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A Time of Self Healing, Hope and Reflection
In March of 2000, I was injured during a retail management career. Although I didn't know it at the time, this accident would change my life forever. Leaving work to go the hospital, I had lost use of my entire right side. My limbs were completely...
Break ups: How To Cope
This article explains the stages you go through after a break up and ways to cope.
The loss of a relationship can be incredibly hard - you can feel so much pain. There's not only the grief from losing someone important in your life, but the pain...
Remembering
As the anniversary of September 11 approaches, we find ourselves once
again drudging up compassion and patriotism, ready to light candles
and join hands with strangers for the sake of peace and unity.
Countless memorials across our nation...
Traits of Intuitive People
From an extensive study of intuitive people done by Belleruth Naparstek and cited in "Your 6th Sense," these are the traits intuitive people are most likely to have.
1. A woman over 40 with an advanced degree in one of the mental health...
Wedding Invitation Labels and Envelopes
Computer printed labels are a time-saver, but they make the first impression of your formal wedding invitation appear impersonal. If a calligrapher is not in the budget, you can gather handwriting samples from your friends and offer them a fun...
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Write A Poem In Ten Minutes
Have you ever sat there staring at the paper, ready to
write, but unsure where to begin? Want a solution that will
overcome even the worst writer's block? Anyone can start
writing poetry today using a few simple techniques.
One, two, ...?
Did you say or think three when you saw the above? If not,
you certainly would when I asked you to fill in the blank.
Your mind is a powerful machine that recognises or creates
patterns. To make this work for you as a poet, you simply
have to lay out the materials in an implied pattern, and let
your mind do its thing.
The "materials," in this case, of course, are words or
ideas. So let's round up some materials for an example. If
you want to write a poem about thunderstorms, you might
start by writing down relevant words, and then choose the
more evocative ones: flash, blowing, rumble, night, deadly
and rain, perhaps.
Now you set the pattern. In this case, we'll write a
four-line poem, using one of our words in each line. We'll
only decide if we want a ryming poem after we start. This is
what I came up with after five minutes:
Rain stands still in the sky
Trees dance as in a painting
In a flash it is here and gone
And night grumbles at being revealed
It doesn't matter if most aren't good poems. You just have
to write a lot of them, and then work on re-writing the ones
with potential. With a little practice, you
can write a
dozen poems in an hour, then pick out the gems. My wife has
had poetry published using Deal-a-Poem, a game we created
based on this technique, so we know that it works, and it's
fun as well.
More Tips For Fast Poetry
The technique above works because when your mind focuses on
a word with the intent to use it in a line, it is stimulated
into action. It wants to find the pattern - or create it. To
make this work even better, try the following:
1. Start with words that are evocative and metaphorically
rich. You'll be more inspired and probably write a richer
poem with "howled," "torn open," and "festering," than with
"said," "broken," and "rotten."
2. Use this or any other technique as a starting point only.
If you have a great line already in mind, don't force one of
the words from your list into it. If a poem starts to write
itself, and becomes ten six-line verses, forget about the
technique. Treat it as a tool to be used when you need it.
3. Don't sit there waiting for inspiration. Write anything
NOW. Start with any topic, or even random words. The surest
way to get inspired in your poetry is to start writing a
poem.
About the Author
Steve Gillman has been playing with poetry for thirty years.
He and his wife Ana created the game "Deal-A-Poem," which
can be accessed for free at: http://www.dealapoem.com
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