I Was A Poet and Didn't Know It

Well, maybe I'm a poet - maybe not... the jury is still out, but I try on my poetic hat on occassion. There is a new magazine called Life Images by Somerset that is part of the family of artsy publications by Stampington and Company. It features 99% reader submitted content. They are looking for emotive photos with accompanying poetry, short stories or journalling. I decided to give it a try.

Now I know that not all poetry has to rhyme and that there are certain patterns (meter) or stanzaic rules I probably did not follow, but I had fun. Here's what I have submitted so far:

Sweet lonely child of stone and moss;
Anyone can sense your loss.
Your broken wing, your broken heart;
The sense of mourning you impart.
You guard a grave so small & deep;
As the shepherd guards His sheep.
Now safely in His loving care;
The soul you guard’s no longer there.
~Lisa Whipkey

Lines connecting - intersecting.
Yet divided - still two sided.
Parallel and paradigm,
As evening is to morn in time.
~Lisa Whipkey

So just what are the various forms of proper poetry anyway? Good new for me... there are LOTS, so my style is sure to be covered in there somewhere. AND more good news... puctuation rules are out the window when it comes to poetry. It's true. It is up to the writers discression whether to use a period, comma, semi-colon, dash or no punctuation at all. The one consideration is that poetry should be written with recitation in mind, so if you want the reader to pause, you better punctuate accordingly. This site illustrates how "Every poem you write has the possibility of being a new poem with the addition (or deletion) of just a few punctuation marks." which is kinda fun to play with.

While doing a quick research on writing poetry, I found this fun exercise that got my poetic juices flowing. In the end you end up with a poem written in the "Constructivist " form.

1. On the first line write a noun of your choice


2. On the second line write two adjectives joined by "and" to describe this noun


3. On the third line write a verb and an adverb to describe this noun in action


4. Start the fourth line with "like" or as followed by a comparison


5. Start the final line with "if only" followed by a wish

Rose
Gentle and Soft
Smelling Sweetly
like a baby's breath
If only your thorns were as endearing

Give it a try! It's pretty fun and kind of addiciting.