Poetry

Once upon a time, my English comp professor asked me if I wrote poetry. Surprised, I admitted that I did. Apparently, my compositions had a lyrical quality to them that gave me away, at least according to the professor. He then expressed an interest in becoming my mentor and asked if he could read any of my poems or writing.

Strange the memories that pop up unexpectedly, isn’t it?

I never did give him any of my work. At that point in my life I already knew I wanted to write, but I wasn’t ready yet to share it.

In my “Poems” folder, I have 162 files. I know there are many more that I never got around to inputting into the computer. Once upon a time, I used to be a prolific poet, especially from the late ’90’s until 2003 or so. Am I any good? Who knows. Taste is subjective, but I do know I’d gotten out of the habit of penning poems in the margins of spirals, on paper napkins, or on the backs of receipts, and I wish I hadn’t.

One of my favorite things to write were what I called “Short Poems and One Lines”, which pretty much sums it up. While most of my poems extended single-spaced to half or three-quarters of a page, these were phrases or a few lines that just struck my fancy but didn’t really fit anywhere else. I figured I’d share them tomorrow, especially since I want to start encouraging the poetry mindset again.

But for now, here’s NiRei’s Unofficial Guide to Writing Poetry:

1. Write for the muse. The muse is both you and one step outside of you.
2. Limit editing to a minimum. Unlike prose, what’s written deep in the emotion of the moment is most often right. Editing can lessen the impact.
3. Play with words. This is more than just word choice. Follow rhythm, the ebb and flow of the beats, twist meanings, and question perceptions.
4. Learn the proper way to read a poem aloud. Lines that end with no punctuation have an almost imperceptible pause from one to the next.

That’s it! Poetry for me is the purest expression of my love for words, and it can be a good playground to tumble in. Never hurts to dabble. 😀