Mechanical Poetry; Part Two

What do you do when you want to write poetry? I hope your answer is "I start writing." Even writing a bad poem is better than waiting for the "right words." You can always throw it away, and the process has begun. You'll start to find the words sooner than if you had just waited. Here are some more ways to get started.

Sing A Poem

Try a little experiment - alone in the basement if you must. Describe something, then describe it again, singing instead of talking. You'll notice the words you use change. Your sentences will generally be more rythmic. It is also easier to rhyme when you are singing.

Singing comes from the right side of the brain. This is the side that handles pattern-recognition. When you sing, you access this part of your brain, and you'll get ideas or patterns of words that are difficult for your analytical left-brain to create. Try it.

Start With Poetic Materials

You can create poetry by listing words most likely to result in decent poems. Look for emotional content, for example. "Love" and "worship" have more poetic potential than "like," right? Scan a book, pick out powerful words, and write them down. You may want to write words that rhyme with them alonside. Then start using them.

Say something dramatic, like "I sing of death," or "Your eyes called out." Try to let it come from somewhere deep inside you. Then start explaining what it might mean. This will almost certainly give you material for a poem.

Play with short verses, long verses, rhyming and non-rhyming poems. Try haiku. Try writing down your thoughts as fast as you can, without stopping. Don't worry about quality at this point. You just need to get that creative mind working. Then, when you find gems in all the dirt, you can start polishing them.

Steve Gillman has been playing with poetry for thirty years. He and his wife Ana created the game "Deal-A-Poem," which can be accessed for free at: http://www.dealapoem.com

Los Angeles Times

A totally Californian poet laureate Los Angeles Times He'd like to make the entire state a democratic, virtual poetry workshop. Professor Juan Felipe Herrera, recently appointed California's poet laureate by Gov. Jerry Brown, leads a poetry workshop at UC Riverside. (Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times / April ...

PBS (blog)

Poetry Out Loud Makes Beautiful Noise Huffington Post (blog) Kristen Dupard, a high school senior from Mississippi, won the 2012 Poetry Out Loud national recitation contest on Tuesday. It was a long road for Kristen, who had to advance from her classroom to a school-wide competition, then on through ... Conversation: Kristen Dupard, 2012 Poetry Out Loud National ChampionPBS (blog) all 2 news articles »

Letting Jazz Have a Turn Interpreting the Poets New York Times Each was about the length of an LP and based on a book of poetry. “God's Trombones” drew on the 1927 work of the same name by James Weldon Johnson, seven connected poems using the rhetoric of the black American church service; “Inferno” drew on Dante.

Roselle Park's Poet Laureate Leona M. Seufert scheduled for two readings in June Suburban News By Suburban News Roselle Park's Poet Laureate Leona M. Seufert will be reading at the Third Unity in Prayer Gathering on Sunday, June 3 and as part of the entertainment billing at the Church of the Assumption's St. Anthony's Italian Feast on Saturday, ...

Poetic novel proves the power of small publishers Victoria Times Colonist She moves seamlessly between poetry and prose in the pages of Leaving Now, writing with an obvious respect for language. By making the choice to incorporate as much poetry into the novel as she does, Paré limits the actual number of words that makes up ... and more »

Block Island Times

Poets rock the island Block Island Times By Judy Tierney | May 20, 2012 Photo by: Malcolm Greenaway World-class poets Coleman Barks (left) and Billy Collins (right) mugged with Island Bound owner Cindy Lasser and props from around her bookstore. “Does it get any better than this?

Daily Mail

RAISINA TATTLE: A poetry session Daily Mail By Raisina Tattle A discussion on minority rights in the Rajya Sabha last week lapsed into a poetry session. Union minister Salman Khurshid gave back as good as he got from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Muslim face from Uttar Pradesh Mukhtar Abbas ...

Minneapolis Star Tribune

POETRY: "The Alphabet Not Unlike the World," by Katrina Vandenberg Minneapolis Star Tribune With the dominance of the personal lyric, much contemporary poetry feels like that moth: a moment frozen in time and sealed off from the world as if the poet is afraid they will get it wrong if they venture outside their own experience.

Scranton Times-Tribune

Wilkes remembers Scranton poet 800 receive degrees; daughter who lost battle ... Scranton Times-Tribune Ed and Anita Diskin, both 67, walked across the stage to receive a Master of Fine Arts in poetry for their daughter, Jennifer Diskin, also of Scranton, who died in December after a long battle with Hodgkin lymphoma. She was 38. and more »

TheChronicleHerald.ca

Poet marries precision, compassion TheChronicleHerald.ca Monica Kidd, a doctor based in St. John's, is a novelist, poet, journalist and filmmaker. (Anita MacPherson) The human skull gracing Monica Kidd's new book of poetry, Handfuls of Bone, reminds me of a Heather Spears story told at Dalhousie's medical ...