At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.
— Plato
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and,
although the idea may seem just a bit trite, this is always a good time of year
to read and write love poems.
To get inspired, there’s a great
site selection of love poems on the Poetry Foundation’s website, which you can
access by CLICKING HERE.
Of course, the prompt this week
is exactly what you might expect: write a love poem.
Guidelines:
1. Think about different kinds of
love that you’ve experienced personally (romantic, familial, love of nature or
animals, friendship, platonic), and choose one that signifies a powerful
emotional experience for you.
2. Start with a freewrite (and
remember that freewriting can take place any time during drafting and, editing,
and revising).
3. Try several ideas for love
poems and keep the ideas that are keepers.
4. Experiment with stanza breaks
but not too early in the writing process. Stanzas can help expose weak spots as
well as wordiness and unnecessary repetitions.
Tips:
1. Often, love poems get a “bad
rap” because some have been written that are overly sentimental, “mushy,” too
personal, too confessional, or grossly overwritten. The challenge for you this
week is to write a poem that involves love in some form or another and to
observe the following:
- Strive for uniqueness (not the typical “How Do I Love Thee?” fare). Find ways to distinguish between the individual and the common.
- Create a sense of revelation without being overtly revealing. Remember the old poetry adage, “show don’t tell.”
- Remember that one of the biggest difficulties in writing love poems isn’t writing about love but, rather, writing about the feelings that underlie the love we feel and our attempts to recreate those feelings in ways that are understandable and believable.
- If you choose to write a romantic love poem, make sure you write between the lines and go beyond the first blush of romance.
Happy Valentine's Day!
