The Poetry Thread

So a lot of the misconceptions I hear about poetry are:

1. It has to rhyme
2. It’s for the romantics
3. It’s too difficult to understand

None of that is true! We’re going to break it down, and I’ll post a new thread with my poetry recommendations

I was hesistant to write poetry at first because I cannot rhyme words that have more than three letters in them. But once you begin to expand your reading you find there are many, many types of poetry structures, and my favorite is free form, which non rhyming, instructed form

A lot of people think you have to write poetry about highly emotional experiences or timeframes. While poetry is a great way to sneakily tap away at your deepest thoughts and feelings, it can be about anything. And everything. It could be the voice of a character you like -

A funny limerick, an ode to your pet. I adore writing poems when I’m very angry to let it all out and then throw them away. People use poems as diaries, as a time pass, and as a tool for self reflection and moving on. Remember, no one else will see them unless you want them too.

Sometimes the poetry you are introduced to is important to your perception of the art. A lot of widely known poems are filled with archaic language (old, not used in the modern space language) but there are plenty of famous, old and new poems that are very accessible and easy to-

Read. You can write and read poems that use slang, made up words, old words, nonsense words. What’s important is that you can take some meaning from what you’ve read. There is never a correct interpretation, just yours.

Explore different types of poetry and see what you like. I enjoy Spoken Word poetry, and travel around as many poetry events as I can reading my poems and meeting new poets. This is a great way to stay motivated and learn more. Share poems with your friends, online, anywhere.

Poetry is everywhere. Poets moreso. Follow poets big and small, on Instagram, Tumblr, even here on twitter (feel free to plug yourselves if you’re a poet).