Looking for inspiration in others’ work is a time-honored tradition. Every week, the Ringing of the Bards Poetry Carnival is hosted at a different blog around the net. You can always find out who is hosting by visiting Ringing of the Bards. If you want to get a full dose of poetic inspiration, volunteer to host a poetry carnival of your own!
You might have guessed that snakes is this week’s challenge subject because tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not Irish, but I claim honorary clan membership by dint of spending my formative years as a member of St. Patrick’s Parish and my elementary school years under the rule of the nuns who taught at St. Patrick’s Parochial School… not to mention having been raised by an Irish stepfather, marrying an Irish husband and having Irish children. If all that doesn’t qualify me, I don’t know what does.
Heritage is a powerful musebait. If you’re stuck on writing, take a web-tour of writings by poets and authors who share your heritage. Let the words get into your blood. For those who have a symbolic (or real) link to things Gaelic and Irish, I highly recommend Seamus Heaney, winner of this year’s T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry and the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature (among many many others). Read a review of Heaney’s latest book of poetry, District and Circle, by Stephen Burt, and listen to him reading from his work at the Poetry Archives.
One of the most potent sources of inspiration is other people’s poetry. Workshopping your poetry will get you more than feedback on your own work – it lets you into the minds of other writers. If you’re more in the mood just to read, then the blogosphere is a treasure trove of other people’s poetry. One place that you can count on finding lots and lots of poems – fresh poetry every week! – is the Ringing of the Bards Carnival. You’ll find a list of who’s hosting the Carnival each week at the link above – along with instructions on how to host a Carnival at your own blog.
I just spent my Saturday night with a root beer and a movie. (This is not a sad confession.) I watched “Trudell” and I want to recommend it to anyone that wants to feel inspired. It is a portrait of a Native American, and indigenous soul, a poet, an activist. I watched it twice just to hear the words again. But this is really not a review of a movie as much as it is a loud clap for those that can make us sit up and listen. John Trudell.
“Exiled
Searching my heart for its true sorrow,
This is the thing that I find to be:
That I am weary of words and people,
Sick of the city, wanting the sea;”
That stanza comes from St. Vincent Millay’s “Second April”. I have a copy of this book from 1921. These lines have always struck me. Weary of words and people, I have found myself that way many many times. And like dear Edna I have found comfort and inspiration from the sea. I, like her, have spent many summers on the coast of Maine. But you need not book that flight to our most northeastern state to find that kind of inspiration. Look around. Is there a mountain nearby that could be hiked, a pond to be sat next to, a park to sit under an old tree? I think that it is about finding your peaceful spot. In that spot, when I let quiet sit with me, I have found many a poem. But more importantly I have been able to hear my internal voice. She is often more calm than my daily over-booked life, but sometimes she also rages. Sometimes she sobs. When I truely listen to her voice I feel enriched, can i say powerful? Find your “sea”. Listen to the lap of the waves and carry a pen and pad for the moment when words flood you.
One of my favorite poetry reference books has a wealth of information about poetry, its forms and the terms associated with it. If you’re interested in reading about poetry and its forms, check out this one…
Babette Deutsch gives easy to understand definitions of common poetic terms – iamb, meter, alliteration, sonnet and lots more. She offers examples to illustrate most of her terms, and the examples are the start to an exploration of the form or poetic device. It’s silly, but I’ve always found reading about poetic forms and devices inspires me to try my hand at them. Do some reading and see what you come up with.
Sometimes an example works best… From time immemorial, poets have been inspired by other poets. Read a poem to your muse and see if it doesn’t get those juices flowing…