Some Wisdom on Poetry

So, apparently April is poetry month. If you did not know this, I don’t blame you. I didn’t even know that a month was set aside and recognized as a month of poetry until a couple of days ago. When I learned this, I was very troubled. No one even thought to make a whole month for, say, Oreos? Or origami? Or games? No, no, silly me, of course poetry is much more important than any of those things. I suppose the matter isn’t how important it is, but how interesting. On a scale of one to ten, one being SO BORING I COULD DIE and ten being SO EXCITING I COULD DIE, poetry scores a 2. At least for me. I would give it a 1, but who am I kidding, I love Shel Silverstein.

I know some people adore poetry, and while I am sitting in a corner reading science fiction, others might be raving about the peaceful flow and elegance of rhyming, rhythmic words. For this reason, I have decided to reach out to fellow poets and write my own poetry. Actually, I do have some experience, because when I was just a youngling I loved poetry and wrote quite a bit of it. I thought it was beautifully simple. As you can see, my viewpoint has slightly changed. Nevertheless, I will write different types of poetry and share my thoughts on each.

1. Haikus

It does not make sense,

poetry should flow smoothly.

These are tangled words.

Haikus, a traditional type of Japanese poetry with three lines and 17 syllables total. The first line is 5 syllables, the second is 7, and the third is 5. To be honest, haikus frustrate me. They don’t sound like poetry and they don’t look like poetry. There’s no rhyme or rhythm. They’re too short. On the other hand, I technically didn’t write my haiku correctly. Usually a haiku is written as a super long adjective. It describes something, usually nature. My haiku just… complains… about haikus.

2. Couplet

The dark eyes stare endlessly deep,

looking for someone to keep.

Now couplets, I’d say, are the definition of poetry. Couplets rhyme and have rhythm. The ending word of each line should both rhyme and both lines should have about the same amount of syllables. This was actually fun to write (dare I say it??), however it was also quite easy. As long as you know rhyming words and how to count syllables, then it will also come across pretty easy for you as well. I imagine that writing a longer poem composed of couplets would take work, but I don’t often like to associate work with poetry.

3. Limerick

There once was a tree, which held a bird

The bird chatted of things quite absurd

Of pickles and rainbows,

Of toffee and banjos

And of other things scarcely heard.

Wow! I suppose this is what Mr. Silverstein writes. Limericks are often very fun and playful. They’re arranged in an AABBA order. In other words, lines 1,2, and 5 are similar and lines 3 and 4 are similar. If you’d like to get more specific I suggest you look up how to write a limerick (or click the link at the end of this post). This took a lot of time, though. It really does stretch the brain. I really enjoy that this type of poem is full of nonsense, just like me.

That’s all I’ll do at the moment, however, I’d love to see KAYnoodle attempt some poetry (let’s try to encourage her, shall we?) or contribute in some sort of way to “poetry month” (I’m sorry but it’s pretty funny, I’m laughing at this moment). Anyways, if any of you have any poems or writing that you’d like us to read, we’d be happy to check it out! Just leave a link in the comments.

Happy poet-ing–er–poet writing–um–poetry reading–UGH! Have a good week.

Sharing with sauce,

Rovioli

P.S. Click here for good instructions on different types of poetry.