World Poetry Movement | Poetry Contest | Poem

How to Write Concrete Poetry

When thinking about how to write concrete poetry, you will be considering how the poem looks on the page, what its shape is to the eye, as well as what the words mean and how they sound. Want an easy way to understand how this works? Think of greeting cards: you’ve probably seen a Valentine's Day card with the words-- poetry or not -- arranged in the shape of a heart, or a cupid. Perhaps you’ve seen a Christmas card with the words of the greeting in the shape of a tree.

Concrete poetry involves more than just setting words in a shape, though. The idea of the poem, the sense of the words, and the shape they take on the page connect with each other in concrete poetry. If you are writing about love as a flowing stream, or time as a river, then the shape of a winding river cascading down the page might add to your words. Maybe the idea you are thinking of would lend itself to a shape of stair steps, or a circle, a square -- the thing to keep in mind is that the words and ideas are connected. In a well written concrete poem, if you took away the shape, the poem would be less effective.

Writing concrete poetry requires you to think both visually and with words. Starting with the idea of an image, one you describe with words or one you draw, is the beginning of writing a concrete poem, and as with any other sort of poem, it’s helpful if you also have an idea of where you want to go with it. Is that winding stream of love fast flowing or a trickle? How will this play into how you arrange your words to illustrate this idea?

6 Steps To Writing Concrete Poetry:
-Think of the main idea you want to write about.
-What shapes or pictures come to mind? Remember, the shape should relate to and enhance your words.
-Sketch out your chosen shape (even if you usually write on a computer, and you plan your finished piece to be done with a graphics program, it’s best to begin creating your ideas for concrete poems using pen or pencil and paper. you have more freedom that way and it’s easier to see immediate results of changes).
-As you write your poem, begin to fit  the words into the shape, in a way that enhances the flow of your ideas.
-Remember, the point of writing concrete poetry is to create a poem where words and shape play on the page

 -How the poem looks as well as how it sounds -- work together to convey your thoughts.

 More Detail Please visit http://www.worldpoetrymovement.com/navlinks/love_poems

World Poetry Movement | Poem | International Poetry Contest

Is Rap the New Black Poetry?

Many people debate whether the lyrics of Public Enemies, JayZ Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne are actually a form of black poetry. Some people think rap music is just ramblings about money, sex, drugs and violence. Others view it as sophisticated commentary on the issues facing African Americans living in urban areas. This raises the question, Is rap music the new black poetry?

To answer this question, we must look at the characteristics found in traditional poems. Poetry means different things to different people. However, when we think of poems, we usually think of lines of text that have meter, have a rhythm and tell a story. Poems rely on figurative language, strong verbs and sensory details like smell and taste. Interestingly, rap music often has many of these traits.

Let’s look at an example. Tupac Shakur rapped, “I see no changes all I see is racist faces / misplaced hate makes disgrace to races.” The song continues with Tpac asking listeners to help change the widespread racist opinions. The end-rhyme is very clear in these lines. Ending the lines with “faces” and “races” gives them a poetry feel even before the content is analyzed. Next, the lines let you see what the rapper is seeing. Tupac reveals the truth of about racism and its affect on people. Like most poetry, these song has a purpose and should be considered black poetry. The artist, Tupac, was even a published poet before he became a rapper!

So if rap music shares so much with poetry, why is it so far removed from traditional forms of black poetry? The truth is, black poetry and rap music are closely related. In fact, rap music evolved from poetry! Modern rap and hip-hop music is often traced back to a group of poets called The Last Poets.

When The Last Poets formed a group in 1968 in Harlem, there were three poets and a drummer. In 1969, the group expanded with more Harlem writers and a percussionist. The group would perform spoken word poetry set to a beat. The drum and percussion instrument made the poetry sound much different from traditional black poetry. The result still wasn’t quite music. It couldn’t be defined as pop, rock, jazz or other form. It was something new! It blatantly addressed issues that were once ignored or suppressed. The poems talked about racism, drugs, poverty and other important issues.

