Introspect Your PoeticJourney
Celebrating National Poetry Month is more than an opportunity to connect with other poets, share our work, and discover new voices. It’s also a time to gain insight into our own poetry journey. How have you evolved as a poet over the past 12 months? What techniques or styles have you tried out? How have you grown?
Consider taking the time this April to evaluate your poetry evolution and gain a deeper understanding of your creative process. Carving out a few hours a week for writing and exploring various approaches and exercises can bring insight and inspiration to your work.
Embrace Creativity
The beauty of poetry is that it can be whatever you want it to be. But, too often, we get caught up in predetermined rules or standards and forget to just be creative. National Poetry Month is the perfect time to focus on being creative and open-minded.
If you’re an avid writer and you’ve been putting out poems on a regular basis, take a break from that and try something different this April. Experiment with a new form, or a different poetic structure. Scrunched haikus or shifting sestinas can lead to exciting new discoveries and surprising results.
Introduce Poetry Into Everyday Life
Alongside your poetry journey and your creative exploration, consider introducing poetry into your everyday life. Are there activities that you can make more poetic? Ways you can bring more creativity into your day?
You could read more poems while walking to work, prepare your meals while listening to Spoken Word, or collect words and combine them into an Impromptu Haiku. Alternatively, use phrases you come across in texts throughout the day as inspiration for a poem.
Reach Out to the Community
One of the best things about National Poetry Month is that it creates a sense of community for poets all around the world. Whether you’ve been writing for years or only recently started, it’s the perfect time to reach out to the community.
Use the month to sign up for a poetry workshop or attend an event or open mic night. Or, if there are no events happening in your area, start an online Poetry Club. Connect with a network of poets from all around the globe, share your work, and read others’.
Try New Mediums
Poetry can take many forms – and National Poetry Month is the perfect time to explore them. Whether it’s creating a video, combining elements of theatre and dance to create a performance piece, or editing a poem into a tasteful meme, mediums are incredibly varied.
Try to make a mindful decision when selecting a medium, choosing something that best expresses the essence of your message. The idea is to capture your audience’s attention and keep them engaged. For example, a YouTube video may be the best way to convey feeling, while an Instagram post could enable you to reach larger numbers.
Think Beyond the Screen
Rather than confining your work to the digital world, there are plenty of ways to make your work tangible. Consider printing a selection of your work and making them into flyers to hand out on the streets or booklets to share at events. Alternatively, make small art installations with mixed mediums by binding your poems together with strings, adding page markers, and sprinkling paint over some sections.
These options can aid with creating something that stands out and encourages your audience to engage with your work (and you!) with all the senses.
Find More Interesting Markets
The beauty of poetry is that it follows no formal rules, and there are many unique platforms you can use to distribute your work. Rather than going with the traditional avenues, try and find more interesting markets. Check out artist zines and online directories where you can submit your work and reach new audiences.
Work can also be shared in various creative ways, such as through a spoken word rap album, or through a live-action theatrical piece. Regardless of the medium you choose, make sure that you’re displaying your work in a way that resonates with you.
Finally, don’t keep your poetry to yourself this April. Use National Poetry Month as a way to support and encourage other poets, especially emerging voices. Share their work and offer constructive feedback. Do your part to help lift up experienced poets, create a safe environment for open dialogue, and make sure no one is silenced.
Creating opportunities to connect with others and share experiences is essential in strengthening the community. Alternatively, you could collaborate with other poets and write a poem together – how cool would that be?
Take a Trip Down Memory Lane
One of the most exciting ways to celebrate National Poetry Month is to go on a journey through your past poems. Pour a cup of tea, find a cozy spot to sit and review your poetic history. It can be an enlightening experience to see how the themes, style, and techniques have evolved throughout the years.
Take a step back and review where all your creative decisions have led you, so that you can gain a deeper understanding of yourself as a poet and what poems, written in the past, best reflect the poet that you are today.
Go Online and Get Creative
As you can’t always physically get together with other poets during National Poetry Month, use the power of the Internet to stay connected. Put together a writing challenge, create a hashtag for people to share their work or write an article or opinion piece about what poetry means to you.
You could also set up group chats or virtual movie nights and turn them into interactive poetry circles. Share your written work, talk about different styles and techniques and offer helpful feedback.
Give Back
Apart from celebrating poetry, it’s also important to give back to the community. Research for organizations like Ravishly, a storytelling platform for women’s lives touching on topics such as politics, mental health and culture, so that you can support their work and contribute your own writing.
Alternatively, you could offer workshops and guest lectures to aspiring poets, giving them the tools they need to get started, explore their craft and feel empowered.
Find New Poets and Inspiration
Finally, National Poetry Month gives you the opportunity to explore new poets and gain inspiration. Take the time to read new works and to figure out what you appreciate and what resonates with you.
Explore various genres and subject matters, such as world literature, slam poetry, and even poetry written in different languages. There is so much to discover. Who knows, maybe you’ll even find someone whose work inspires you to explore a theme or try a new technique.
