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    vivian chen

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    Ooooh, I only have a few minutes and I don’t want to break my slicing streak. Can I write a haiku?

    Summer’s almost here
    Days get longer, weeks are short
    The beach calls my name.

    Funny, I just listened to Thomas Newkirk talk about his book, Embarrassment, and that’s exactly what I’m feeling. I am self-conscious about all of my writing, but poetry…oof! I need to put “try more poetry” on my goal list. How else will I get any better? How else will I get over the cringe I feel when I try my hand at it?

    Poetry folks, what advice do you have?

    10 responses to “”

    1. arjeha Avatar
      arjeha

      Might I suggest trying a pantoum. I did these poems with my students and they loved them because the end result always looked like they wrote lots because of the repetition of two lines in each stanza.

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      1. vivian chen Avatar
        vivian chen

        I’ll have to try this!

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    2. Alice Avatar
      Alice

      You did it! The beach has been calling my name, but I haven’t answered, waa!

      As far as advice, honestly, free-verse is my favorite because I don’t have to worry about anything. I tend to be a stream-of-consciousness writer and I feel that with poetry, I can ramble, lol! Sometimes I play with punctuation, sometimes I don’t. I’d like to try more structured forms, but sometimes what I want to say won’t fit into those parameters, but perhaps I just want to get the words out. On the flip side, it gives me something to play with. I love using enjambment and breaking up lines in different ways. This is much easier on a computer than on paper, because you can just copy and paste the same poem a bajillion times and adjust what you want, try something, and compare it to the original. For me, it’s like building something with LEGO bricks, you have the words and you can play with arranging them in different ways.

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      1. vivian chen Avatar
        vivian chen

        Great tips, Alice! I love reading your poems.

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    3. Amanda Potts Avatar
      Amanda Potts

      Hooray for haiku! And I feel you about sharing poetry – it’s the writing I feel least confident about. Still, I keep at it now & then and try to console myself that Emily Dickinson didn’t share her poems, either. 😉

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      1. vivian chen Avatar
        vivian chen

        Let’s keep at it together! =)

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    4. Jennifer Floyd, Ed.D. Avatar
      Jennifer Floyd, Ed.D.

      I love your haiku! Christie Wyman, who blogs at https://wonderingandwondering.wordpress.com/ (and often slices) is a great person to connect with about poetry! I’ve learned a lot from her. Amy Ludwig Vanderwater is another awesome resource. I have experimented more and more with poetry as a result:)

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      1. vivian chen Avatar
        vivian chen

        Thanks so much!

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    5. pfornale Avatar
      pfornale

      Enjoyed this. Who needs advice? Certainly not you. Please write more poems.

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      1. vivian chen Avatar
        vivian chen

        Too kind!

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