Impressed by the success and style of The Last Poets, musicians started to draw from them for their own work. The efforts created what is now known as rap. There is some debate about who was the first rapper. DJ Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa are often considered the first rappers.

Since black poetry and rap music share similar history, there isn’t any reason why the two should be kept separate. Rap music should be considered black poetry. Not all rap songs are good. Poetry is the same way: there are good poems and there are bad poems. The few bad rap songs are not enough to reject rap music as a form of black poetry. The popularity of rap music has allowed it to grow into the new black poetry.

More Detail Please visit http://www.worldpoetrymovement.com/navlinks/top_20

World Poetry Movemen

How To Book  A Poetry Reading at Your Local Bookstore

The single most effective way to promote your book is with a poetry reading at the store where your book is on sale. The problem: most bookstores have neither time nor money to waste offering author events, like poetry readings, that no one attends.

The Pitch: You must convince booksellers to give up time, energy, and sometimes sales to promote you, an unknown. The most relevant piece of information you have to offer is the number of people who can reasonably be expected to attend your poetry reading. To this end, you should be able to offer a mailing list. Purchase a guestbook or make a sign-up sheet and get on social networking sites. Collect the names and contact information of people who might care to come to your poetry reading and buy your book.

The Build up: Once the bookseller has put you on the store’s schedule, set about making certain everyone in that store’s market is aware of your poetry reading. To some degree, the bookstore will do this, but your author event will be one of many on their calendar. Only for you is your reading the one reading in need of promotion. Send out preliminary email and social networking announcements a month before the date, then two weeks, then one week, then the day before. Write it up and deliver it by hand, by mail, email, or ‘contact us’ link on a website to every newspaper, newsletter, local organization, or website that maintains a calendar of local events. Then make up an attractive flyer and post it on every public bulletin board you can find (cafes, Laundromats, post offices, even grocery stores, will usually have one).

            Remember the more people you have show up at your poetry reading, the more books you sell, the easier it will be to talk other bookstores into hosting your future poetry readings. That said, only approach one store per market. Most markets aren’t large enough to support multiple appearances by the same author.

The Big Night: I hope you are prepared. No stuttering, fumbling with papers, or nervously hiding in the backroom. You are the professional poet everyone has come to see. Know your poems by heart even if you are reading from a page. Project your voice to the back of the room, without yelling, even if you have a microphone. Be personable, cheerful between poems, and engage your audience.

The Aftermath: Introduce yourself to the booksellers in the store. Thank them for hosting your poetry reading. They might take an interest in your book and bookseller word-of-mouth makes bestsellers. Stay available to your audience for questions and signing. Don’t let family, friends, or anyone dominate your time to the exclusion of others. When you get home, post it all online, with pictures if possible. 

More Detail Please visit http://www.worldpoetrymovement.com

World Poetry Movement | Poetry Contest

Is Rap the New Black Poetry?

Many people debate whether the lyrics of Public Enemies, JayZ Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne are actually a form of black poetry. Some people think rap music is just ramblings about money, sex, drugs and violence. Others view it as sophisticated commentary on the issues facing African Americans living in urban areas. This raises the question, Is rap music the new black poetry?

To answer this question, we must look at the characteristics found in traditional poems. Poetry means different things to different people. However, when we think of poems, we usually think of lines of text that have meter, have a rhythm and tell a story. Poems rely on figurative language, strong verbs and sensory details like smell and taste. Interestingly, rap music often has many of these traits.

Let’s look at an example. Tupac Shakur rapped, “I see no changes all I see is racist faces / misplaced hate makes disgrace to races.” The song continues with Tpac asking listeners to help change the widespread racist opinions. The end-rhyme is very clear in these lines. Ending the lines with “faces” and “races” gives them a poetry feel even before the content is analyzed. Next, the lines let you see what the rapper is seeing. Tupac reveals the truth of about racism and its affect on people. Like most poetry, these song has a purpose and should be considered black poetry. The artist, Tupac, was even a published poet before he became a rapper!

