What Kind of Poetry Do You Read or Write? (& Sale)

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It's so nice to appreciate something like poetry. I'm guessing that since you're here, you like poetry. What kind of poetry do you like? That question might be somewhat difficult to answer because there's so many types of poetry. 

I cannot count the times I have been asked what kind of poetry I write. My answer is usually all kinds which is often met with a bewildered look. I honestly don't know what people expect me to answer. I usually follow up with the answer of "a lot of free verse", and sometimes explain what that is. That's poetry that doesn't technically follow a form. It doesn't rhyme throughout.

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There are so many types of poetry, I went to college and got a degree, and am still learning about different kinds today. Last year I went to an intro to poetry class and learned about even more forms of poetry. For example, the list poem is a poem where you make a poem out of a list, and I didn't know about it. I write Sonnets sometimes. And Haikus. Is that what people want to know? Do you want to know which form of Sonnet I write? (There's more than just Shakespearean sonnets). I don't remember the name for it, I'm not 100% there is one, but I think there is: but I write using the Shakespearean form without the iambic pentameter. If you're not a poet or English major, do you even know what I'm talking about? Would you be able to say that's the type of poetry you like? Something in an ABAB rhyming format, in iambic pentameter, with a couplet with a CC Rhyming scheme at at the end? You might say Sonnet, but I'm guessing you'd say you like Shakespeare's poetry. That's more understandable. (And I would never be so bold as to compare my poetry to Shakespeare's poetry). Some poets stick themselves into one type of poem, and that's not me. I want to write, and actually read all kinds of forms!

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Maybe you want to know about the subject matter of my poetry. What subject matter of poetry do you like? Generally I write something that has nature woven into it, and except with the case of the Haiku's where that's actually a rule, it's unintentional on my part. I just love nature that much I guess. But really, for me, no subject matter is off limits in the case of writing OR reading poetry. Sometimes I'm not in the mood for the more violent, darker stuff, sometimes I am. I am a horror fan after all (Thanks Edgar Allen Poe)!

Or maybe you like "depressing" poetry, or maybe you like more cheerful stuff. So maybe you want to know if the kind of poetry a person likes or writes, is actually what kind of mood of poetry a person likes. In high-school, a friend and I were doing some sort of poetry thing (go ahead and comment, friend, if you read this). We were trying to make a poetry publication or something like that and trying to collect poetry from students. A couple of girls came to us and told us that they wrote depressing poetry like it was a bad thing or something. Me and my friend gave each other a look saying, "So? Poetry is supposed to be depressing". I'm not in High-school anymore, and most of my poetry is more hopeful now actually. I find nothing wrong with either mood: hopeful or depressing. Or anything in-between, hence the 3 parts in Un-Clenched Emotion, Enjoying, Despairing, and Philosophizing.

 (I'd like to take a break to plug my book here a bit.) The Kindle version of Un-Clenched Emotion is going to be on sale for .99 cents on Prime Days again. Actually, before and after. June 22nd-June 29th 2026 are my sale days. I haven't sold many copies for .99 cents yet, which is weird, because I've sold copies at the $2.99 price. Oh well, I suppose I'll keep doing it. Took over a year to get my first review. I couldn't give my book away for free at first, then gave away a few, then it made the for free best seller list. So one day, maybe more people without Kindle Unlimited will pick up my book for $0.99. (Or people with Kindle Unlimited will decide they want to keep it forever!) While I might not compare it to Shakespeare, I definitely think that's a good deal for a book with an average 4.4 star rating on Amazon and Goodreads! The link is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZNVH4Y

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Back to the main subject. What do you answer when someone asks you what kind of poetry you like? Do you say an authors name? Do you say a form, a subject matter, or a mood? Or something else entirely? I mentioned 2 poets I like in this post. I like many more. I like all subjects, emotions, and moods. I can't say I like all forms, but I like learning about all of them, and sometimes I won't like one at first and then it will grow on me. What do you want to know when you ask a person what kind of poetry do they like to read or what kind of poetry do they write? 

