A lot of poets would rather wrestle an octopus than read one of their poems aloud. I am particularly creeped out by octopi, and I would take the octopus over the live event. When I was a young writer, twenties and thirties, I could not wait to perform my work. I always got good responses, as well, to my live readings, so I was so excited to do them. Now, though, standing in front of a room feels strangely vulnerable. I get so nervous I find myself choked up. As a young writer I had a lot of very kind teachers who were delightfully excited about my writing. When I look back at that “young” writing, I don’t think it was very good, so I wonder at that. But their support was marvelous. These days there’s no teacher to be wowed before I go out and attempt to wow the crowd, so I do feel especially …. clumsy, for lack of a better word.
Here’s the thing, though: audiences don’t expect perfection. They aren’t looking for a Broadway actor or a professional voice-over artist. They just want to hear the person who wrote the poem, read the poem. We have a few people every issue of Instant Noodles who record themselves reading their poems, and those always get more hits than the non-readers. Reading your own work gives people something the printed page can’t. They hear where you pause, which words you linger over, and where you smile without realizing it. Even a quiet, slightly nervous reading can help a listener connect with your poem in a new way.
You don’t have to book a poetry reading to do this. Prop your phone against a coffee mug, press record, and read your poem. Actually, if you want to look your best, prop your phone on something eye-level or higher, pointing down. Practice positioning until you feel confident you look okay. I often record myself on Zoom so I have more control over my look. Just open a Zoom account and hop into the “Personal Room” and hit RECORD. If you stumble over a line, pause and start over, in you’re on Zoom, or, if you’re on your phone, stop that recording and start another. Then read it again. Nobody has to know it took three tries. (I won’t tell if you won’t. Sometimes, when I record things, I need a calculator to count the tries!) If video isn’t your thing, record the audio instead. Share it in your newsletter, post it on social media, or add it to your website. You’d be surprised how many people enjoy hearing a poem in the poet’s own voice. It adds a warmth and familiarity the printed work doesn’t give. And, when I’ve listened to some of my favorite poets, I’ve been surprised by one or two who came across as decidedly… different from what I had expected. That added a new depth to the writing that really intrigued me. I would love to hear more of our Instant Noodles authors reader their work.
Next time, I’ll look at how one poem can become several meaningful posts without feeling like you’re repeating yourself.
Sometimes a writer submits a poem to Instant Noodles Literary Magazine, it gets published, and we never hear from that writer again. It’s almost as though the poem completed its mission in life and quietly retired to a folder on a laptop.
I’ve always found that a little surprising.
We work for weeks, sometimes months, on a poem. We submit it. We wait forever. We get the acceptance email, do a little happy dance in the kitchen (or maybe that’s just me), share the publication with a few friends, and then we’re off chasing the next shiny poem. But publication isn’t the end of a poem’s life. It’s the beginning of its conversation with readers.
Most people who would enjoy your work probably haven’t seen it. They don’t subscribe to the journal that published it. They weren’t refreshing the editor’s website waiting for the new issue to drop. They’re just people who like good poetry and would be delighted if your work happened to cross their path. So don’t be afraid to let a published poem keep doing its job. Read it at an open mic. Share a favorite line on social media. Tell the story behind it in your newsletter. Mention it on your website. Include it in a future reading. You spent a long time writing that poem. It has probably earned the right to stick around a little longer than the three days it spent on your Facebook page before disappearing beneath photos of someone’s lunch and a cousin’s vacation.
Next week, we’ll talk about one of the simplest ways to give a poem a longer life: reading it aloud. Don’t worry. Nobody says you have to sound like Lauren Bacall. Though if you do, I’m a little jealous.
A few years ago a short creative nonfiction essay of mine, titled “Lipstick” was published in Hare’s Paw Literary Journal. It took many attempts to find a home for this particular essay. On reflection, part of the difficulty was in deciding on an appropriate title.
In contemplating “writer’s notes” about this particular piece of writing, I remember thinking about how titles set up certain epectations.
During that lull, after I’ve sent out my work and for several months while waiting for a response, always there is self-doubt. Is the essay too short, too long. Did I mess up the tenses again. Is is too negative? Will readers find it disturbing? Will editors opposed to any type of make-up be turned off? Yes, a lot of weird thoughts were whirling around in my mind, and several of them centered on the title I’d chosen. I’d started to question my choice . Did I give I it the right title?
I felt I’d written something good. I’d workshopped it with some colleagues and received some positive feedback from editors who ”couldn’t find space for this particular piece in our upcoming issue, but please send us more work…” so I sensed I’d written something powerful, but had I chosen the right title?