So if rap music shares so much with poetry, why is it so far removed from traditional forms of black poetry? The truth is, black poetry and rap music are closely related. In fact, rap music evolved from poetry! Modern rap and hip-hop music is often traced back to a group of poets called The Last Poets.

When The Last Poets formed a group in 1968 in Harlem, there were three poets and a drummer. In 1969, the group expanded with more Harlem writers and a percussionist. The group would perform spoken word poetry set to a beat. The drum and percussion instrument made the poetry sound much different from traditional black poetry. The result still wasn’t quite music. It couldn’t be defined as pop, rock, jazz or other form. It was something new! It blatantly addressed issues that were once ignored or suppressed. The poems talked about racism, drugs, poverty and other important issues.

Impressed by the success and style of The Last Poets, musicians started to draw from them for their own work. The efforts created what is now known as rap. There is some debate about who was the first rapper. DJ Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa are often considered the first rappers.

Since black poetry and rap music share similar history, there isn’t any reason why the two should be kept separate. Rap music should be considered black poetry. Not all rap songs are good. Poetry is the same way: there are good poems and there are bad poems. The few bad rap songs are not enough to reject rap music as a form of black poetry. The popularity of rap music has allowed it to grow into the new black poetry.

More Detail Please visit http://www.worldpoetrymovement.com/navlinks/top_20

International Poetry Contest | World Poetry Movement | Poems

How to Write Haiku Poetry

Haiku poetry is an ancient Japanese form of short poem which has remained popular through the centuries with poets. Exquisite haiku can capture a moment and preserve it, as with this haiku from the Japanese poet Basho:

April's air stirs in

Willow-leaves; a butterfly

Floats and balances.

Or, in another haiku where another Japanese poet, Moritake, celebrates a butterfly's ephemeral existence:

A fallen flower

Drifting to rest on the branch?

No. White butterfly.

To write haiku poetry, you need to understand the three main characteristics of the form.

1. Syllable count is often the only haiku tradition that poets adhere to. In a traditional haiku, the first line has five syllables (more correctly, "on," which means "sound" in Japanese), the second seven, and the third five.

2. A seasonal reference. In traditional haiku, these were drawn from specific lists of words, and often contained some mention of nature.

3. In Japanese, the third requirement of haiku is called "kireji," which translates as "cutting word. These are moments of emphasis which either provide a pause in the poem or create an ending that closes the poem gracefully.

Poets working with haiku poetry but not writing in Japanese usually choose to adhere to the first and sometimes the second. The third concept sometimes becomes a pause in which two ideas or images that are juxtaposed, placed next to each other in a way that lets us realize something new.

To write a haiku, pick a moment that you want to capture. Think about what the moment represents to you in your life. Is it the first time you hear the frogs singing down by the lake and know that spring has come? Is it standing in the middle of a downtown crowd in which you know no one, and realizing loneliness that you can experience even when among people? The time you watched your mother making pancakes and realized that she was mortal and would be gone someday?

Think about what characterizes the moment to you: the smell of the still smoldering cigarette butt a passerby threw in the gutter? The buzzy shrill of a tree frog, magnified by a thousand of them singing until the air seems to vibrate with the sound they're making? The way your mother holds the ladle of batter, pouring it in a slow outward spiral?

Jot down images, scraps of lines, before you begin to worry about counting syllables. Trim them down, make them as succinct as possible. What comparisons can you make that will help show the object or scene in a new light?

Once you have that, pick out the most powerful descriptions and lines and begin assembling them into a haiku. This is often the trickiest and most fiddly bit of writing haiku poetry, and you may want to think about how strictly you want to adhere to the rules of syllable count. It's your poem, after all, and you get to do what you want with it.

Don't stop when you've got the right syllable count. Read your new haiku poetry aloud and keep working until it sounds right to the ear as well. Polish until your poem is perfect; when you're working with such a small space, every word has to do some work.

