Even if poetry isn't your "thing," the opportunities afforded by National Poetry Month can still broaden our exposure to poetry of different eras, genres, and forms. I've discovered some wonderful resources at poets.org, the most extensive and well-known site for serious poets. Here I have found The Poem of the Day which obviously sends me a new poem to my inbox each day, mostly by emerging and contemporary poets that I've very much enjoyed (if not completely understood). Other poems and information about poets, both contemporary and canonical, are available here, and it's simply a wonderful site.
Also on this web site is the link to NaPoWriMo - National Poetry Writing Month. The challenge: write a poem a day for the month of April. Tipping its hat to the vastly successful NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month each November in which participants are successful if they write 50,000 words of a novel, the NaPoWriMo project has plunged me back into composing poems on a daily basis, and even to play around with rhyme, a new venture for this "free verser." There's even a forum on the poets.org site set aside especially for those writing daily poems: NaPoWriMo.
Also in the spirit of National Poetry Month, I've joined TwiHaiku where one can use Twitter (140 characters) to write the classic Japanese poetry form of haiku: five syllables for the first line, seven syllables for the second line, and back to five syllables for the final line. It's quite fun and exposes one to a great deal of haiku from people all around the world ~ some even are posted in foreign languages. The TwiHaiku format even allows reviews of haiku, so that one can review other poets' haiku and receive feedback on one's own. Pretty cool stuff, that.
So if poetry really, truly isn't your "thing," may we suggest reading a poem a day rather than writing one? Appreciate this condensed form of writing in which every syllable is chosen with such deliberate care. And perhaps try writing a poem or two. It can't hurt, right?
Also on this web site is the link to NaPoWriMo - National Poetry Writing Month. The challenge: write a poem a day for the month of April. Tipping its hat to the vastly successful NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month each November in which participants are successful if they write 50,000 words of a novel, the NaPoWriMo project has plunged me back into composing poems on a daily basis, and even to play around with rhyme, a new venture for this "free verser." There's even a forum on the poets.org site set aside especially for those writing daily poems: NaPoWriMo.
Also in the spirit of National Poetry Month, I've joined TwiHaiku where one can use Twitter (140 characters) to write the classic Japanese poetry form of haiku: five syllables for the first line, seven syllables for the second line, and back to five syllables for the final line. It's quite fun and exposes one to a great deal of haiku from people all around the world ~ some even are posted in foreign languages. The TwiHaiku format even allows reviews of haiku, so that one can review other poets' haiku and receive feedback on one's own. Pretty cool stuff, that.
So if poetry really, truly isn't your "thing," may we suggest reading a poem a day rather than writing one? Appreciate this condensed form of writing in which every syllable is chosen with such deliberate care. And perhaps try writing a poem or two. It can't hurt, right?
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