

When you have about 10 or 12 pages, pull them out of the drawer and read them. Highlight, underline, or circle anything that looks interesting, tugs at your chest, pings your brain, or just seems downright weird. You’ll find some material that is boring, odd, and exciting. You’ll likely not even remember writing it. Read more

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