Writing the Life Poetic

Make the most of National Poetry Month!

Happy National Poetry Month! Throughout April, good folks like you and I will be coming together to celebrate poetry through readings, events, lectures, and celebrations. Whether you are a practicing poet or simply curious about the possibilities of poetry, April is an ideal time to prime your poetry pump, connect with other people who love poetry, and find fun, new ways to tune into (and write) the poetry of your life. Here are a few ideas and a bunch of free stuff I'm offering to get you going.

GET A DAILY TIP FOR CULTIVATING YOUR POETRY AND PUBLISHING PRACTICE

Every day this month, Reading Local Portland will be featuring a daily tip from yours truly about cultivating your poetic lens, lifestyle and language. You'll find tips on craft, publishing, online resources, community-building, poetry prompts and more.

TAKE THE POEM-A-DAY CHALLENGE

National Poetry Month is the perfect time to put your poetic pedal to the metal and start burning some rubber -- in the company of many thousands of other poets who are doing the same. I dare you to write -- and share -- a poem a day! Details about daily prompts and sharing your work here.

COMMIT TO YOUR CRAFT: SIGN UP FOR A POETRY CLASS

If you're ready to take your poetry to the next level, I'm ready to support you! In early May, I'll be offering Poetry for the People Levels 1 and 2. Get all the details and sign up now to reserve your place!

"Sage was able to respond to each poem (and poet) in a uniquely sensitive way, meeting the material (and its creator) exactly where it is. In other words, her responses show what living as a poet is all about. What a gift this is." -- Amanda H. 

I'll be posting student poems on my blog throughout the month to celebrate their work and their commitment to the life of poetry.

GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF POETRY FOR UNDER $20!

Want a friendly, informative, fun guide to writing and publishing poetry? I've written a creative companion to take you there! Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (Writer's Digest Books, 2009). 

And for a straight-up shot of coming-of-age, on the rocks, you are invited to experience my poetry collection, Like the Heart, the World.

ATTEND MY FREE, TWO-HOUR POETRY WORKSHOP (by podcast)

On March 2, I gave a poetry workshop on The Inkwell. In this two-hour poetry workshop-meets-contemplation of the life poetic-meets interview, I covered so much poetic ground that my voice nearly gave out.

And now, you can listen any time you want -- for free. Get comfortable at your computer with a pen and paper, and join me in my longest monologue yet about how to tune into the poetry of your life (and get it down on the page).

Be prepared for five sets of poem-triggering prompts throughout the conversation to ignite your poetry pilot light -- or keep it burning bright.

RADIO INTERVIEW ABOUT THE LIFE OF POETRY

On March 30, I joined radio host Nyla Alysia on The Inkwell Radio Show to talk about the life of poetry -- writing, submitting, editing, publishing, productivity and more -- and answered listener questions on the air. You can tune in any time to the podcast archive of our conversation.

FIND THE PROSPERITY IN YOUR LIFE POETIC

I have a new article in Read Write Poem titled "Shifting Our Lens from Poverty to Prosperity." I hope you enjoy it -- and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

COME BACK AND VISIT, Y'HEAR?

I'll be posting a variety of resources, poems and more throughout the month. And I'm always happy to hear from you. Come back any time and let me know how your National Poetry Month is treating you!

Wishing you a wildly productive and prolific creative adventure this month -- and always.

Get your free, two-hour poetry workshop here!

"I am truly grateful for your giving spirit and all you do for the craft and to encourage us to grow not only in our art but towards our potential." -- JV

This afternoon, I joined the fabulous Nyla Alisia on her show, The Inkwell at blogtalkradio.

The Inkwell offers writers help and advice in taking their work from page to publication. In this two-hour poetry workshop-meets-contemplation of the life poetic-meets interview, I covered so much poetic ground that my voice nearly gave out.

And now, you can listen any time you want -- for free. Get comfortable at your computer with a pen and paper, and join me in my longest monologue yet about how to tune into the poetry of your life (and get it down on the page). Be prepared for five sets of poem-triggering prompts throughout the conversation to ignite your poetry pilot light -- or keep it burning bright.

Tune in on March 2 for my free workshop on The Inkwell (blogtalkradio)

Hello, people of the future

My husband and I spent the weekend childproofing to keep the house safe for our suddenly-crawling-and-standing son. In addition to the standard fare of bolting the bookshelves to the wall, locking up the cabinets and removing heavy objects from high places, we also decommissioned a raised, slate-covered platform that once seated a wood-burning stove.

The stove, the chimney it was routed to, the platform and the walls around it were all deemed completely unsafe by the house inspector when I bought the house, and then confirmed unsafe once again by Buck, the charismatic figurehead of Buck's Stove Palace. A year ago, we gave away the stove on freecycle. Now it was time to remove the pointless, pointy perch that once housed it.