Titles are hard. At least they are hard for me. I know they are important. As a former journalist, I know it is the headlines ie titles that people read first and maybe the only thing they read. Maybe if they see the title “lipstick,” I thought, they will literally think it is an essay about lipstick. Maybe I should have chosen a title that indicated it was about a fraught relationship between a mother and a daughter.
If a piece has been submitted to a magazine and it’s anonymously sitting in the slush pile, a reader/editor might barely read the work, if they decide they don’t like the title. After all, they’ve got a whole bunch of other stories waiting to be read. Maybe they shouldn’t even bother. Perhaps they are asking themselves, will this particular story interest me?
As a writer, not as an editor, I want my title to be appropriate. When I put on my editor’s hat, I’m thinking I want a title that will draw readers in and how does one do that?
As a writer, I try to draw on advice from other writers, who suggest choosing a poignant line from your piece and taking that line as your title, or as an alternative approach, selecting a moment that will evoke surprise as your title. For surprise I could have chosen, What I did when I Found Her on the Floor. For an evocative line I could have chosen, “The silence grows longer and longer.”
Often I start writing and I do not know what I’m truly writing about until my journey is coming to a close. Selecting a title can help me clarify what are the most important aspects ot the story.
I’m wondering whether this desire of mine to find the perfect title could be turned into a writing prompt. As the hot summer days seem longer forcing us to spend more time indoors and fellow writers are all looking for fresh approaches, here is an idea. Try writing your title first and specifically focus on a scene in the story that will create tension.
WRITING PROMPT: Think of a scene from your past, full of tension and conflict. Maybe it was the moment your boss handed you a pink slip or you were standing in the cafeteria line and realized you’d forgotten your voucher or wallet. What made this situation tense? How did you feel at the time? What were you thinking about? What were your physical responses?
You can do this with fictional characters and situations as well. The title, “The Moment My Boss Handed Me a Pink Slip” is obvious or maybe not. Perhaps the title will change depending on the actions that ensue. But it’s a beginning.
Picture the scene in your mind. Select a few important details that stand out. Try writing the same scene again for ten minutes with a different variation. Did you learn anything?
Thank you for reading and for your feedback. If you have a favorite technique for titling your work, please share. We’d love to post it.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.”
~ Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, spoken by Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2
Today I am writing about a subject dear to my heart—choosing titles for poems.
The opportunity to name something you created should not be wasted. You’d think people would give this more attention than they actually do.
Back in the 80s, there was a best-selling book called The Name Game and its main premise was that your name was your destiny. If you wanted your child to be popular, excel in school and marry well, you had to be very careful what you named that little baby in the bassinet.
It would seem to follow that naming your poem merits some consideration as well!
To be clear, I’m no expert and I’m not denigrating any method you may be in the habit of using to choose your titles (or name your children!). But I have a keen interest in this subject and it seems to be a somewhat neglected area of discussion in poetry.
Just to see if maybe something on this subject was buried in books about writing poetry, I checked out a few classic poetry craft books: Ted Kooser’s The Poetry Home Repair Manual and Robert Pinsky’s Singing School. Kooser devotes a few pages to the subject. Pinsky mentions nothing about titles but does provide lots of examples of classic poem titles to peruse.
I then checked in the library catalog of a library of 2 million+ volumes, and only ONE book comes up under the LC classification subject heading: Titles of poems, it is a book called The Title to the Poem by Anne Ferry. She explores the subject in depth, asking questions like “Who gives the title? Who has the title? Who “says” the poem? Who “hears” the poem? What genre does the poem belong to? What is the poem “about”?” and considers the deeper aspects of titling poems: “There are complex relationships between what titles purport to tell and what they actually tell, and this is true not only of titles so worded that they demand interpretation, but also of those that appear straightforward.”
A title can anchor a poem in space and time, giving the reader some necessary context with which to begin reading and enjoying it. For example, a recent poem I wrote I entitled:
“Native, Antilles High School, Ft. Buchanan, Puerto Rico”
I could have just named it “Native” but the place and the time were very relevant to understanding the background of this poem, so the title’s subtitle in this case was very important.
Similarly, a poem entitled “An Evening Encounter at the Arecibo Observatory” gives the reader a lot of information, the time, the place, and the sense that this encounter is not going to be an ordinary one, given the nature of the place!
A title can lend specificity and a sense of fun at the same time: For example, “At the Mayan Monkey Mijas Chocolate Factory” (and yes, this place really exists!)
First of all, how can you visit a place called the Mayan Monkey Mijas Chocolate Factory and NOT write a poem about it and use that name in the title?? However, I later thought I really should have called it “Touring the Mayan Monkey Mijas Chocolate Factory” and that would have conveyed even more relevant information because I was a tourist, not someone who worked there or a local who regularly visited, for example. This title conveys a specific place (Mijas, Spain), history and culture (Mayan), fun (monkeys!) and sensory detail (the aroma of chocolate) and opens all sorts of questions in the reader’s mind, such as: What does a chocolate factory in Mijas have to do with Mayan monkeys?
