So, I made it to the end of January with just over thirty-one poems! Yay! Some are the worst kind of poo ever written. Some are adequate. Some aren’t really finished. Some I felt good enough about to post on Wednesdays through the month. So, what did I learn? What did I get out of this exercise? Well, first I’m going to admit that I didn’t actually write a poem every single day, but I definitely wrote 31 poems in 31 days, so I’m happy with that. (Sometimes you have to swap big-late-night-fun with write-two-poems-in-one-day!) I learned that it doesn’t take a lot of time to jot down a few lines of verse. I learned that a poem doesn’t have to be amazing the first time from head to paper. I learned that most poems are not like that. I learned that writing a poem a day makes me stop and get in touch with myself: what am I feeling that I want to write a poem about?; what is inspiring me? Which is good because I tend to spend a lot of time in my own head with my thoughts and less time in my own heart with my feelings. I learned that the more I write poetry the more poetry I write. I learned that the more I write poetry the more I want to write poetry. I learned that I want to spend time working on a poem. Writing a brand new poem every day is awesome, but sometimes I need to work on it. Mull it over. Find new words. Find more words. Throw out words. I don’t know if I’ll keep up my poem a day practice – it seems a good one. What I do know is that I don’t want to lose the elasticity I seem to have found in my brain. I used to feel like I had to wait for a poem to come to my head – and that does happen, especially after hearing awesome stuff at a slam or community stage. Now I can sit down in front of a blank sheet in my notebook and write a poem – boom! – something will come to mind! It might be sappy or crappy, but it’ll be something I can at least work with. It feels like some good creative juices have started flowing and I don’t want to let them dry up again!
Be Lovely to Each Other,
Laura
Brent Chappell
February 1, 2013 at 6:21 pm
Hi Laura. Thanks for sharing stories of your 31 in 31. After reading about your experience I’m determined to give something similar a try. I’m tired of just waiting for the poetry fairy to drop one off in my head. Brent
Laura McWriter
February 1, 2013 at 6:59 pm
Awesome! Good luck Brent. I think the more I sit down and think, “Now I will write a poem,” the more the poetry fairy shows up. Sometimes she’s tired like me and the stuff she brings isn’t that great, but it’s all stuff I can work with!