How to Read Poetry

It's been awhile since I added a blog post.  I have however, been working on my blog page.  Some may have noticed that I added a page to this blog called "The Written Poetry of Natasha Gruss."  It's very hard to see when you go to the home page of my blog, just a small link on the right hand bar under the pages heading.  I will post the link here so you can find it easier.  It's: https://authornatashagruss.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
While it says "written poetry", I also added YouTube Videos of me reading my poems.  I've been thinking about writing a blog post on how to read poetry for awhile, but I didn't want to do it until I was able to give samples of me doing it myself, out loud.  When posting the videos, here is the one that had the most likes when I shared it:

What to Pay Attention to While Reading Poetry

The above is an example of how to read poetry out loud.  There are two ways to read poetry: silently and out loud.  When you write poetry, it is really important to pay attention to how the poetry would sound if someone were to read your poem out loud.  Even if they read it silently, they may hear inside their head how it sounds.  There's not much to say about how to read a poem silently, it's just done.  Pay attention to punctuation and line breaks.  Like in regular grammar, a comma or period indicates a pause in the material.  Less known is that at the end of a line of poetry there should also be a pause.   Poetry can also have less conventional grammar like odd spacing, it should be self explanatory that extra spacing indicates a pause.  Emphasis should also be placed on capitalized words when reading poetry.  These things need a lot of attention when you decide to read a poem out loud.

What to Do When Reading A Poem Out Loud

So why would you put a voice to a poem?  Many people have been called on in class to read it, and they don't have a choice.  This would normally be someone else's poem, but it may be your own.  You may decide to go to a poetry reading and want to share your poem with a group.  I have experience doing both of these things.  I've been to many poetry readings through out my life, and they have all been well received.  If you can, read through a poem before you speak it.  Read through it as many times as you can so you can get a feel for it and what you are going to perform.

When sharing your poem with your voice, one of the most important things to do is to make sure your voice is loud enough to be heard.  For some people this comes naturally.  Some people need practice.  If you need practice making your voice louder, you may try speaking over the sound of a fan and see how well you can hear yourself.  Also look at the back of a room and pretend like you are speaking to someone there.  While you want to be heard, you probably don't want to shout unless your poem calls for it.

If you are going to read a poem, a good idea is to stand up and go to the front of the room.  Sometimes, like in a classroom setting, we don't get the opportunity to do this.  A sitting position can work as well, but make sure you sit up straight.  In the Poems "My World" and "Untitled Coffee Poem," I was sitting while I read the poem, but I was doing a video with a camera close to my face, so it was easy to be heard.  In my Haiku, that begins "Slip, Slip to the waves" I was standing.

Untitled Coffee Poem

Memorizing a Poem

Finally, if you are going to read a poem you have written out loud, the best thing to do before 'reading' it is to memorize it.  I have been to poetry competitions where everyone had the poem they were "reading" memorized and performed it memorized.  This is by far the best way to experience a poem.  However, if you are like me, you've written too much stuff to memorize it all.  I have sold some of my poetry, and I have felt funny not knowing my exact wording when the person has recited my words back a loud to me.  Excited that someone wanted to memorize my work though.  In the videos I did, only the Untitled Coffee Poem was memorized when I recorded it.  The Haiku that begins "Slip" I read while recording, but since it was so short, I did have it memorized.  "My World" was read and not memorized, and yet it was well received.  Memorization isn't mandatory, merely a
suggestion.

Ocean Haiku

Things to Remember

Poetry can be read silently or out loud.  It can be memorized.  It is important to read through poems before performing them and to pay attention to grammar like line breaks, odd spacing, and capitalization.  Volume and posture is important when reading a poem aloud.  I hope this post helps anyone if they encounter a situation in which they need to read a poem.

Catching Up: Finalist in Poetry Contest, New Book with Images, And Reviews

Finalist in Poetry Contest

Greetings!  It’s been awhile since I did a blog post.  Funny, since the last blog post I did I got a lot of hits.  I just needed a break I guess.  So, let’s get too it.  First, I wanted to brag that I was a finalist in the June 2018 poetry contest on Goodreads Poetry! Group, with my poem “Talking Walls.” I didn’t win, or get many votes, but a couple people posted they liked it, and I’m glad that my poetry was able to reach somebody.  To see it along with the other 6 finalists (out of over 200, Wow) you can go to https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19356279-please-vote-for-the-june-2018-poetry-contest  If you don’t want to click on anything here it is for you:

Talking Walls

We are painted on the walls.

