This week: Participation Matters Edited by: Annette  
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| “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.” ~ Allen Ginsberg |
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Participation Matters
For the longest time. My whole writing life since elementary school, I avoided writing poetry. Until this year. "Cards Against Authors" got me out of my shell. This game / activity is easy to take part in. The rules are clear. There aren't too many of them and they often leave enough wiggle room for even the most anti-poetry writer to find something to write. There are prompts and forms, words and shapes to keep. Each week is different.
Poetry, like Mathematics and chess, or tennis and ju-jitsu, painting and sculpting, is a learned skill. You may not ever master it fully, whatever that means. But you can get better by taking part in poetry activities. Once you feel daring enough, enter contests with your poetry.
Each time you sit down to write poetry, let your mind wander and allow the images that a prompt inserted into your imagination to take shapes and then put them into words. The more you think about the next word, the more will want to bubble to the surface.
There is so much that can be expressed with poetry where stories and novels are too wordy, too needy of explicit explanations. Poetry can find a few words to say a lot. Haiku poets take great pride in creating whole worlds in just a few, select syllables.
Where novels and short stories have a few, pretty much set in stone rules, poetry is free. Poetry has taken the liberty to force writers into stanzas, syllables, rhymes, shapes, lengths, and more. Even with these many rules, which can feel restrictive, they aren't restrictive at all - because there will always be a poetry form that fits the poem that you want to use for your creative output.
No matter what you want to express, you can do it with poetry. Give it a try if you were previously shy.
How many types of poetry have you attempted?
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My last (and only) Poetry newsletter was from 2015. "Poetry and You" asked What qualifies you to review poetry?
Ren the Klutz!  replied: Funny, I just completed a writing course at the University of Iowa and even the professors and a past Poet Laureate mentioned that poets and readers will often not get the same thing from the same poem and they do not have to. If you enjoy reading the poem then that is terrific and if the poet enjoys writing it (which they should) then a great task is accomplished. Hardly ever in reviews do I get reviewers who enjoy the same thing from the same poem. Often each one will point out different lines they like and many think the poem means something other than what I intended. I've learned to accept that, unless they try to tell me what I mean. It can mean whatever it wants to them, as long as they enjoy the experience of reading it; it doesn't have to mean to them what it means to me to still be great. I hope more people will read poetry after reading your newsletter!
You are so right that nobody should tell you what YOU meant with a poem. I like that you understand that every reader will see your poetry differently, maybe even giving you a fresh look at your words.
stifa replied: This review of a non poet is fascinating and refreshing
Thank you!
alfred booth, wanbli ska replied: As a poet I often get reviews from people - poets and non-poets alike - not acquainted with the ins and outs of contemporary poetry and downgrade my work for my stylistic lack of punctuation and capitalization. It takes a certain amount of intelligence to appreciate poetry and my own experience has proved that it's better to stay away from reviewing what you do not know.
I definitely agree that poetry should never be graded on capitalization or punctuation. It's a different kind of writing. To outright declare people who don't vibe with your poetry as unintelligent reflects more on you than on the reviewers. |
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Poetry: February 19, 2025 Issue [#12986]
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