As Jon chipped away at the platform with a sledgehammer and other manly tools borrowed from our neighbor, I fed Theo his first whole banana in a little mesh sack that he could hold and maneuver himself. It turned out to be an extremely effective distraction from the mess and noise of deconstruction in the next room. Theo was mesmerized by his authority over the banana, and the cause-and-effect arc from desire to fulfillment that lay entirely in his little hands. As he successfully sucked and squeezed a sludge of banana through the mesh, I was focused on managing the sweet, sticky ooze that was starting to glue the two of us together.

Jon approached the couch holding a little baggie with a piece of paper tied inside of it. He held it up incredulously. "There's a note in here," he said with reverence. "I found it inside the platform." I'm a message-in-a-bottle romantic freak--always have been. With my sticky fingers, I impatiently waited as Jon untied the crumbling twist-tie holding the bag together and extracted the rolled-like-parchment piece of ripped notebook paper. He read out loud the following (spelling as written):

Hello, people of the future. We are the people who built this platform 8/21/02. We are probably dead by now so we smoke a gonga bowl as a fairwell to you all.

Sample [a hand-drawn arrow points to a small piece of plastic taped with masking tape and holding two, tiny marijuana buds. There is also a quarter taped to the note. Another arrow in the left margin of the page follows the word "Dank" and points to the list of initials.]

Peace out, SPJ, RAY, JE

Well, this explained a lot about the quality and usefulness of our defunct wood-burning-stove system! The folks building it had more important things to do than accurate carpentry and enduring tile work. They were communing with the people of the future--us. Only we managed to find their note less than seven years after it was written, rather than the many generations they seem to have expected.

This strangest of love letters made my day. I am passionate about letters...and semi-accidental letters between strangers are the most poetic of them all, in my mind. In the space between what was intended and what was received lives poetry. Together, these three stoned men "of the past" and this unexpecting little family of three "of the future" composed a poem.

Your turn!

Write your own "Hello, people of the future" letter!

Who are the people of the future you imagine inhabiting the place where you live? What would you want to say to them? Write them a letter, in the form of a poem, to give them a sense of who you are, the time in which you lived, and what is meaningful to you about the home that you occupy now--and they'll occupy at the time of the poem's reading. If you could tape some little thing to the note that signified who you are or how you are feeling in this moment, what would it be?

 

Introducing the Writing the Life Poetic e-Zine!

I am thrilled to introduce the Writing the Life Poetic e-Zine, a monthly publication chock full of information and inspiration to keep your poetry fires burning bright! Writing the Life Poetic e-Zine brings you the wisdom and wit of the following  superstar contributors: Brittany Baldwin, Dale Favier, Sara Guest, Jenn Lalime, Christopher Luna, Toni Partington and yours truly! Each of these beautiful writers will offer a monthly gem exploring some dimension of poetry writing, living and community-building.

Writing the Life Poetic e-Zine will launch in April, in celebration of National Poetry Month! Each contributor's column will be featured here throughout the month--and every month after. Plus, you can subscribe to receive the complete monthly zine in your email box every month! To get yours, just enter your email address in the top right column where it says: "Sign up for our e-mail newsletter."

We look forward to writing and living the life poetic with you! 

A, you're adorable. B, you're so beautiful. C, you're a cutie full of charm.

The baby books advise that parents start chatting their babies up the moment they arrive, to get them socialized into the fine art of conversation. I'm used to being alone with my thoughts and am not the kind of person who makes conversation to fill the space. So I found this invitation to be a bit challenging. What might Theo like to hear about via these ongoing Mommy Monologues? What types of information would I like to start investing many months before he might ever register receipt of such riches in the memory bank? One day on our early morning dog walk, the answer was obvious: word play!

Theo was snuggled up in his wrap against my chest and zipped inside my jacket, eyes wide open but sleepy. I was drinking my daily chai tea latte. The dogs were a few feet ahead, negotiating in their own private language who would mark which leaf piles to communicate their rightful ownership of this path to all subsequent dogcomers. The air was crisp, the sun was sharp as a knife, I broke out in song: "A you're adorable, B you're so beautiful, C you're a cutie full of charm!" This was a song I had learned in elementary school music class...I could remember how the words went all the way to, "F you're a feather in my arms." And then the song sputtered out.

I decided to improvise my own song for Theo, going through the alphabet letter by letter to come up with a sequential set of adjectives describing him. It was fun. It was challenging. I didn't allow myself to miss a beat. I had stumbled upon a new kind of word play to keep the two of us entertained. (Though it is questionable whether Theo, who fell promptly to sleep, was duly impressed with his alphabet's worth of compliments!) But I digress.

Your turn!

• Choose a person place or thing that interests you a whole lot and write down an adjective to describe it / them, with the first letter of the word starting with A, then B, all the way through the alphabet to Z. Do it quickly, without thinking too hard.

• When you finish, choose something or someone that is the opposite of your original choice. For example, I might choose someone who I didn't admire much--from history or my own life--and then similarly generate a spontaneous list of A to Z adjectives.

• Check out your lists. Did you come up with any fun words that are not a part of your daily language circulation? Circle all of the ones that have the best sound, the most energy, and are the most surprising to you.

• Now write a poem using three words from each list. And see where that takes you!

• Feel free to post your poem here in the comments section for the rest of us to enjoy!