A stale empty white expounds character,

like full chaotic colors.

Memories encased in drywall.

Bleeding out to eyes searching the

multitudes of expression.

The memory of a friend passed on,

hangs a dragon by the door.

A blue Angel flies above the television

pondering the traveling friend who painted her.

The deer by the church are uncertain

of their wintering creator,

wondering if it is a dead relative.

The flutist gazing at the caged Nightingale remembers

the living family that gifted her.

A photograph of a daughter much younger

stares at passerby’s with her name in ceramics

next to the TV.

She has spoken to the walls in handprints

intentionally placed, and accidently.

A mother experiments with her creative process,

hanging pieces of her soul for various eyes seeing…

Strangers, Lovers, Her Own.

Her walls are an exhibition of her life,

they speak of her pronouncements in confidence.

What do other walls among other dwelling speak?

Curious minds must stare and extract.

Minds meld personalities.

Walls for examiners to notice insights of soul and life.

Using My Own Poetry Exercise

On a somewhat related note, I haven’t entered any poetry contests since then and I haven’t really written any more poetry.  I am proud, that this poem was written in one of the exercises I wrote about previously in this blog: looking at your surroundings and writing about them.  This is written about the things I have on my living room walls.  I didn’t really do any edits to this.  I have started editing and rewriting my other poetry though.  I discovered this cool thing in Word, where you can go into the review section and click “Read Aloud Speech” and it will read your work back to you.  No fancy editing programs needed! 

Public Domain Images and Poetry Reviews

I’d like to say that breaks are good for the soul!  I didn’t take a complete break, I did find a lot of poetry I have written and started making a new book about the cycle of the year and seasons.  I’m not sure if I’m going to self-publish it or not, but I was kind of hoping I could find a publisher who could do all the marketing work for me.  I’m just not good at doing that kind of thing.  My published poetry book “Un-Clenched Emotion” doesn’t have any pictures except for the cover, and I regret that, so I’m going to try to add pictures to my new one.  I was always afraid that if I used something from the internet, people would consider it stealing.  Well, I found out that there’s this thing called “Public Domain Images” where you can use the pictures in anyway you want for sale or for fun.  There are a couple of websites you can go to, to find these kind of images.  I’ve started doing this with my blog to make it look better too.  I also did reviews of 5 poetry chapbooks so far, and got my book reviewed too.  Only one person was able to post the review on Amazon so far, but I do have 3 four-star reviews on Goodreads at  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32320363-un-clenched-emotion.  I hope you have learned something from this post, or just found a little enjoyment from it.  Until next time! 

Discovering the Marketing and Promotion of an Author

After the publication of my first poetry book in 2016, I became very discouraged when I didn’t make a sale, or seem to be able to give away my poetry for free.  I stopped writing poetry for a long period of time.  Last month, April 2018, I somehow got motivated to write poetry more.  I didn’t write a poem everyday, yet the month of April was still full of poetry.

Submitting Poems for Publication

I discovered many new things about the publication and marketing of poetry.  Back in March, I had checked out a couple of copies of “Writer’s Digest” and discovered a few publications that would pay poets for their poems if they were accepted.  I made it a goal to write poems that I was proud of and submit them for publication.  I succeeded in this goal and sent out two poems, one each to the publications “Contrary” and “Poetry Magazine.”  I probably won’t know until November if they’ve been accepted, and I don’t have much hope they will be, but I am proud I attempted to at least.  I know there still is a chance. 

I also joined the Goodreads “Poetry!” Group and entered a poem for the May contest.  I was not a finalist, so I will share it now:

If I Saw the Perfect Me

Another Past, an Alternate Dimension.

-Blink- She has everything I ever wanted.

Eyes of Ebony, Shimmering Hair in Shades of Gold,

and Skin like Tanned Cream.

