Not sure if you’ve noticed, but poetry isn’t exactly my forte. It’s a writing form that I throw my hand into every now and then. Some attempts have been successful enough (to me) while others I want to hide under a stack of papers and hope they disappear forever.
I’ve been re-involving myself in the process of writing on paper (gasp) for ten minutes first thing in the day to get the creativity flowing. All in the pursuit of ‘a writing practice’ while I push through on book four of the Matilda series. For some reason, I decided that poetry would be my short-form practice during the month of November.
While in the midst of NanoWriMo, a short-form story type would do the trick. What better way to get the ole noggin juices flowing and not get locked into / excited about / a different storyline, right? And why not choose a format that I wanted to work on anyway? Sounds all great and logical, doesn’t it?
So I thought, too. I have enjoyed writing in the various poem formats and had forgotten there were so many. But I have a confession to make. Poetry is hard for me, especially first thing in the morning. Before breakfast. Before that first cup of coffee. Eesh! It has an extra level to it that my brain doesn’t want to figure out right off the bat. Oh yeah, structure.
You see with a story, the first draft can sometimes be a heaping pile of word vomit, but you can dig out the shiny candy-like marble of goodness and build on that. Poetry, on the other hand, feels (to me) like the first draft is all in your head and you have to edit from thought before it hits the paper.
I find that exceedingly difficult to do! Makes me wonder if I bit off more than I can chew. I mean, I did choose to work on poetry because it isn’t easy for me. And to be honest, it has become more problematic. Yesterday alone was a fight to the bitter end. And today? Well, today was quick and autobiographical. Made me a wee bit sad, too.
Anyway, I will continue to struggle my way through my self-given task and hope for the best. Who knows, maybe I’m just doing it wrong. Or I haven’t found what works for me.
Or maybe, just maybe, I should wait until after that first cup of coffee. Yeah, maybe that.
Image by Alberto Adán from Pixabay
Jon Gray Lang.com 