Poetry Parenting
Helping your babies grow up
A blog series by Stephanie
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If you've been following along our wacky, month-long "5-day" journey, you know now that this is the fifth and final post about how to help your poetry grow up.
And if you actually have read every one of these posts, thank you. Thank you for sticking with me in this journey that is as much self-discovery as it is instruction. And thank you for not barfing when I act all dramatic about 5 posts that just happened to fit together as if I actually just wrote a novel or something.
In the last five posts, we've talked about learning from others, telling a story, finding inspiration, and trusting your words. Today we're sort of scattering that to the wind. Sort of. Like a kid who's about to flush a bug down the toilet but hesitates because he's still emotionally attached to it.
Tip #5: Do what you want.
Because you're all grown up now.
Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement: end of journey. Your poetry no longer poops in its own diapers or requires bottle feeding, and even if you're still taking baby steps, you're hopefully still better off than where you started.
The truth is, there is no easy formula for good poetry. If there was one, it would probably be something along the lines of " there is no easy formula for good poetry". Creativity demands novelty, and that is where you, my dear reader, come in.
There are so many ways to seed your thoughts and nurture faster, better growths of ideas, but those ideas are ultimately going to come from your own cerebral soil. Don't let yourself be limited by what you think
should be right.
Write without capitalizing. Space your lines oddly. Use a disgusting font. Change tenses.
The first four days were designed to enhance what you already have. They're suggestions. Now, use what you know, cultivate your verbal brain fields, and don't stop anything from growing.
And always, always do the thing that makes you uncomfortable.
With that, I leave you with my final Poetry Parenting tool.
Notice how I didn't even bother changing the link into a permalink. It's too beautiful in its original form.
This, my friends, is the largest bank of online publications that accept (and pay for) literary submission that I know of to date. Use wisely and often.
Go forth, dear interneters, and let your children roam free.
Enjoy loveliness
and remember to muse.
:)
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