If only I had fallen in Her Footsteps.

Walk softly with pitter pattering feet.

Our destinies tied together.

She thrums to the heartbeat of Her Love.

Eyes everchanging as the Ocean,

Eyebrows: dark drawing perfect curves to Gentle Face.

He is mine here, this dimension, something we share.

My love vibrates to my soul.

For a moment, I stop regretting being Her.

Rubbing dull brown eyes, I see She’s found a Purpose,

while I write resumés that blow away

to crumbling and quitting, never finding purchase,

while I stand precariously, Her Feet Perfected Toenails,

Rooted with Joy.

I hold glittering Fool’s Gold while Hers Sparkling Pure is Solid.

She bites it with Pristine White Teeth, doesn’t distort. 

Biting mine with stained teeth and too small lips, melts to glop.

Her green with Luck, me green with Envy.

I wonder if the Money God is really evil,

or if it’s just a matter of success.

-Blink- We both see an Empty Soul, green with decaying,

wearing poverty as pride. Her eyes also ebony,

but no life there, orbs glinting of malevolence.

Us Others release our benevolent breath,

taking comfort of Our happy dispositions.

Looking at Another’s problems through a looking glass of speculation,

I come to the realization:

It doesn’t matter how magnificent Her life is,

mine could be as the Other; much worse.

Reviews of Poetry

In March or April, I also became an Author on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15863356.Natasha_Gruss).  I’m not sure how I discovered I could do this.  I joined some review groups on Goodreads this April and exchanged reviews of poetry books.  I reviewed and got reviewed by four poets.  I didn’t review them, but I also read more poetry books that were listed for free on Amazon and twitter, just to celebrate poetry month.  I submitted my book, “Un-Clenched Emotion” to be reviewed on other websites as well.

Twitter

I discovered twitter by tweeting my blog posts and promoting my poetry book (@natasha_gruss).  Tweeting, liking, and retweeting things gained me a lot of twitter followers.  If other authors, or poets, (or just interesting people,) followed me, I followed them back.  I did tweet one old haiku of mine, and someone used it as inspiration to make a haiku page on their website.  On twitter, I found a book on marketing and used that for poetry month.

Amazon, KDP Select, and Giveaways

For Marketing, I really examined the Amazon page of my book.  Doing this, I learned that authors were allowed to give away their kindle books for free every 90 days.  I thought I had unsuccessfully done this one time, and that I couldn’t do it again.  I was happy I was wrong.  When I discovered I could give away my poetry book away for free again, I decided I would do that in celebration of poetry month.  To do this, I also figured out how to fix the kindle version of my book. (The formatting didn’t come out right the first time).  It felt good, trying to get my poetry book out there.  I didn’t know when I did my free promotion before that I could find out if I gave away any books.  This time I discovered KDP select makes a marketing graph of how many books were sold or given away.  I was happy six people took advantage of my giveaway.  Amazon’s Author Page (https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01LZE8CKO) also graphs sales rank and author’s rank.  It only ranks sales, not giveaways, so my free book promotion didn’t affect rankings at all.

For the future, I tried to figure out how to help my rankings and studied print book giveaways.  Everyone said Amazon’s print book giveaways weren’t worth it, but Goodreads was.  I bought 6 print books of “Un-Clenched Emotion” (https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327/) which I hope to give away in the future.  I also wondered if doing a giveaway of an item, like a coffee pot, would help my Amazon Author ranking, if people were required to follow me as an Amazon Author.  What do you think?  If you could follow me for the chance to win a coffee pot, Edgar Allen Poe mug, dragon stapler, or tea basket; would you do it?  Which thing would you want?

I am proud of all I did in April to celebrate poetry and learn about the marketing of it.  There is still much more work to do.  There are many more discoveries I made on marketing and blogging, but too much to write in one post.  I may write about them in the future.

How to Write Reviews and the Importance of Them

The Importance of Reviews

Authors love to get good reviews.  Reviews of an Authors work should be honest.  If you don’t like something and review it, it might A: encourage the author to improve their work B: make the author realize they might want to take up something other than writing.  A review of a book lets readers know whether they might want to buy a book or not.  Personally, I look at reviews on Amazon if I’m considering a book or not and they are highly influential.  I might find out if the book is a stand alone or not.  I prefer stand alone books.  If there are a slew of one-star reviews, I know not to waste my time with a book.  That being said, some Indie authors (self-published) may not have many reviews and need to get some. 