And in follow up from previous blogs this year: I did work on Seasons of Sensation this month, plus I wrote a lot of reviews. I went to Poetry Open Mic Night again and read some poems. Next I'd like to make a video of "Relating to a Mystery". June is Pride Month. I feel that it only effects me indirectly. I just learned it's PTSD Awareness month which does affect me directly, since I've been diagnosed with it. Also, since me and my husband come from military families, it affects our families too. I did/am writing a poem about that in Seasons of Sensation. Have fun with whatever type of poetry you like in anyway you want to have fun with it!

Poetry Writing Prompts

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Often, authors encounter writers block.  I am fortunate that I rarely encounter this when writing poetry.  The reason for that is because I have some go to writing prompts to help me out.  I used to volunteer to teach poetry classes and the following prompts are what I used when I needed to come up with ideas quickly.
I would have people write about colors, things that happen in the calendar year, music, teach a specific form of poem, and use published poems and authors as inspiration.  Writing about color is a little self-explanatory, so I will only go in depth on the other prompts I have listed.

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Calendar Year

I often had my students write about things that happened in the calendar year.  Things like seasons, the weather, holidays, and the specific months.  It was easy to look outside and prompt my students to write about what the weather was doing, or to have them write about the specific season we were experiencing at the time of the class.  Writing about the month we were in was also effortless.  I always felt holidays were especially inspirational.  I wrote so many of these types of poems that I am working on making a book out of them.  I currently have 42 poems typed up, and I am not even finished!

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Music

I have written a little bit about this in previous blog posts.  In my classes, sometimes I would simply have the students write a poem about their favorite song.  Sometimes I played the same song for everyone and had them all write a poem about that song.  You might think that you would get very similar poems doing this, but actually, they came out very diverse.  I always did want to be careful with this prompt because I did not want to infringe on any copywrites.  If you are simply writing this for yourself, that doesn't matter.  Done carefully, poems written inspired by music can still be published.  I found a call for submissions for poems that are inspired by the Rolling Stones.  Sometimes I would play music on glass bottles.  You could also play your own instrument, if you have one, for inspiration.  In this case, you do not have to worry about plagiarism.  I am of the belief that music is poetry.  I've seen some lyrics of various artists printed out and they look like wonderful poetry.

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Forms of Poems

I really like to write sonnets, haikus, and acrostic poems.  I like them, therefor I teach them.  Haikus are pretty straight forward.  Write a poem with 3 lines.  The first line being 5 syllables, the second line being 7 syllables, and the third line being 5 syllables again.  I know that some people argue that Haikus should be about certain things like nature, or that it should be conveyed in a different way, but I don't think that has to be the case.  I was teaching poetry to beginners, so simply saying to write a 5-7-5 syllable poem was good enough for me.  I also love to do Acrostic Poems.  These poems are poems where the first letter of each line spells out a word.

For example:

Next

Akin

To

Amazing

She

Happily

Ascends

 

I actually made money at some craft fairs charging people to have me write out an acrostic poem of their name.  I did not charge much, and yet, a surprising amount of people wanted to have this done.

 

Sonnets are a little harder.  I must admit that I still don't understand iambic pentameter very well, so I don't bother with it.  The great thing about poetry is that you don't Have To follow the rules.  There is a lot I can say about sonnets, so I will write about them in a future blog post.

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Using Published Authors and Poems

Most of the time in my poetry class, I would choose 3 poets and their published poetry for inspiration.  I went to a poetry website, printed the author's bio, and a poem they had published.  We would read these bios and poems out loud and use them as inspiration to write our own poems.  This exercise took a little preparation, but I learned how to do it so well, it did not take much time to prepare at all.  Now when I am working on poetry, for fun, or to try to publish, I often read poetry ezines.  I have learned a lot from doing this.  For example, I knew about acrostic poetry, but I did not know there was a form of poetry where you start each line with a letter of the alphabet.  Finally, if none of these prompts work for you, you can find other prompts all over the internet.  There are many tweeted prompts every day, and Writer's Digest sends out writing prompts.  Writer's Block can be overcome!