Over the past weeks, since I launched my www.poetladykatz.com website, I have received hundreds of poetry submissions. I would say that, at least, three quarters of them, maybe more, have been about love between a man and a woman. Most accurately, they have been about “lost” love between a man and woman.
While this subject has captivated poets for centuries, I am hoping that some of you, many with real talent, will expand your horizons and choose to write about other things, other meaningful things that have touched you, or moved you, or changed you in some way. But, since love is in the air – it being June – the month of love and weddings, I thought what I would do is present some ways to write about love, that expand the possibilities.
Love, of course, is the primary emotion we feel as human beings. We live to love and be loved, for the most part. But in nature, all around us, there is the possibility of seeing “love in motion” as in the newest photo in my Art in ~ to Art page (please check it out.)
So, this month, as you submit your poems in June for consideration for Featured Poem of the Month for July, I encourage you to expand your thinking about love. Have you ever seen a sunset that set your heart racing? Have you ever sat quietly and listened to the tides coming in, going out? Have you ever held a newborn puppy in your hand? Have you ever sat, in the darkness, and looked up at the night sky, wondering at the enormity of it, the stars, the moon, the planets, all of us spinning in some form of harmonious “love” in a universe too big to even comprehend?
Love can be the subject, but the poem should expand our understanding of love. It should give us a view of love that tells us, not only about the subject, but about your interpretation of it.
Here are some prompts that might just help you get started:
- The stars touched me with a quiet grace
almost like the brush of a lover’s lips… - The beauty of the sunset
set me ablaze with… - I touched the satin of a baby’s face…
- Let me hold the moment like a…
- The sun rose like the eyes of a lover…
- Beyond what I know I feel…
- In the darkness I crave the light
In the light I crave the caress of darkness…
Let yourself go into the wide, expansive world of love, where anything and everything is possible. Let yourself go beyond the confinement of your own experience with love and imagine love with all its vast potential. Choosing a subject that will engage us, surprise us, move us, stay with us long after we have finished reading the poem, is the goal of the poet.
Write on…