Working with Goodreads 

I barely have any reviews on my poetry book, but recently I learned how to get some.  I became an author on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/) and joined some groups.  Goodreads is not just for authors, it is also for readers; in fact, it’s more for readers than authors.  That being said, being a Goodreads author has been very beneficial to me.  I belong to two reviewing groups, One is “Authors Needing Reviews” at: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/53280-authors-needing-reviews ; and the other is “Genre Specific Review Groups” at: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/100482-genre-specific-review-groups .  I have done 2 reviews for the Authors group and have gotten 2 in return.  I have agreed to do 2 more for the Genre Group and will get another 2 in return.  Unfortunately, it’s undetermined how many will make it on Amazon, and how many will have to simply stay on the Goodreads site.  Amazon has rules where you must have spent at least $50 to write a review.  They also might not let you review a product if a product is for sale in a different country.  One of the reviews I did was for a lady in the UK and I’m in the USA so it wouldn’t let me post on Amazon.  One review was for another lady in the US and it let me review her book (I spend a lot on Amazon).

How to Do Reviews

If you’ve decided to do reviews, which I recommend, and need to know how to do them, the first thing you should do is read reviews.  Find the ones you like and use them as a guideline to write your own.  There are all kinds of books that need reviewing: fiction books, non-fiction books, and poetry books. Non-fiction and poetry reviews are different from fiction book reviews.  In non-fiction and poetry reviews, you don’t have to worry about spoilers like you do in fiction reviews.  Telling what these books are about, in detail, is desired.  In a fiction book review, you have to leave out some details to avoid spoiling the book.  In all book reviews, talking about the mood an author portrays is a good idea.  Saying what you like about a book is a good idea too.  Reading an explanation of how to do reviews might not be the best style of learning, so I’ll give you links to the reviews that were listed above.  One poetry book review I did was “Unconditional” by T.Renee, and is on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/UNCONDITIONAL-Just-Me-Scattered-Thoughts/dp/1634927761/  under the review title “A Collection of Poems Worth Reading.”  It should be noted that coming up with a title for your review is important, informing interested parties what you will be talking about.  I also posted this same review to her Goodreads page.  The other review I did was for “Moon Petals” by Jessica Ginting, which can’t be found on Amazon, but can be on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38469438-moon-petals without a title, but under Natasha Gruss.  Looking at the other reviews for these books is a good idea too.  The reviews that I have received for my poetry book “Un-Clenched Emotion” can be found on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327/ and on my Goodreads Author Page at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32282264-un-clenched-emotion These are examples of Poetry Reviews.

A few more words.  I have agreed to do more reviews for the Goodreads Groups I mentioned above.  Right now, I’m scheduled for 5, so I will not have much time.  I also need to mention a free marketing book that I got over twitter: “The Self-Publishing Tools of Trade Every Author Must Know” by Lama Jabr, which has a lot of links for authors to market their books.  It could have had more information about why each marketing step is important and how too, but the links allowed it so I didn’t have to use search engines for things like finding places that do free reviews, and places I could advertise my free book.  It was all there in one place.  There are many more beneficial links in Jabr’s book, so if you’re an author, I recommend it.  The links for free book sites that I placed on this blog all came from Jabr’s book.  There’s a non-fiction book review example for you!  I hope this helps you want to support authors and review a book. 

Poetry Relating to Music and Using Music to Write Freestyle Poems

How Poetry Relates to Music

Recently I joined twitter.  Somehow, I attracted a lot of followers (I have no idea how).  Many of the followers are musicians.  I am excited about this because music and poetry go hand in hand.  All kinds of music, from songs in every genre (i.e. Pop, Rock, Country, Heavy Metal, etc.,) to the music you make yourself on instruments like flutes and guitars and things is related to poetry.  Some people might say that popular genre music lyrics are not poetry, but I vehemently disagree.  A friend of mine once gave me hand written lyrics of “Name” by Goo Goo Dolls.  I hung it on my wall in my bedroom.  When people came over they often asked if I wrote that poem.  I was constantly replying “Nope, that’s a song they play on the radio.” Poetry relates to music in other ways. Obviously, many songs rhyme just like many poems do.  There is often a chorus in a song, and that can be used in a poem with a stanza that repeats over and over.

