Risky Words Are Important to the Poet

I was digging out more Donald Graves gold yesterday as I continued reading, 'Children Want To Write, Ed Penny Kittle &Thomas Newkirk.' Don wrote that:

'Writing develops courage. Writers leave the anonymity shelter and offer to scrutiny their interior language, feelings and thought.'

He likened the writer to a person with their skin off. I am continually imploring writers of all ages to be brave and meet the challenge head on...

I came across this poem, that connects to the theme of becoming brave and fearless writers. I share it in the spirit of removing the cloak of anonymity and displaying a measure of courage.

Risky Words

I sit at my desk some mornings

Confronted by slips of paper

Scribbled lists

And a head full of loosely connected thoughts

Fragments of a dream perhaps

I link them tenuously in my morning mind

Sorting them

Before writing…

I must remain courageous

I must a risk taker be

And write to the edges of thought and idea

Remembering always

The best writing

Requires such daring

Memories like ghosts float by

Lingering for just enough time

To explode in my head

I recall

I record

And words spill across the pages of my humble notebook

I am living life twice

Scribing questionable versions of reclaimed truths

My voice

My choice

Comments

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York. I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,' Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not e

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant. A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden

Search This Blog