There is both rhyme and reason to poetry – the rhyme is, of course, obvious, the reason, a bit less so. But the “reason” is, in the end, why the poem is written. It is the inspiration or, as my mentor/poet Dan Masterson used to say, something caught in the throat that must be coughed up.
Inspiration comes in the form of sunsets and star-filled nights. But it also comes in pain, in loss, in the pangs of desire and the residue of regret. We write poetry to purge ourselves or project ourselves out of our lives into a soothing sanity. The words spill onto the page like blood drips from a wound or, are the song of celebration, sung to the sky, the stars, the universe.
Poetry is also an argument we state in support of something, a cause, a purpose, a possibility. Today’s lesson would like to inspire you to write a poem about climate change/global warming. You, a citizen of the earth, are invested in the future of the land, the air, the oceans, the streams, and every creature, every tree, blade of grass, that lives on this planet, we call earth. I am hoping you are as agitated, as incensed as I am about the direction our planet, our lives are heading in – towards disaster – so speak your truth, your wisdom, your concern, your argument…
Some prompts:
- I weep for the trees
for the flowers and the honeybees…
- I taste acid on the air…
- The grass greens to brown…
- The rain weeps its sorrow…
- I can feel the earth shaking
I can feel the fear waking in me…
- I long to see beyond tomorrow
beyond my sorrow
- What will the winds of tomorrow bring…
- Let me be the change let me be the reason…
- I will fight for tomorrow…
- Tomorrow is a gift I give my children…
I invite you to let your hopes and fears come alive in the living spirit of the poem and I invite you to share it with me. I will choose some of the poems submitted and share them in a future newsletter.
I invite you to write on… Susan