How to Write a Poem Freestyle with Music

In a previous blog post (https://authornatashagruss.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-to-start-writing-poetry-freestyle.html) I have written about writing poetry Freestyle.  One of the ways to write a poem freestyle that I didn’t mention that you could do is to listen to music to be inspired and then write a poem about that.  I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want anyone coming up with a poem that could be said to be plagiarized.  To avoid this, refrain from copying the exact words of the song you hear in your poem.  Another sure-fire way to avoid plagiarism is to listen solely to instrumental music, or play music on an instrument yourself.  To put writing poetry freestyle in practice I did a musical exercise in my poetry class.  I took some empty glass bottles and had everyone blow over the bottles to make instrumental music and then had them write a poem about it.  It was really fun, and a lot of great poems came out of it.

Celebrate music in poetry by reading or writing a poem with a chorus in it, or by writing a poem after listening to music, either in a popular genre or instrumentally.  Who knows, you might write lyrics you can sell to a musician for use in their work.

P.S. If you want to follow me on twitter you can go to https://twitter.com/natasha_gruss or follow @natasha_gruss.

How to Write From Experience and Autism Awareness

If you have taken a writing course, or workshop, you might have been told to write what you know.  I was told that once, and I took it a little too literally.  I love fantasy and science fiction, and wondered how I could write about an imaginary planet when it's not something I know.  You don't have to have experienced something first hand for you to know something about it.  I've read enough mythology and facts on space for those subjects to be something I know.  I haven't written any prose yet, I've been busy working on my poetry.  For poetry, writing from your life's experience is a good idea.  An imaginary characters' experience works too.

Use a Memory for Writing Poetry

A good way to write a poem from experience is to go through your memories and try to describe it.  Of course, this works for good memoirs too since that's what they are.  You don't have to write your memory word for word, and in poetry you probably shouldn't.  Think of the feelings you get from those memories, wonder if that memory makes you think of a color, and try to come up with a phrase (that only has to make sense to you) that describes that memory.  This will help you come up with similes (comparing items using the word like and as) and metaphors (comparing items not using the word like and as) in your poems.  You can also choose to write about a subject matter that is close to you.

Experience with the Subject of Autism

It's April now, which means it's Poetry Month.  It is also Autism Awareness Month.  Poetry and Autism are both subjects I know about.  I have decided to write a poem using my experience with Autism to celebrate both poetry and autism awareness.  I don't plan on trying to publish it, so I will write it here for everyone to read as an example of how to write from experience. It is as follows:

Relating to a Mystery

Understanding an Echo (they called it Autism,)

Sweet parrot mimicking in human flesh.

She gazed at the river and spoke in metaphor.

Could it be possible? Did they lie?

Hidden talents hidden in flapping wings like hands.

Each song sung verbatim with feeling.

She feels it all distinctly, everything.

They are not emotionless.

Lumped together in the image of different.

Rainbow Puzzle Pieces try to celebrate the many feathers

of parrots flocking.

Comprehension can’t be communicated,

I’m not talking about her, but about me.

Is blue really accurate?

Relate, relate, relate,

Unsuccessful, it is pointless.

There are unanswered questions that swirl

and never finish until we expire.

I read stories, she watches stories

So that we might illuminate our curious minds.

When we hear a lion roar, we imitate.

My head’s full of useless feathers.

The mimicking parrot is full of brilliance.

It’s me who wants you to understand.

Expression needs training,

This encompasses humanity as well as parrots.

Will you feel compassion?

It’s everything we need.

Her, You, Me, Us.

In the end, that’s all I’m trying to express.

I could describe how all of this relates to autism, me, and my daughter (who has autism,) but this post is already kind of long.  If you would like to know more. please write a comment and I'll try to answer. 