 More Detail Please visit www.worldpoetrymovement.com

: Haiku Poetry | Poetry Contest | World Poetry Movement | Poems

How to Write Haiku Poetry

Haiku poetry is an ancient Japanese form of short poem which has remained popular through the centuries with poets. Exquisite haiku can capture a moment and preserve it, as with this haiku from the Japanese poet Basho:

April's air stirs in

Willow-leaves; a butterfly

Floats and balances.

Or, in another haiku where another Japanese poet, Moritake, celebrates a butterfly's ephemeral existence:

A fallen flower

Drifting to rest on the branch?

No. White butterfly.

To write haiku poetry, you need to understand the three main characteristics of the form.

1. Syllable count is often the only haiku tradition that poets adhere to. In a traditional haiku, the first line has five syllables (more correctly, "on," which means "sound" in Japanese), the second seven, and the third five.

2. A seasonal reference. In traditional haiku, these were drawn from specific lists of words, and often contained some mention of nature.

3. In Japanese, the third requirement of haiku is called "kireji," which translates as "cutting word. These are moments of emphasis which either provide a pause in the poem or create an ending that closes the poem gracefully.

Poets working with haiku poetry but not writing in Japanese usually choose to adhere to the first and sometimes the second. The third concept sometimes becomes a pause in which two ideas or images that are juxtaposed, placed next to each other in a way that lets us realize something new.

To write a haiku, pick a moment that you want to capture. Think about what the moment represents to you in your life. Is it the first time you hear the frogs singing down by the lake and know that spring has come? Is it standing in the middle of a downtown crowd in which you know no one, and realizing loneliness that you can experience even when among people? The time you watched your mother making pancakes and realized that she was mortal and would be gone someday?

Think about what characterizes the moment to you: the smell of the still smoldering cigarette butt a passerby threw in the gutter? The buzzy shrill of a tree frog, magnified by a thousand of them singing until the air seems to vibrate with the sound they're making? The way your mother holds the ladle of batter, pouring it in a slow outward spiral?

Jot down images, scraps of lines, before you begin to worry about counting syllables. Trim them down, make them as succinct as possible. What comparisons can you make that will help show the object or scene in a new light?

Once you have that, pick out the most powerful descriptions and lines and begin assembling them into a haiku. This is often the trickiest and most fiddly bit of writing haiku poetry, and you may want to think about how strictly you want to adhere to the rules of syllable count. It's your poem, after all, and you get to do what you want with it.

Don't stop when you've got the right syllable count. Read your new haiku poetry aloud and keep working until it sounds right to the ear as well. Polish until your poem is perfect; when you're working with such a small space, every word has to do some work.

 More Detail Please visit www.worldpoetrymovement.com

Black Poetry | Contest for poets | WPM | Poem

Is Rap the New Black Poetry?

Many people debate whether the lyrics of Public Enemies, JayZ Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne are actually a form of black poetry. Some people think rap music is just ramblings about money, sex, drugs and violence. Others view it as sophisticated commentary on the issues facing African Americans living in urban areas. This raises the question, Is rap music the new black poetry?

To answer this question, we must look at the characteristics found in traditional poems. Poetry means different things to different people. However, when we think of poems, we usually think of lines of text that have meter, have a rhythm and tell a story. Poems rely on figurative language, strong verbs and sensory details like smell and taste. Interestingly, rap music often has many of these traits.

Let’s look at an example. Tupac Shakur rapped, “I see no changes all I see is racist faces / misplaced hate makes disgrace to races.” The song continues with Tpac asking listeners to help change the widespread racist opinions. The end-rhyme is very clear in these lines. Ending the lines with “faces” and “races” gives them a poetry feel even before the content is analyzed. Next, the lines let you see what the rapper is seeing. Tupac reveals the truth of about racism and its affect on people. Like most poetry, these song has a purpose and should be considered black poetry. The artist, Tupac, was even a published poet before he became a rapper!

