Friday, October 16, 2015

Whether the Weather be Good ...

Surely the poet with access to the outdoors will never be lacking in topics to write about. Personally, I certainly find much poetic inspiration in what Nature gives, from the soft and fluffy clouds making fantastical shapes in the sky, to the angry lashing rains and storms that excite and revitalise the venturesome spirit! Lightning strikes, and the mind springs to life.

The transitions of the seasons bring interest too. At the moment, our relatively new mandarin tree is doing interesting things. There were the lovely flowers, and today, when I inspected the little tree in the morning, I noticed there are fewer petals on the tree, and where flowers had been there are now tiny little green blobs. I'm hoping and assuming these little blobs will become fruit. Super fresh mandarins plucked from the tree seems like a wonderful thing as the current Spring transitions into Summer!

If you've never thought about the weather as a topic to write poetry about, perhaps today is the day to start?! From a pithy little 3 line haiku, to a heartfelt 14 line sonnet and beyond, Weather can be a fine topic to consider when you next want to write a poem! I've written many haiku about the things I see outside, some of them fine, some just of interest to me perhaps, but either way, still worth writing.

That's another important thing to remember when writing poetry - not every first attempt should be expected to be perfect. We creative writing people can be so unkind to ourselves at times. Do violin players berate themselves for every off note played, and vow to give up the violin? Or do they keep on with the practice and get better and better? Of course they keep on with it, the good ones do, anyway.

Aspire to become a poetic maestro, and write and write and write!