A. Seven Tips to Get the Poetry Party Started
Writing a poem can often feel daunting. The blank page (or screen) sometimes reveals more shadows than rays of inspiration. Luckily, for anyone in search of a poetic thumb (of any pigment, fragrance, or seed variety), when approached in a step-by-step form, the process is surprisingly friendly—and rewarding.
This quick guide will help you seed a poetry garden, from single lines to bouquets of book-worthy reads prepped to greet wherever the day might lead—whether a backyard patio at sunrise or a poetry reading!
Ready? Grab a bucket full of anticipation, some Bic ink, and a stack of recyclable paper (no lines needed) and prepare to seed originality.
Scan Your Natural Environment
Before putting pen to paper, or finger pad to keyboard, survey your surrounding landscape. Take note of the birds, the bees, and all objects (moving or stationary) in between. Inhale your environment—from sight to scent to backdrop frame. Neglect no stone or token of potential meaning. Settings are often more fertile than at first instinct. Don’t stop at your line of visibility. Scavenge for sensory meaning—the honk of the school bus, the goose, the gander, the hum of the laundry machine—in the mundane and the memory.
2. Germinate Grounds for Topic Generation
Clear your surroundings and setting of debris. Remove visible weeds, to-do lists, soggy cliches, and drained (cells and email tendencies) batteries. Turn down reports of failing resistance. Turn up background tunes—from pop music to Sinatra and make the most of their generative qualities. Once the ground is prepped for poetry, revisit the compass of nearby imagery. Look up--the blank sky hosts a canvas of opportunity. Look down--inchworms lead to ear worms. Leave expectations behind--bare feet often stumble then sashay across unexpected melodies. Let ideas swarm. Check behind nearby leaves--honeybees pollinate petals and potentially prolific and sweet phrasing.
3. Spread Nutrient-Rich Craft
It’s time to prime your pen for poetic steps that feel less daunting. When fertilizing for a title, an image, or a line, break form. Let your eyes wander and allow your mind to wonder. Subtle winds can yield strong verbs. Capture moments as they unfold- whether in traditional five-seven-five haiku or informal snippets dropped during a picket fence meet up. Reflect on your personal process for planting new seeds words.
Some friendly tips follow!
· Follow what flows in its most natural form.
· Water generously but wait patiently for the right verbs.
· Sprinkle end rhymes with hesitation. Do not hesitate to fall into a rhythm.
· Harvest curiosity about details. Detail daily peculiarities.
· Test and iterate your (s)oil’s pigmented properties.
· Rotate ink and keyboard tapping for optimal fertilization.
· Paddle in elements (e.g., alliteration, assonance, and figurative verse).
· Consider rotating schedules for planting new words.
· Symbolism often hides in plain sight. Pick it!
· Imagery sprouts when least expected. Capture it!
4. Pace Your Planting
Think carefully about what you hope to plant— truth or fiction? Formal sonnets or experimental diary entries? Dig as deep as needed to identify a subject. Don’t over-dig or over-plot a plan. Then, write without a care for the elements, whether seasonal or poetic. Once words flow like rain don’t take cover. Let the natural elements saturate the ground the paper depends on. What grows now can be pruned later, as needed.
5. Plot Your Growth Path
Struggling to sustain your momentum? Visit your local public library for free packets of inspiration. Tread slowly. Read widely. Pick words with strong pigments and unforgettably flavorful sensory qualities. Sprinkle description and vivid imagery generously. Avoid any notion of a perfect plot or poem. Remain open to unexpected pairings. Revel in the magic of a soon-to-full page of your own doing.
6. Pruning
Finally, it’s time to mold what you’ve grown. Keep track of versions and half-grown seeds with labels and clear file names. Save any plucked petals or stray twigs-- perhaps they’ll bloom a poem of their own. Consider revisiting overall structure when a piece is nimble and not yet confident in its bones. Workshop the poem when it’s near to final form.
7. Enjoy the Garden You’ve Grown!
After ample time to inhale the fresh scent of fresh words, pluck some stems and poems in whatever form! Share widely with friends, family, and the literary community. Remember—flowering poinsettias aren’t technically flowers and sunflowers come in more than seventy forms. Rethink what you think of the standard poem and see what blooms!
B. Petals, Poems and Guides to Poetic Florals and Flourish
Poetry is as varied as any bloom. With so many varieties of flowers, seeds, and poems – take your shot. Pen your own piece and bloom life on the moon!
- Some lilacs have a double form--rebel like a flower would.
- Add unusual flower terms--peach anemones, azaleas, bonsais, white egret orchids, a sacred lotus– each conjures its own gorgeously unique image. Do the same with your poem.
- Every petal—and pedal – has a story. Capture your daily routine for its unique imagery.
- Inhale an alphabet of color: forsythia. sweet Juliet rose, teddy bear sunflower, white bat flower, saffron crocus, bird of paradise, eucalyptus gum tree. Chew on this! Chew on that! Then blow a new bubble poem of flowering bulbs.
- Seed parrot tulips. Repetition is a welcome form of emphasis and rhythm in poetic gardens.
- Group stanzas of towering stalks and clean lines, then weed to redefine the desired form.
- Fertilize your poems with unexpected words.
- Continue to pick images and before you realize it, you’ll have a poetry bouquet!
C. Seeding Packet FAQs
Ready to pluck the Bic and push aside ambivalence? Why not? Poetry is secretly known as an alternate form of sunshine therapy.
We wish you a sun-drenched, sensory experience. Before you go to plant your poetry (hurry!), review a few affirmations and acknowledged queries.
1. From flowering towers of poetic terms to single stalks stanzas of serendipity, there’s no right size for a poetry bouquet.
2. Lines of seeds can end at their most natural resting point.
3. Rely on all senses. Inhale, but also touch, listen, and taste to optimize the poetic haul.
4. Green leaves with green flowers—redundancy is nature’s coveted vine and superpower. Poetry can follow.
5. Convert seasonal sniffles into new haiku. Pick one string of syllables. Pick two. Then reseed and rebloom.
6. Most of all, gift what your grow. Tuck a fresh poem in your pocket and gift it to whomever might need poetry’s power. Recite poems on the subway. Tape haibun to stop lights. Place a poem like you would a posie-- in the palm of a friend or stranger however nosy.
Happy planting poeting!
Jen Schneider is a community college educator who lives, works, and writes in small spaces in and around Philadelphia.