My Experience with Poetry

Except for poetry assignments during school when I was a child, I have not written very much poetry until the last few years. So, I want to introduce the world of poetry to aspiring poets and offer the wisdom I have gleaned through self-discovery, experimentation and the simple joy of writing.

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All poetry copyright Mindy Makuta (aka MyFairLadyah) unless otherwise noted - Reprint with Permission

1. Writing Naught
2. On Being a Poet
3. If a Poet
4. A Poem Emerges Over Time
5. Reading Out Loud
6. Today I Waffle
7. My Poetry Journal
8. I Inaugurate This Journal
9. My Mind is a Melange of Ideas
10. You May Ask
11. The Current and Future of Poetry
12. On Posthumous Fame
13. Viva la Poesia!

After months of writing naught

My brain’s recharged to write as ought

No rhymes had come to me of late

This long hiatus made me wait

So now I write with full content

My prior days otherwise spent

Fear not you poets blocked for words

Look for a spark from little birds

That whisper whatnots in your ear

Allowing you to commandeer

A half-baked concept and knead it out

Causing more ideas to sprout

Such is my situation apropos

A spigot has turned a drip to flow

I haven't been a poet long

I've learned in my own way

If my poems be turned to song

I'd sing them on that day

So whilst for fame I wait

The words forming in my head

Are recorded fairly straight

'Fore I put myself to bed

If a poet paints a picture

With words upon a page

And a reader understands it

Though from a different age

Then the poet is like the painter

Sending messages through the ages

And quite like paint on canvas

Her words upon the pages

A poem emerges over time

I can not hurry it along

Until I find the proper rhyme

The iamb and meter of the song

Sometimes the raw words flow quite well

But oft I need to leave them be

To close the pages or the file

Revisit later when it suits me

Reading what I've written will

Expose the errs in the new piece

So I can then expunge and fill

And end the work for wide release

You will want to read A Poem Emerges Over Time - The Article

Journal, from the French jour meaning day

Requires at least a few words penned per day

This poetry book on the other hand

Does not a daily post demand

I inaugurate this journal given

To me with love

So that I might capture the verses

That I am thinking of

And put them on the paper

Along with other rhyme

To form a grand compendium

That over years of time

May inspire readers to ask

About this humble poet

Where & how & who she is

And not because they owe it

But, that the words are good

With a meter true to form

Relating tales and themes of everyday

And (perhaps), a twitch above the norm

What is it like to read my words out loud

To stand at a podium in front of a crowd

In hopes that my words aren't met with derision

That I speak with clarity, without indecision

Some genteel applause at the end is nice

Encouragement comes at such a fair price

Poetry, like prose, is not usually written exactly the way it ends up. There may be a number of reasons why an author ends up replacing a line of a verse with another line. The original line may not sound right because:

You are mixing grammatical elements or verb tenses

You are mixing language elements - like substituting thee for you at the last minute

You are rewriting a poem for a man that was written for a woman

Your inside joke won't be appreciated by the reader

One line is better suited to a different occasion or mood than another

And a host of other reasons

For example, here is a verse from a poem I wrote about Royalty

Nobility was just by matter of birth

And no matter that a man could think

If he weren't royal little chance of worth

Oh the unfairness if no blood link

But the verse was originally (pre-publication) written

Nobility was just by matter of birth

And no matter that a man could think

If he weren't royal little chance of worth

Now we would right away say: that stinks

I wrote it to amuse myself with modern thought and convention but on rereading and a comment from my daughter, replaced it with "Oh the unfairness ...."

Here's another example from the end of a sonnet about love

Yes, blessed am I to have my choice made

Our lives to live by soothing serenade

But this ending is funnier

Yes, blessed am I to have my choice made

Now, how in heck will this wedding be paid

Sitting by a creek with my eyes shielded from the sun

Today I waffle between writing and reading

A new book lays waiting looking neglected

But my brain is full of ideas to be heeding

This time, pencil on blank paper is selected

My mind is a melange of ideas

I need to focus, keep things clear

And give voice to 1 true thought

Through poetry 'twill be wrought

Why I Prefer Rhymes

You may ask why I prefer rhymes

Since beat poets and others free verse

Well, my thoughts come thus most times

So, for me, other forms may turn out worse

Yet, I have the license to write as I please

For example, to mix French among my words

Or to swap singular for plural like 'tree' for 'trees'

And have fun as I write of fountains, love and birds

I've finished a new lens

About where poetry will be

Will the old poets have friends

Or forgotten will they be

If someone thinks my work is good

I'd like to be alive to know it

A comment or a compliment would

Console a not-dead poet

translates to ---- Living Poetry

Is poetry a dying art

To be learnt in grade school

Is poetry a dying form

For greeting card designers

Nay I say, Viva la poesia!