Here’s What Happened When I Wrote Poetry Every Day for 5 Months
Plain spoken inspiration & quick pointers
If you really want to change the world for yourself and your readers, write poetry. No other form of writing is quite like it.
This all began with the poetry month challenge, then a local poetry month challenge soon after, and then I thought, “Why not just keep this going?”
It’s a simple enough formula to follow, and yet there are infinite ways of combining these basic elements to create all kinds of new and exciting poems. The trick is to learn how to link ideas and find the connections between things.
So, I did. And then it kicked my butt. And then I kept writing poems. And it got harder. And I kept going anyway. Poetry changes you as nothing else can.
Here are just some of the many life lessons I learned writing poetry every single day for five months.
It isn’t easy, but it’s worth it
Let you in on a secret, writing poetry can be tough. I mean really tough. And it’s a whole lot tougher to writer it every single day for months on end.
A lot of writers like to brag about how easy writing is for them. But I think it’s more important to be upfront and real with you.
Writing poetry is going to be challenging. Just some blue jeans truth for you right there.
You’re going to hit a wall, find yourself repeating lines and poems and topics and you’re going to have days where it’s an absolute struggle to get the right words to slide in close to each other (without fighting).
But you know something? It isn’t easy but it’s definitely worth it. Stay with me here, let’s take a closer look.
Poetic form can help you find inspiration
As odd as it may seem, I take a lot of inspiration from the form of the poem I write. If there is any resistance to putting my thoughts on the page, knowing the shape and form that poem is supposed to take helps me overcome that resistance.
Writing Pantoums, or some variation of this form feels like home to me. I write a lot of poems in this style. I like it because I know the shape of it. I know its expectations. This doesn’t mean I follow that form or its expectations at the cost of the poem. Hardly. But it does mean that I can sit down, look at what lines are supposed to go where and how they’re all supposed to get along and have some overarching idea for how my thoughts can come together in poetry.
Just a few key ingredients are all it takes
Writing moving and gripping poetry really comes down to some key requirements:
- paying attention to the little details
- being prepared for the work
- being willing to rise to the occasion
- being able to meet the challenge
- being confident
It’s a simple enough formula to follow, and yet there are infinite ways of combining these basic elements to create all kinds of new and exciting poems. The trick is to learn how to link ideas and find the connections between things. That’s what feeds all of this in the end, connections.
Poetry shouldn’t be as complicated as we sometimes make it
Much of the resistance any one of us might feel toward writing poetry probably has more to do with what you think poetry has to sound like, how it has to look and read, and a lot less to do with your actual ability or confidence in it.
Think about this, if you know you have something important to say and have some ideas for how to say it, what’s really stopping you from writing it down? Likely it’s because of some expectation you have and are projecting onto poetry and the poetic form. In other words, it probably has something to do with what you think a good poem should look like, sound like, or read like.
Flowery language, rhyming, perfect form, balanced stanzas, high language, and smart diction, that’s what we expect of poetry, right? But why? Who says poetry has to take any of these shapes or forms? Has to live up to any of these expectations?
What if you were to just write what you’re feeling, get it all out there, and then came back later when you’re editing and revising and worked all of those feelings into a form or shape? Or no shape at all, you just tightened its connections and revised it for flow and grammar? Why not? Who’s stopping you besides yourself?
Poetry says what no other genre of writing can
Writing so many poems has taught me a lot about myself, my work, and the special language of poetry itself. I find most of my poems on the daily walks I take along little country back roads. I leave home without a plot, a plan, or a poem, and usually come back with ideas brimming.
How? Because poetry isn’t confined to paper pages or digital words bleeding across little screens. It’s untamed, wild, and it’s out there, in the world, just beyond your reach. Poetry is an enticement to more and more curiosity. An invitation to not only eat and be full but to fast and know hunger.
Hunger drives us, it’s instinctual. Poetry taps into similar primal truths. It asks us to try and capture something of our soul and essence with an entanglement of words, written in an imaginative and heartfelt language. It is written in ink only half as much as it is written in soul and spirit.
Conclusion
Should you take up a daily poetry writing routine? Maybe, that’s entirely up to you. But if you decide to, remember to keep it flexible. Give yourself, and your imagination, the time and energy writing poems can take.
Don’t expect things to be easy, be prepared for the surprises. There are few better tools for writing moving poetry than attention to details and a well-trained imagination that can link ideas together. If you’re willing to lean into the challenge, and to pay attention to the links connecting things — sometimes unexpectedly — you’ll find your poetic voice growing, getting richer, fuller, and saying more.
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