Poetic Forms: What Is Poetry?

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Poetic Forms: What Is Poetry?

 

Because I have such a love of poetry. And because the poem-a-day challenge was so much fun in April. And not just a little bit because my beautiful daughter has now penned two very lovely poems herself. I want to do something more than the weekly writing prompt.

I want to start with the very basics. As I hope to inspire more young writers to stretch their creativity and join in the fun. If you know a young writer that would like to participate, please send them a link to this blog! And reach out to me on the contact page of my website as well.

To begin with, I plan to post about Poetic Forms once a month. We can then practice using and writing in that form. 

(Side note: this timeline fell apart as I migrated websites from Wix to WordPress. I shall diligently endeavor to rectify that for 2024).

Today’s post is just to define what poetry is. The dictionary box on Google gives this simple definition:

po·et·ry (noun), literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.

Of course, styles vary with form. For instance, writing poetry about sharing my thoughts could look something like this:

In my head, thoughts race around.
I hurry to write them down.
I hand it to you and wait to see
If you'll like it at all or disagree.

 

or

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
I write what is said,
And so can you.

or

A word

out of place

may soon

reveal

the thoughts

I tried to hide

But couldn’t

These posts are not graded, kids. This isn’t school. This is fun. Experiment and create. If a particular form is posted and you are burning to share a different kind of poem, you do that. Poetic Forms is a post to spark creativity. It will hopefully introduce you to new concepts and help you grow as a writer, but it is certainly not a rule to be followed.

 

–WSH

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