Readers who write poetry tell us why they love words… and why poetry is so important to them…
Maya says:
I remember the first poetry lesson we had at primary school… it was back in Year Three and we had to describe a box. I did as I was told, and I remember a lot of the teachers reading my work and telling me I would be a great poet one day. I've been writing poetry ever since. At the moment, I write mostly about nature or, sometimes, sadder themes such as heartbreak. I came second in a national poetry competition and my ambitions would be to go on participating in competitions and sharing my work! Poetry for me is a kind of release, where I can put my thoughts and feelings into a piece of art. Rhyming just comes naturally to me so I really enjoy doing it and seeing the results!
Anna says:
For me, poetry wasn't to do with school at all. I first started to write as a coping mechanism, a way to express myself truly, with nobody to listen. I let my words speak and let my words write themselves on paper. Poetry has always been something to fall back on and a way of saying things in ways that others may never understand; it can be almost like a confession, or talking in a foreign language that others may analyse but can never truly understand the thoughts behind each carefully chosen word. For me, I use poetry as a medium. It helps me cope with depression and anxiety, issues with sexuality and all kinds of other things that I as a human must face. Whether it be through observation or true experiences, poetry means a lot to me. It is the way I can be myself, an art form and a thing of beauty. Poetry has no limits. It keeps me grounded and helped me to find my voice.
Sophie says:
My inspiration for writing poetry began when I was eleven. I was in high school and a production team came into our school to teach songwriting… I wrote my first song, called Can I Talk To You? which was later used in the production. Afterwards, I began to write in my spare time but the more I looked at those songs the more I realised they were actually poems! I have always loved poetry, and living in Scotland we learned a lot about the famous poet Robert Burns and joined in with Burns events and competitions. The more I wrote, the more I fell in love with poetry. I am twenty-one now and have never stopped writing. Poetry to me is a way to express imagination and emotion. There is a never ending supply of things to write about and poetry can also help you to express feelings you perhaps couldn't talk about in everyday life. For me, a life without poetry would be like a life without chocolate… I couldn't live without it!
Daisy says:
Poetry is a very expressive form of writing. It is a better way of saying what you want - for me, anyway - because it can be written any way you like. It can be full sentences or just phrases, rhyming or freeform, it depends on the poet's feelings. This is why poetry means so much to me - it's my way of expressing myself and it makes me happy. I love reading the work of other poets and wondering what went into creating that poem. We learnt about poetry at school and wrote our own poems, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed myself - I knew I wanted to go on writing. I would love others to read my poems and be inspired to write their own. Maybe someone reading this will have a try… you'll be surprised at how much fun it can be!
Cathy says:
I am a huge poetry fan - poetry seems to cut through the unimportant stuff and get right to the heart of a subject. Are YOU a secret poet? COMMENT BELOW to have your say!
Maya says:
I remember the first poetry lesson we had at primary school… it was back in Year Three and we had to describe a box. I did as I was told, and I remember a lot of the teachers reading my work and telling me I would be a great poet one day. I've been writing poetry ever since. At the moment, I write mostly about nature or, sometimes, sadder themes such as heartbreak. I came second in a national poetry competition and my ambitions would be to go on participating in competitions and sharing my work! Poetry for me is a kind of release, where I can put my thoughts and feelings into a piece of art. Rhyming just comes naturally to me so I really enjoy doing it and seeing the results!
For me, poetry wasn't to do with school at all. I first started to write as a coping mechanism, a way to express myself truly, with nobody to listen. I let my words speak and let my words write themselves on paper. Poetry has always been something to fall back on and a way of saying things in ways that others may never understand; it can be almost like a confession, or talking in a foreign language that others may analyse but can never truly understand the thoughts behind each carefully chosen word. For me, I use poetry as a medium. It helps me cope with depression and anxiety, issues with sexuality and all kinds of other things that I as a human must face. Whether it be through observation or true experiences, poetry means a lot to me. It is the way I can be myself, an art form and a thing of beauty. Poetry has no limits. It keeps me grounded and helped me to find my voice.
My inspiration for writing poetry began when I was eleven. I was in high school and a production team came into our school to teach songwriting… I wrote my first song, called Can I Talk To You? which was later used in the production. Afterwards, I began to write in my spare time but the more I looked at those songs the more I realised they were actually poems! I have always loved poetry, and living in Scotland we learned a lot about the famous poet Robert Burns and joined in with Burns events and competitions. The more I wrote, the more I fell in love with poetry. I am twenty-one now and have never stopped writing. Poetry to me is a way to express imagination and emotion. There is a never ending supply of things to write about and poetry can also help you to express feelings you perhaps couldn't talk about in everyday life. For me, a life without poetry would be like a life without chocolate… I couldn't live without it!
Poetry is a very expressive form of writing. It is a better way of saying what you want - for me, anyway - because it can be written any way you like. It can be full sentences or just phrases, rhyming or freeform, it depends on the poet's feelings. This is why poetry means so much to me - it's my way of expressing myself and it makes me happy. I love reading the work of other poets and wondering what went into creating that poem. We learnt about poetry at school and wrote our own poems, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed myself - I knew I wanted to go on writing. I would love others to read my poems and be inspired to write their own. Maybe someone reading this will have a try… you'll be surprised at how much fun it can be!
Cathy says:
I am a huge poetry fan - poetry seems to cut through the unimportant stuff and get right to the heart of a subject. Are YOU a secret poet? COMMENT BELOW to have your say!
When I was in high school (around age 16), I liked writing poetry just for myself. It was almost like writing diary in hidden form. I wrote regularly for about 4 years, but now it has been almost 10 years since then. My poems were a bit dark but still with some bits of hope in them. I didn't rhyme, but wrote from somewhere very deep of my soul. Nowadays I'm trying my hand in writing fiction for children. It is something completely opposite to the poetry I wrote.
ReplyDeleteThe piece of poetry are ones that make you cry writing them and make you want to sing the musical words in silence.
ReplyDeleteHelen
I have mixed feelings about poetry - I love reading poetry (I have a friend on Facebook who writes the most gorgeous yet heartbreaking poetry. Sometimes she posts videos of herself reading out her own poems so people who aren't really readers can appreciate it) and I love the words and the way they flow. Confessional poetry is my favourite genre. However, I can't write poetry myself. I can't see how this would be a problem as I've never had an issue with words and write excellent short stories (says my old English teacher) so why can't I write poetry? I've tried rhyming and non rhyming poetry, all different lengths of stanzas and rhyming schemes and it just never works out. It always sounds self pitying. Hey. I sound self pitying now. Maybe I should write a poem about how upsetting it is to not be able to write poetry? Wow. That would be meta.
ReplyDelete