I call myself an occasional poet. By that I mean I write poetry when something moves me deeply. Unlike some of my friends who are accomplished and prize winning poets - and seem to be able to create something beautiful without too much anguish or soul searching - my poems take much rewriting and even when they are finished, rarely leave me entirely satisfied with them. Even the one I did place with in a competition has never felt quite as good as I would have liked it to be.
Despite this I keep trying and that is why this post by poet Katy Evans-Bush for UK National Poetry Day on her Baroque in Hackney blog resonated with me. While the suggestions she makes are aimed at encouraging participation in National Poetry Day it seems to me that they can be just as useful on how to make poetry, whether your own or someone else's, part of your life anytime, anywhere.
2 comments:
I seldom read poetry, but every now and then I get the urge to immerse myself in the stuff, and will spend a full day doing nothing but read verse. Like you, I'm an occasional poet and usually my poems come out as sonnets. However, I have only been happy with two that I've written as an adult so I won't have much to leave to posterity!
If you'd like to read some of my lesser efforts, check out this old blog post: http://satimaflavell.blogspot.com.au/2007/12/when-all-else-fails-keep-busy.html
We got quite a bit of versification going in the comments!
I'm in awe of anyone who can write a sonnet, Satima. Despite my many attempts, the only time I ever managed any set form was a ghazal and I'm not sure how I managed that.
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