Celebrate Poetry Month

Writers celebrate poetry month every April. In poetry, ordinary things become extraordinary because the reader feels a connection to the words on the page.

We’re all searching for connection amid forced stay at home orders and pandemic quarantines. Thank goodness for FaceTime, Zoom, and all those other platforms that allow us to keep in touch with loved ones and others in our community.

Writing Poetry Soothes the Soul

Writing poetry gives us time to reflect, to take stock. To examine our emotions. Whether you’re shooting for humor or poignancy, consider free verse, sonnet, and rhyme to get you there.  

Here is an exercise to close out poetry month. Listen, really listen to the sounds of nature so you can capture the rustle of the leaves, the burble of the creek. Too often the sounds of daily life drown out the writer’s voice. Give yourself the time, space, and solitude to hear your own thoughts. Use all of your senses. Think about texture, color, and scent as well as sound, pattern and temperature. Compare what you see, hear and feel in nature to what is familiar. Create word pictures that evoke happiness, fear, anger, sadness, surprise, or any other emotion. Rhyming is optional.

The poem below was written by Keisha, a character in my unpublished novel Spurred to Action.

Celebrate Poetry Month by sharing your nature-inspired poetry in the comment section below.

“The earth lay crumpled like a failed math test,

pushed and pulled 

by angry forces bent on destruction. 

The flat landscape transformed 

into a labyrinth of oak covered valleys and ridges. 

The dark creases black holes of despair. Sunlit ridges beacons of hope. 

The wounded Earth cries out. 

Riding the wind 

a screeching hawk joins Earth’s sorrow.

Smaller birds torment. 

Chasing, hassling, name calling. 

Angry, demanding birds looking for their place, 

looking for a purpose, fighting what they can’t win. 

Silent wounded Earth, soaring hawk. Despair and hope.”