April is National Poetry Month and at the beginning of the month, I said I would write a Poem A Day. It’s another thing that probably wouldn’t have happened if I was busy with afterschool activities and birthday parties. Well… I wrote 30 poems, but not one each day.
The first week I was great. I planed out a calendar with different kinds of poems I would try writing. They each had different rhyming structures, or syllable counts, or themes, and then I realized…
Poetry is HARD
I stuck with free verse for the rest of the month and rather than do one a day I did them in 4-5 poem sprints. I picked a topic and let the words flow. Once I let go of structure and trying to sound good my insecurities melted away. Most of what I wrote was a jumbled mess but each poem had at least one word or line or spark of magic. I’d call that a creative success.
Here’s one I’m particularly proud of.
Gratitude
Today I am grateful for
good pens,
spiralbound notebooks,
heated seats in my car…
A child’s laughter,
A siblings love,
A husband’s shoulders
Days I will never have to live again.
Dive into Poetry
Aside from trying my hand at writing poetry I also started reading it. My favorite poem of all time is, “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. It says so much with so few words.
A writer-friend of mine is a poet and was published in a volume of Chicken Soup for the Soul: I’m Speaking Now. You can buy a copy of the book here.
A beautiful poem and video about love by In-Q. A spoken word poet who says he is always “In Question.”
I’m so glad I took this little detour through poetry. It knocked me off balance just enough to open my mind and see that yes, poetry is hard, but the kind of hard that’s worth it.
In the next few months, I’m taking a deep dive into The Artist’s Way. It’s a 12-week spiritual journey into creativity. People have been recommending it to me for years and I’m finally committing. I’ll let you know how it goes.