“…titles are hard to get just right and do really important work–namely, a great title shows the reader how to read a poem.
A poem’s title is where the reader is introduced to a poet, an invitation from the poet into the depths of a poem’s magic. This is, essentially, the main job description of a title: to welcome its readers at the doorway of the poem and to draw them inside. However, the specific function titles perform can vary.”
“As a poet, I haven’t always put as much emphasis on titles, but working as a reader and then an editor for a literary journal really changed that for me. When I was in that role I had to read about a thousand poems over the period of two months. This is not an uncommon experience for editors or readers. I had to pick around ten poems out of all these poems to share with others. But after reading so many they all started to merge together in my mind. It didn’t help that a number of them had the same title. Sometimes I’d try and remember a poem I liked, but then ended up not finding it because while I remembered part of the poem I didn’t remember the title.”
This problem would be exacerbated during the judging of a poetry contest, for example, and could keep your poem from winning an award! Imagine a judge reading dozens of poems called “A Dream” for example and trying to remember which one they liked best!
I think the approach of giving memorable titles to poems helped me when, after winning the 2nd annual Writer’s Digest poetry award with “Respiratory Tech at the Vietnam Memorial, 1989,” (which conveyed the speaker, place and time) I followed it up several years later with “The Menopausal Mermaid Takes Medical Advice” which came in at #36, I think. If you keep in mind that the first contest had ~4200 entries, and was only in its 2nd year, so the entries probably ballooned afterwards to even higher numbers, the importance of a memorable title becomes all the more obvious.
I think the saddest thing I see is “Untitled” as a title. I’m sure there are many brilliant poems by that title (though I can’t think of any off hand), and of course many poets just use the first line of their poem as a title, as per Emily Dickinson (but then again, most of her poems were not meant for publication.) But I feel like not giving your poem a title is a lost opportunity to engage with your reader on a different level.
He does warn that any technique used too often can quickly become monotonous, though.
His final advice should resonate with any poet: “A title doesn’t have to be clever, poetic, or punchy — but it should be deliberate. It’s the invitation, the signpost, the spell. It’s the first poem the reader reads, even before the first line. So give your poems the names they deserve.”
You know that story you’ve been meaning to write? The poem sitting in your notebook? The idea you’ve been carrying around for three weeks while telling yourself you’ll get to it “soon”?
Well, this is your official notice. “Soon” is today.
The Instant Noodles Lit Mag Al Dente Writing Workshop with Robert Fleming takes place today at 5 PM Eastern (2 PM Pacific), and we’d love to see you there.
Whether you’re a writer, poet, artist, or creative dabbler who occasionally stares out a window pretending to work, this free online workshop is designed to help spark ideas, answer questions about submissions, and get you thinking about our upcoming Al Dente issue.
No fancy credentials required. No publication history required. No secret literary handshake required.
Just bring yourself, your curiosity, and whatever creative project has been lurking in the back of your mind.
Seats are limited, and once the workshop starts, you’ll have to live with the knowledge that everyone else is talking about writing while you’re reorganizing a drawer or scrolling social media.
Thinking about submitting to the upcoming Instant Noodles Lit Mag issue, Al Dente?
Before you hit “send,” join Editor Robert Fleming for a free online workshop on Saturday, June 13, at 5 PM Eastern (2 PM Pacific).
This informal session is designed for writers, poets, and artists who want to learn more about the theme, explore ideas, and discover what kinds of work might be a good fit for the issue.
Literary magazines can sometimes feel intimidating from the outside. This workshop is an opportunity to ask questions, generate new material, and connect with fellow creatives in a welcoming environment.
Whether you already have a submission in progress or are still waiting for inspiration to strike, you’ll leave with fresh ideas and a better understanding of where your work might fit.
Attendance is free, but seating is limited.
Reserve your spot today and help us make the next issue of Instant Noodles Lit Mag something special.
Every issue of Instant Noodles Lit Mag starts somewhere.
A line scribbled in a notebook. A strange image that won’t leave you alone. A poem that refuses to behave. A story that exists everywhere except on the page.
If you’ve been looking for a reason to finally sit down and create something, consider this your invitation.
On Saturday, June 13, at 5 PM Eastern (2 PM Pacific), Instant Noodles Lit Mag Editor Robert Fleming will host a free online Al Dente Writing Workshop designed to help writers, poets, and artists generate ideas, get inspired, and learn more about submitting to our upcoming issue, Al Dente.
Whether you’re a seasoned contributor or someone who’s never submitted a piece before, you’re welcome to join us.
The workshop is free, but space is limited.