Free Poetry Book “Un-Clenched Emotion” Last Five Days of April 2018, How to Get Kindle App, and Getting Free Books

It’s April – Poetry Month.  In honor of this month I have decided to offer my poetry book “Un-Clenched Emotion” for free on the Kindle.  It will be free for five days, from Thursday April 26^th 2018 to Monday April 30^th 2018. (There’s a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in there as well).  You can get “Un-Clenched Emotion” at http://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y/  Normally this poetry book is priced at $2.99 on Amazon.  Unless you have Kindle Unlimited, in which case it is always free.

No Kindle? Get the App for Free 

I want to stress that you don’t need a Kindle to get this, just a smart phone or tablet with the Kindle App, or you can even download it on your computer if you don’t want to use those devices.  The Kindle App is free to download. You can get it on the Google Play Store at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?hl=en&id=com.amazon.kindle or for your Apple Device at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id302584613 and if you decide to go the computer route you can get it at https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/fd/kcp and choose the “Download for PC and Mac” button.

  

Getting Free Books- Not Just “Un-Clenched Emotion”

It costs you nothing, but in order to use the Kindle App you do need an Amazon account. You can get it at https://www.amazon.com/  (but you do not need Prime or Kindle Unlimited).  There are many books listed on Amazon costing 0.00 that you can get at no charge at various times, and sometimes the are always free, (not just Un-Clenched Emotion being free from 4/26/18-4/30/18).  The Kindle App and Amazon account are free, but you do need to add a debit or credit card on Amazon to use it.  Even so, free books truly do cost nothing.  It may be annoying sorting through books on Amazon to see which one’s are free, but you can get e-mailed lists that will tell you which ones are available, (they’re not just poetry books either).  I belong to a few lists, one of which is Bookbub which you can sign up for at https://www.bookbub.com/welcome and I belong to Early Bird Books which you can get at https://earlybirdbooks.com/.  There are so many ways to get free books, I should do a blog post about it later.  I have added links to my whole webpage, so if you're looking for multiple ways to get books you should check out my links section.  Click the following to see the whole blog: https://authornatashagruss.blogspot.com/  I follow some authors by e-mail (goddessfuri@yahoo.com is my email,) and they often list books for no charge, and not always their own.  I follow authors and free book sites on twitter too.  You may also be able to go to your local library and “check-out” digital books.  Ask your librarian how to do this.  If you do pay for Amazon Prime (which I do), they offer a free book once a month as well.  There are many ways to get electronic books that cost nothing.  I encourage you to check it out.

Why I Haven't Promoted Before 

I haven’t done much advertising for the Kindle Version of “Un-Clenched Emotion,” yet I feel that the offer of a free book is a great one.  The reason I haven’t promoted this is because the formatting in the Vertical View didn’t come out right- but now I did it, I fixed it!  Now the book comes out great in both Vertical and Horizatal View, plus I fixed some errors.  I am so happy about being able to fix it!  When "Un-Clenched Emotion,"  wasn't coming out right, it didn't destroy the poetry, it was still okay, but now it's polished! Please read it!

Share and Perhaps Review Please

There is no requirement to get this book free on the last days of April 2018.  I just want people to be able to read my poetry.  It would be awesome if you wrote a review, or at least give it however many stars you feel it is worth.  If you have Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com), you can post a review on there as well if you want to support me. Despite the picture above of the man clicking five stars, I am all for your honest pick of stars.  If you don't want to review the book, I'm happy with just a click of stars.  If you want to write a review, it doesn't have to be much, just something like "I thought it was great.  I recommend this book." Please share this blog post.  There are buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and more at the bottom of this post.  Press one before or during the last five days of April (and if you’re doing twitter, adding hashtags (#) would be great.  For example: #poetry #freepoetry #freebook)! Thank you.

How to Start Writing Poetry Freestyle

It’s April, that means it’s poetry month.  In honor of that I have decided to write about poetry in general and how to write poetry in my blog.  I have taught poetry workshops and helped people write a poem, fresh on the spot.  When I write poetry, I can usually write it all from one sitting off the top of my head.  This is hard for many people to do.  I will proceed to tell you how I get started writing my poetry and what I tell people they should do when writing theirs.

