 Poetry: June 04, 2025 Issue [#13162] |
This week: Poetically Speaking Edited by: Fyn  
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Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.~~Robert Frost
Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity — it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.~~John Keats
Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.~~Carl Sandburg
Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.~~Plutarch
With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.~~Edgar Allan Poe
If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.~~David Carradine
To read a poem is to hear it with our eyes; to hear it is to see it with our ears.~~Octavio Paz
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I was speaking to a fellow traveler while we both waited for the customer before us to finish. I was talking about how the smoke from the fires up north lay like a blanket over Lake Erie, dark and grey like a coming storm, even though there was no storm on the horizon. He hadn't noticed.
Perhaps being dense, not noticing the other's disinterest, I continued. Now I mentioned the scent of campfires wafting on the breeze, and having to tie the rise of nostalgic moments to the conflagration running before the winds. He replied how he'd been coughing a bit. Had he, perchance, seen the sky late last night? The northern lights were more random twinkles of light in a star-filled sky under a blanket of haze.
He looked at me, suddenly, with the first vestige of interest. "Has anyone ever told you that you speak in poetry?"
I smiled. Because yes, I had been. It happens a lot when I've spent a considerable amount of time writing. He almost smiled, said he hadn't read a book in forty years. And it was my turn to ask about a room for the night—end of conversation.
But it is true. I was talking to someone else on the phone this evening and read him what I'd written thus far. He laughed. And told me how I did this all the time--always had. He had written a newspaper column over fifty years ago and the the fact that I did so made it easy to pick and choose quotes to use especially as it was a piece about my being a poet!
But I got to thinking and went back, rereading old emails and found that others do it too even when just writing an email, not responding to a piece, or writing a review. And, funny enough, these are the emails I remember! I mentioned it to my hubby tonight. He agreed, said that was why he and others listened to me, to how I speak as well as to what I was saying.
One of the characters in a book I'm working on, speaks this way. Hadn't realized until I thought about it, went and checked. Yup. Poetic. All the time. Now that I have realized it, I need to continue to do so. Argh! LOL
And yet we all 'speak' or write in voices. Changing due to a character's voice or the poetic voice we choose (whether or not we consciously think about it) in a poem. How we speak when we are angry or sad, cajoling or demanding changes. Think about how our voices are different when we talk to a baby, a small child, a boss or the annoying neighbor down the street. The subject matter influences it as well. Speaking of a spectacular sunset, a feeling at the funeral of either a beloved family member or a total stranger, the care we put into talking to someone in the hospital or the way we react to someone being totally unreasonable. We all are a choir of voices.
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DstnyHope  writes:I would love to learn who you are, Editor! I would love to read, rate and review some of your work. I would love to be able to learn and grow by reading your words. I enjoy a lot of the "Newbies". I know I have had a free account here, but, I still feel like a Newbie. I want so much to find my voice here. I want to write a book, but am unsure of where to start. Last night I started a blog, with 2 paragraphs. I added more today. This is where I want to start. Thank you! I appreciate the newsletters, growth opportunities, and the existence of writing.com.
Best thing to do is jump in, make a big old splash and start reviewing others. Writing reviews is huge!!! Folks will write back and before you know it, that newbie feeling will vanish and you will be a regular like the rest of us! :)
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