Be a poet
It’s National/Global Poetry Writing Month!
Every day in April, Napowrimo challenges anyone and everyone to write a poem. To be more exact, thirty poems in thirty days.
Sound intimidating? Poetry sometimes has a reputation for being elusive, esoteric, and inaccessible, which perhaps makes a celebratory month of writing poems a surprising choice. But the fact is, tens of millions of U.S. adults (about twelve percent in 2022, for example) read or listened to poetry. (source)
Why do so many people enjoy this art form? Through vivid language and imagery, poems can express emotions and thoughts in ways no other medium can match. The beauty of precise and artful poetic language stirs readers' passion and imagination in extraordinary ways.
Not to mention the range of poetry (from classical to comical) appeals to vastly different audiences. Try these sampled lines on for size:
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate ..." (Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare)
"Once upon a midnight dreary, While I pondered, weak and weary...” (The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe)
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” (The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost)
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
(The Lorax, Dr. Seuss)
"There is a place where the sidewalk ends and before the street begins, and there the grass grows soft and white, and there the sun burns crimson bright." (Where The Sidewalk Ends , Shel Silverstein)
“Our freedom of speech is freedom or death; We got to fight the powers that be; Lemme hear you say; Fight the power.” (Fight the Power, Public Enemy)
"For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it."(The Hill We Climb, Amanda Gorman)
Given the variety of poetic styles and approaches, maybe it’s not so scary after all to tackle a little poetry writing. A few tips inspired by MasterClass might be in order to boost the courage factor:
Start small—Try just a few lines in a haiku or short poem at first.
Paint a picture—Write words that describe vivid visual representations.
Don’t obsess—If the opening line isn’t perfect, keep going and fix it later.
Use literary devices—Metaphors, allegory, and imagery bring poems to life.
Tools can help—Use rhyming dictionaries, a thesaurus, or other resources to get the creative juices flowing.
Ready to give it a try? Here’s the first suggested prompt for 2025: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write – without consulting the book – a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that you remember having liked but that you haven’t read in a long time.
Guess the book (not sure it counts as a novel):
A pinch and a flinch from a raging Grinch,
Melted heart, love’s kickstart.
Nothing beats a failure but a try. Happy writing!