Writing a Poem is an Act of Bravery

The first thing I like to explain to people is that people who write poetry are brave. You may feel like you don’t fit in the “brave” category yourself but just put your pencil (or pen) to the paper and start writing. (Or start typing on the computer if that’s what you prefer).  Write what you are thinking about in the moment, no matter how silly or embarrassing you think it might be.   Any ideas, subjects, words, formats, etc., are acceptable. This is called freewriting.  Some people may need prompts to do this and some may not.  (I do this with and without prompts.)   Some prompts are:  

• ·         Looking at the place you are and writing down poetic descriptions
• ·         Listening to everything you hear and writing how that makes you                                    feel
• ·         Thinking of a memory and describing that memory

If you feel you are not brave, that’s okay, simply writing things down is an act of bravery. It doesn’t matter if what you write comes out written poorly, the fact is you did it and you should be proud of that accomplishment.  You have dared to create something new.

What if Don’t Like My Poem

Often, you may not like what you wrote, but someone else will.  There are countless examples of musical artists that hated the songs they came up with.  Their songs went on to hit the top of the charts even though the musicians hated that song.  REM hated “Shiny Happy People,” but many of us know and love that song today.  Poetry is like that, you may hate it, but someone else may like it, so be brave to write anything down that comes to mind.  You don’t have to write a poem in one sitting and be done with it either.  (My poems are usually written out and complete the first time, which is unusual and if you encounter a writing teacher, they will usually tell you that you must rewrite).  If you want to, you can use your poem as a rough draft and rewrite it to something else you like more.  If you still don’t like it, which is often the case, you can use the poem you wrote as inspiration to write another poem.  A completely new one.  If you like the original, feel free to keep it!

Writing freestyle is one way to start writing a poem. If you don’t like something you have written, try and try again.  Feel good that you were brave enough to do it, no matter how you did it.  You have created. 

Celebrating the Little Things

Reflecting on happiness is good for the soul.  It’s hard to do when you are sad, but there are many stories and poems reflecting the emotion of happiness.  Some of my poems do just that.

Happiness in Un-Clenched Emotion

In my book, Un-Clenched Emotion I have organized my poems into three sections.  Because enjoying the little things in life is so important, I labeled the first section of my poems, (you guessed it,): Enjoying.  When down in the dumps, look to read uplifting things.  You may have trouble finding joy being celebrated, but you will see by my book that it is possible to find authors shining light instead of darkness in the world of literature.

Selling My Book

I am happy to announce that I have recently found things to celebrate in my world of writing.  I felt really good when I randomly received money in my bank account from KDP, which meant I sold a copy of Un-Clenched Emotion.  Who I sold it to, I don’t know.  I do know that I recently convinced my boyfriend to buy a copy of my book.  Like he usually does, he found a way to bring me pleasure by asking if I would sign his copy.  Blushing under his praise, I did just that.  Perhaps I only sold one random stranger and my boyfriend my book, but I will always look for the little things to bring me good spirits.  Little things like selling one copy of my book.

Love That I Shared

It’s not just my boyfriend and a random stranger that has received and read Un-Clenched Emotion.  When my best friend was in jail she requested a copy of it to pass the time.  I gladly gave it to her.  She has told me that once she got out of jail she left the book behind, or “donated” it.  I don’t mind that my book went to the occupants of a jail, it actually makes me very happy.  My friend told me that she felt my poetry was very good and deserved to be shared.  I have shared my writing in the world at large as well with the creation of this blog.  After leaving it for months, I was ecstatic to come back to it and find that I had 102 page views.  I have no idea how I got those views.  Was it because I figured out that I needed to click a box on BlogSpot in order to make it searchable?  Was it because I put labels and descriptions on my blog?  Was it because I shared on Facebook that I published a poetry book and a friend shared my post?  Because another friend shared my post on Twitter?  I may never know, but sharing my blog with 102 people is something to celebrate.

Happiness can be in the little things.  In my case I found happiness by being proud that I put a section on “Enjoying” in Un-Clenched Emotion, by selling my book, and by sharing my book and blog with others.  I hope that you can find ways to reflect on happiness too.