Designing a Poetry Class

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The research is done, and the poetry-writing class is taking shape. It’s going to be an online class, and it’s going to include information and exercises on traditional forms before we explore more free-form styles. As I was thinking of … Continue reading →

Feeling the Pull of the Poetry Tide

“Human salvation lies in the hands of he creatively maladjusted.”
–Martin Luther King, Jr.

“A man who has no imagination has no wings.” –Muhammad Ali

“The poet’s task is to obscure the point, not to reveal it.” –Jon Mychal
http://www.jonmychal.com

Poetry is not given much value in today’s world. Tell someone you are a poet and they ask you what you do “in real life.” And yet, poetry is the literary equivalent of singl-malt scotch–the distillation of a vision into a dream.

“I listen so that I may decipher the mystery of myself and become more whole.” –Richard Moss

Poetry comes from a tumultuous life, followed by the stillness of the soul that allows sorting out and choosing the seeds of a story, a life, a moment that will blow away in the wind of the next breath.

“Images are the heart of poetry. Images come from the unconscious. . . .Your’re not a poet without imagery.” –Anne Sexton

I will be teaching the how-to of poetry in Minneapolis this May and at Madeline Island in July. Give yourself the gift of stillness and the transcendence of your own voice. Join me at one (or both) of those locations.

Poem Titles

Yes, I’m doing research for an online class on writing your own poems for your own journal. One of the issues that will come up is the title you choose.

Image: Beachchatcat.com

For years, I’ve had book and poem titles run through my head. The Inner Hero book was originally going to be called Magic and Metaphor, but it is now considered smarter to choose a title that explains the concept of the book. Yes, that’s right. But poetry is different.

In the shower, on my morning walk, titles have always appeared. Titles for poems? Titles for books? Poems firs lines? Who knows. Here are some that have silhouetted across my mind:

A Handful of Night

Shutters, Shadows, Shelter

Lift the Moon into the Sky

Teaching the Hawk to Fly

Too-Sweet Sound Bite

Untangle the Sparkline

When you think of the poetry of your life, what line connected to an idea crosses your mind?

–Quinn McDonald is a creativity coach and journaler, writing through the night.

Tutorial: Found Poetry, Raw Art

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Found poetry is the discovery of hidden words and phrases in text that was written for another purpose entirely–a catalog or magazine article, for example. The poem is not found all together, you’ll find a word here, a few more … Continue reading →