Poem's Inspiration
A friend I have met on Google+, +Rebecca Colabot and I were
discussing how we found inspiration for our poetry. She asked me a question
about whether or not my poetry comes from what I feel or from
my creative imagination. I'd like to share with you what I wrote in
answer to her inquiry and some additional thoughts about writing poetry.
All my poems come from what I feel. But I
believe imagination is an important part of poetry writing and prose,
for that matter. We are all a product of the things we have read. The
imagination takes hold of the thoughts and feelings and
we creatively write about it. So, to answer your question, I believe
it takes both feelings and creative imagination to write a poem.
I think inspiration can come from any source.
It may come from a memory. It can be a painful memory, something that maybe we
have never discussed with someone, yet a poem may allow us in some anonymous
way, to reveal the dept of the pain. The memory may be a bittersweet memory.
Forgotten friends, lost loved ones, lost loves, any memory that
evokes happy memories but also accompanied by sadness, an
expression of an emotional void. The memory can be an amazing,
joyful, even blissful memory. A first kiss, a first love, a long night of
loving, the birth of a child--any of these can call forth emotion to
fuel the poetry of joy.
A sunset, a piece of music, a song,
a friendship, a line from a movie, a found lost object--any of these can
call forth from the hidden life-stream of words, a poem. Another's poem or
story can be inspiration for a poem. This poem was inspired
by something I read from a quote I came across in the Love
Quote Community on Google+. I forget which one.
Her love was a tonic, refreshing my soul.
Her love was ironic, coming late my way.
Her love was amazing, making me whole.
Her love was a blazing, setting fire to my day.
Her love was astounding, giving me life.
Her love was so grounding, I made her my wife.
This poem's not the greatest and was written
quickly. But, I feel that it adequately portrays my feelings at that moment in
time. I've gone over it several times but have been unable to improve upon it.
So I let it stand as an expression of the depth of my emotional response to
another's writing.
Poetry's source--our poetry's source is a
combination of all the poems read and heard, the songs sung and listened to,
the stories read audio-books borrowed and movies watched. The poem's
source is influenced by all the writing classes we've taken and all the
literature courses we've attended.
I’d like to offer a word about the form of my
poetry. I like to write with some rhythm and rhyme. I try to keep a structure
in my poems. The poem I shared above rhymes throughout the poem—tonic, ironic
and amazing, blazing and astounding, grounding. I also rhyme at the end of the
sentence, but I alternate the rhyme: soul, whole and way, day and life, wife.
Rhyme and rhythm add to the poetic form.
Until recently, I had not written much poetry or
about writing poetry. I’m trying to catch up with both. Thanks to all on Google+
that I have interacted with this past month or so. Thank you for taking the
time to read my comments on a Poem’s Inspiration. Please add a few comments of
you own.
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