So if rap music shares so much with poetry, why is it so far removed from traditional forms of black poetry? The truth is, black poetry and rap music are closely related. In fact, rap music evolved from poetry! Modern rap and hip-hop music is often traced back to a group of poets called The Last Poets.

When The Last Poets formed a group in 1968 in Harlem, there were three poets and a drummer. In 1969, the group expanded with more Harlem writers and a percussionist. The group would perform spoken word poetry set to a beat. The drum and percussion instrument made the poetry sound much different from traditional black poetry. The result still wasn’t quite music. It couldn’t be defined as pop, rock, jazz or other form. It was something new! It blatantly addressed issues that were once ignored or suppressed. The poems talked about racism, drugs, poverty and other important issues.

Impressed by the success and style of The Last Poets, musicians started to draw from them for their own work. The efforts created what is now known as rap. There is some debate about who was the first rapper. DJ Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa are often considered the first rappers.

Since black poetry and rap music share similar history, there isn’t any reason why the two should be kept separate. Rap music should be considered black poetry. Not all rap songs are good. Poetry is the same way: there are good poems and there are bad poems. The few bad rap songs are not enough to reject rap music as a form of black poetry. The popularity of rap music has allowed it to grow into the new black poetry.

More Detail Please visit http://www.worldpoetrymovement.com/navlinks/top_20

World Poetry movement contest | WPM | Poems | Poem

How to Write Concrete Poetry

When thinking about how to write concrete poetry, you will be considering how the poem looks on the page, what its shape is to the eye, as well as what the words mean and how they sound. Want an easy way to understand how this works? Think of greeting cards: you’ve probably seen a Valentine's Day card with the words-- poetry or not -- arranged in the shape of a heart, or a cupid. Perhaps you’ve seen a Christmas card with the words of the greeting in the shape of a tree.

Concrete poetry involves more than just setting words in a shape, though. The idea of the poem, the sense of the words, and the shape they take on the page connect with each other in concrete poetry. If you are writing about love as a flowing stream, or time as a river, then the shape of a winding river cascading down the page might add to your words. Maybe the idea you are thinking of would lend itself to a shape of stair steps, or a circle, a square -- the thing to keep in mind is that the words and ideas are connected. In a well written concrete poem, if you took away the shape, the poem would be less effective.

Writing concrete poetry requires you to think both visually and with words. Starting with the idea of an image, one you describe with words or one you draw, is the beginning of writing a concrete poem, and as with any other sort of poem, it’s helpful if you also have an idea of where you want to go with it. Is that winding stream of love fast flowing or a trickle? How will this play into how you arrange your words to illustrate this idea?

6 Steps To Writing Concrete Poetry:
-Think of the main idea you want to write about.
-What shapes or pictures come to mind? Remember, the shape should relate to and enhance your words.
-Sketch out your chosen shape (even if you usually write on a computer, and you plan your finished piece to be done with a graphics program, it’s best to begin creating your ideas for concrete poems using pen or pencil and paper. you have more freedom that way and it’s easier to see immediate results of changes).
-As you write your poem, begin to fit  the words into the shape, in a way that enhances the flow of your ideas.
-Remember, the point of writing concrete poetry is to create a poem where words and shape play on the page

 -How the poem looks as well as how it sounds -- work together to convey your thoughts.

 More Detail Please visit http://www.worldpoetrymovement.com/navlinks/love_poems

World Poetry Movement | WPM | Poems | Poem

Eight Steps to a Poetry Reading

When you organize a poetry reading, your primary goal should be to build a poetry community. More than anything else a poetry reading is great way to bring poetry lovers into the same space to meet. Every step in the process of organizing your reading should reach out and invite.

1.       Find a performance space.  Bookstores, cafes (may be noisy), and College campuses are traditional. Nontraditional spaces like warehouses or homes are fine if centrally located and easy to find. Business owners and Managers are often overjoyed to host. Just ask.

2.       Decide: will it be open mic or have a featured poet or both. Most professional poets will not share the stage with amateurs.          

