As National Poetry Month comes to a close, I want to offer you some ways to continue to integrate poetry into your lives. In my humble Creative Writing Major opinion, poetry should not be confined to one month of celebration, but should be celebrated whenever possible. Words are powerful and it’s brave for humans to let them impact us emotionally, especially when the author of such words is a complete stranger. We have the strange and wonderful ability to share feelings across a page or through soundwaves by simply being a poet willing to share their work with others. So I encourage you to let yourself be open to poetry even after April ends, and try out a new method to transform your life into a stanza.
Sign up for poets.org‘s daily email.
Poem-a-Day is a daily poetry newsletter of sorts that is delievered straight to your email. Now listen, I know most of you are already groaning over the thought of receiving yet another memo in your overflowing inbox. Augie is known for oversending notifications for events and the like. I can promise you though that this email will be worth it. You’ll be exposed to an artform not always used in classrooms and can use it to expand your liberal arts education on your own. Plus, you’re not burdened with the challenge of having to search for poetry to read because poets.org does all the work for you. How convenient!
You will not love every poem you receive. The beauty of poetry is finding the gem that you connect with amongst the rubble. Luckily you can just delete the iffy ones from your inbox and eagerly wait for the day when you star your first poem email.
Here’s the link where you can enter your email address to sign up: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem-day
Take out a book on poetry from the library.
The Thomas Tredway library is filled with books for Augustana students to use for the immense amount of research papers assigned in classes. But what about reading for pleasure? *cue collective gasp* I know, it’s a shocking concept that college kids would have time to read outside of the required texts. The good thing about poetry is that a lot of poems are short, so you’ll have time in your busy schedule to crack open a book and read a poem! Whether you take out a specific poet’s collective work or an overarching book about the craft, having the printed paper on hand will give you that extra push to dip into the realm of poetry on the daily.
Write.
You may not consider yourself a poet, but effort is everything. No one starts out being brilliant at their best skill. The creative writing professors here highly encourage their classes to write every day because that is the only way to improve. I’ve found that when I write every day, not everything I produce is good and that’s the point. I put everything down on the page and am able to sift through everything and work on deas until I create something I am proud of.
If the idea of writing poetry intimidates you, try starting out with a Haiku. They consist of three lines with 5-7-5 syllables respectively. Here’s a reference page for you to get guidelines and examples from: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/haiku-poetic-form
If writing in a form seems too restricting for you, free verse poetry can be what you start with. The Poetry Foundation website talks a bit about the non-guided format and has a link to examples here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/glossary-terms/detail/free-verse
Also keep in mind that poetry can be silly too! I often hear “I’m not that deep” or “I’m too happy to write that sad poetry stuff” when I tell my friends about the creative outlet. Not every poem has to be emotionally intense or contain a serious subject matter. Write about whatever makes you happy and know that your poetry is still valid regardless of what it contains.
Buy a magnetic poetry kit.
These precious kits include tiny magnets of words that you can use to make poems on your fridge (or any magnetic surface, of course. The original kit that includes over 300 words can be found here: https://magneticpoetry.com/collections/essentials/products/original-kit. For those of you who maybe don’t want to invest in a large set, they make small kits for specific themes here: https://magneticpoetry.com/collections/little-box-of-words. The perfect thing about these is that you don’t have to find the words to make your poetry- you merely use and rearrange the words already given to you!
Watch poetry videos or listen to podcasts.
Button Poetry is a great resource for anyone interested in the realm of slam poetry. Their YouTube page is filled with poets of all experience levels. Click around and you’re likely to find something that intrigues or excites you. Here’s their main page: http://www.youtube.com/user/ButtonPoetry
For podcasts, Poetry Foundation has a webpage you can start with: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audio
Many people think poetry is not accessible to everyone. I beg to differ. There are a plethora of ways to enter into the field and it’s all about finding which one best suits you!