#AuthorToolboxBlogHop and… Poetry

Have you ever noticed that while there’s a seemingly endless amount of books on the craft of writing novels there’s comparatively little about poetry? Now, I suppose one reason for this is that many new writers imagine that novel writing will be their ticket to fame and fortune, while poets are unfortunate souls who live in poverty. I say this as a poet. It’s true that I find more people who dream of writing a novel than those who aspire to publish a book of poetry.

Even if you don’t want to be a poet, writing poetry can be beneficial to your prose crafting! It’s all about language. So, for this month’s #AuthorToolboxBlogHop, I’m going to throw some poetic inspiration your way!

No, I’m not going to run you through drills on meter and forms. The best way to learn that, imho, is to read John Hollander’s Rhyme’s Reason. The explanations for each form are themselves examples of the form! Ingenious and highly entertaining. Much better than anything I could provide.

To get us primed, here’s a performance that really highlights of the language of poetry, the music in it.

If you don’t know where to start, try this! Christopher Gilbert provides an exercise he calls “Que Sera, Sera” and Other False Premises.’ You will need a poem for this- you can use ‘Bean Meditation’ by Laura Lamb Brown-Lavoie if you like. Take an assertion from a poem and regard it as a false premise. Write about how this false premise impacted or will impact you. This isn’t about writing a poem based on this premise as a prompt; it’s planting a seed. Like a bean!