                                                               i.      If you want to host professionals, a bookstore or University is the way to go. Poets read at bookstores to promote their books, not for pay. When they read elsewhere, they command a fee. If your local University can get a grant, a professional reading series can be a great way to reach the national poetry community. Contact poets through their publisher’s marketing departments.

                                                             ii.      Otherwise, an open mic or a featured local poet with an open mic is the way to go. Be prepared for egomaniac. You will have to set rules to prevent the self-absorbed from hogging the mic or noisily coming and going while others read.

3.       Decide also whether this will be a series or a onetime event. Series have a greater chance of success as word of mouth has time to build. Be sure to make times and dates predictable, for instance, every Friday night.

4.       Promote your reading with flyers. They are easy to make in MS Word. Download a press release template from Microsoft Office online and deliver it to all local publications that publish calendars of events. Create a Facebook event page and invite all of your contacts.

5.       Show up early with your equipment. If you have teamed with a business, they may have a microphone, podium, and chairs. Otherwise, you will have to rent or scrounge from friends. The readers will need water. The audience might like snacks (nothing noisy and you might want to put them away once the reading starts to prevent distracting grazing.

6.       Start it off.

a.       If you have a featured reader, introduce him or her: just some facts and light flattery. Don’t quote or read the poet’s or anyone’s poems.

b.      If you have an open mic, order is all! Have your readers sign up or select their order according to seating. Introductions bore; have each reader call the next on the list.

7.       Thoroughly enjoy the poems.

8.       After, thank the reader(s), remind everyone of future readings, and be certain to mention if there are books for sale at the event. Clear up the space and meet your poets for an after-reading coffee or cocktail. 

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Popular poems | Favorite poems .

The Appeal of Robert Frost’s Poetry

 

As contemporary poetics has opened poetry to free verse and more experimental forms, Robert Frost continued to write in traditional verse and with a great emphasis on metric rhythms and rhymes. 

The appeal of Robert Frost’s poems lie in the ways he combines the modern poetics of using everyday language with a strict form, as well as his highly philosophical and intellectual subject matter, which he often approached with humor and wit.

Robert Frost has the enviable ability to create powerful and memorable “one-liners,”—even if they are actually more than one line.  These are the lines that stick in our memories, the ones we are able to quote over and over again. 

He manages these lines in part through his trademark adherence to metrics and by giving us the rhythmic structure, we more easily remember lines like the ending stanza to “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

What we as readers remember is the simple beauty present in his language and perfect rhyme, along with the repetition of the last line.  Robert Frost’s word choice and rhyme scheme may seem deceptively simple, but the lines have an effect a bit like spell-casting—we are transfixed by the image and sound of a night settling down into itself, the vision of a solitary experience within the context of nature and of other humanity.

The appeal of Robert Frost’s poems also lies in the timelessness of his chosen subject matter.  Sharply intellectual and questioning, Robert Frost wrote poetry meant to engage his readers in philosophical consideration. 

One theme that Frost revisits in many of his poems is the theme of person-to-person interaction.  Robert Frost’s poetry often emphasizes the importance of personal relationships, of being open to new experiences and new people, and warns against being too closed.

Frost has become so synonymous with New England poetry and being one of the fathers of American poetics, it is easy to forget that Frost was an expatriate, spending many years in England and producing great work while abroad. 

Frost joins many great American writers and poets—including Gertrude Stein, Henry James, Ezra Pound—who spent significant time abroad, writing in English, contributing to the American literary scene, but across an ocean.

In England, Frost met and interacted with many well-known British poets, including Robert Graves, who produced haunting war poetry rooted in his experiences during World War I.  Since we think of Frost as a quintessential early 20^th century American poet, it’s lovely to remember that Frost himself spent formative years writing, living and thinking abroad.

After returning from England, Frost not only continued to contribute to American poetry by writing poems, but was a important teacher and mentor within the academic and literary world.  Many current, well-know writing programs and conferences, such as Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, benefited greatly from Frost’s time and investment.

More Detail Please visit www.worldpoetrymovement.com