Week two, during which I entered Poetland

Today is the day I update you on my Creativity Workshop progress. My goal this week was to research poetry forms, necessary because I’m basically ignorant of everything connected to writing poetry, and then to write the first of four poems. My theme for this set of goals is the four seasons. Certainly not an original concept, but it meets the requirement for connection, and I’ve never written poems specifically on seasons before. Also, each season will be personified as maiden, mother, or crone. I recognize two stages to motherhood: birthing and rearing, so Summer and Fall will both stand for mother.

I confess, by midweek I began to question the wisdom of signing up for a workshop when I was this close to finishing the final polish of a novel. Only two weeks in, it’s become a struggle to keep focused on the workshop goals. I don’t write well in short spurts, and at this point in my life, I usually don’t have to. I can and prefer to take the time to “get into character” before I let the story flow and then work until my brain exhausts itself. Breaking up my writing time with a bit of this and a bit of that is taking its toll on the quality of my output.

As requested, I recorded my progress in writing the first of four poems for the Creativity Workshop. This week I did not keep to the daily schedule I drew up before the workshop started. Obviously, I’m not doing so well on marrying discipline and creativity. I did, however, step up a rung on the ladder.

• Monday: This was meant to be my research day, and I did some, but not as much as I’d planned because the words came first. I wrote some “poetic” thoughts on summer as I recall it from living the first half of my life in Indiana.
• Tuesday: I researched more on poetry forms. One form I kept bypassing on Monday was the prose poem because it didn’t seem challenging enough. But early this morning, I took another look at the what I’d written and saw that it had already matured halfway to prose  poem–so prose it is. I worked far beyond my scheduled time and finished a decent draft of the poem by the end of the day. Also, viewed Merrilee’s three photo prompts and wrote down nine ideas/thoughts inspired by them as requested.
• Wednesday: This is the busiest day of my week, so I had to stick with my allotted CWS time. Edited the poem to choose words better fitted to this poem. I consulted with one of my musician sons on use of one term.
• Thursday: On second thought, I may not keep the prose poem form. I revised to free form, which is not a new poetry form for me, but I think I like the poem better this way. I spent the rest of my CWS time sitting in the sun and reading poetry.
• Friday: I let the two versions of the poem sleep today. I researched more poetry forms to prepare for writing the next three. My aim is to fit the poetic form to the theme of the poem, but I’m not sure I will be able to do that.
• Saturday: I re-read the two versions and decided to go with the free verse. I changed one word and added another. At some point in the future, I might know enough to write this better, but for now, I’ll consider this poem finished.

Words for the next poem came to me in the shower yesterday morning. I had been considering haiku for a winter poem and these words were already a close fit. So, it seems I have a head start on next week’s goal.

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