Bring your imagination. We’ll provide the noodles.
Register today and join us for an evening of creativity and community.
June, the start of summer and the month of graduations and weddings has begun. It’s a month of beginnings and endings.
I’m someone who likes to plan ahead, particularly if gift giving is involved. The holidays this month are Flag Day, Juneteenth, Father’s Day, and Summer Solstice.
This year Father’s Day falls on Sunday June 21st. I’ve been hearing advertisements for barbecue grills, power tools, personalized mugs.
But Father’s Day isn’t a day that has to be just about your father or the father of your children. And it doesn’t have to involve giving expensive items. It can be a good time to recognize the men in your life who have inspired you, as well as male friends and neighbors who have been helpful and caring.
As for gifts, the best gift is often a phone call, a card, the gift of time. From a writer, the best gift can be a story or poem.
Do not wait until the day before Father’s Day. I always find that my best work needs to sit for a while and undergo revisions before it is ready to be shared.
How to start. Everyone has their own technique. If I am writing a poem specifically to laud someone, I usually begin by listing everything about them I admire. We all notice different things. Details are important.
Or you can share an important memory and write it in prose or in verse. It can be serious or funny. Make someone laugh and you are halfway to penning something they’ll treasure.
You are writing your piece for one person. It does not have to be a masterpiece. One poet, who was popular in his time, was widely published in newspapers. His name was Edgar Guest and he was an English poet who lived a long life, 1881-1959. His poems definitely make me laugh. Here are two.
Father
By Edgar Guest
My father knows the proper way The nation should be run; He tells us children every day Just what should now be done. He knows the way to fix the trusts, He has a simple plan; But if the furnace needs repairs, We have to hire a man.
My father, in a day or two Could land big thieves in jail; There's nothing that he cannot do, He knows no word like "fail." "Our confidence" he would restore, Of that there is no doubt; But if there is a chair to mend, We have to send it out.
All public questions that arise, He settles on the spot; He waits not till the tumult dies, But grabs it while it's hot. In matters of finance he can Tell Congress what to do; But, O, he finds it hard to meet His bills as they fall due.
It almost makes him sick to read The things law-makers say; Why, father's just the man they need, He never goes astray. All wars he'd very quickly end, As fast as I can write it; But when a neighbor starts a fuss, 'Tis mother has to fight it.
In conversation father can Do many wondrous things; He's built upon a wiser plan Than presidents or kings. He knows the ins and outs of each And every deep transaction; We look to him for theories, But look to ma for action.
Only a Dad
By Edgar Guest
Only a dad with a tired face, Coming home from the daily race, Bringing little of gold or fame To show how well he has played the game; But glad in his heart that his own rejoice To see him come and to hear his voice.
Only a dad with a brood of four, One of ten million men or more Plodding along in the daily strife, Bearing the whips and the scorns of life, With never a whimper of pain or hate, For the sake of those who at home await.
Only a dad, neither rich nor proud, Merely one of the surging crowd Toiling, striving from day to day, Facing whatever may come his way, Silent whenever the harsh condemn, And bearing it all for the love of them.
Only a dad but he gives his all To smooth the way for his children small, Doing with courage stern and grim, The deeds that his father did for him. This is the line that for him I pen: Only a dad, but the best of men.
The famous English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806-1861, was encouraged by her father to write poetry, and thus it is no surprise that she wrote poems especially for him. Here is one penned for his birthday.
To My Father on His Birthday
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Amidst the days of pleasant mirth, That throw their halo round our earth; Amidst the tender thoughts that rise To call bright tears to happy eyes; Amidst the silken words that move To syllable the names we love; There glides no day of gentle bliss More soothing to the heart than this! No thoughts of fondness e’er appear More fond, than those I write of here! No name can e’er on tablet shine, My father! more beloved than thine! ‘Tis sweet, adown the shady past, A lingering look of love to cast— Back th’ enchanted world to call, That beamed around us first of all; And walk with Memory fondly o’er The paths where Hope had been before— Sweet to receive the sylphic sound That breathes in tenderness around, Repeating to the listening ear The names that made our childhood dear— For parted Joy, like Echo, kind, Will leave her dulcet voice behind, To tell, amidst the magic air, How oft she smiled and lingered there.
Now it is time to write a poem or story of your own, in your style.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning may not be your style. The birthday poem to her dad was written when she was 20 years old. It captures her feelings at the time and was published in her 1826 poetry collection. Eventually she and her father had a falling out. He disowned her when she married the poet, Robert Browning.
Sometimes the memory or experience of something special, can help to inspire you. Remember you are writing for just one person, or maybe in this case two people, yourself and the recipient. Let your ideas flow and don’t start editing until you’ve written down all your thoughts.
If you’d like to create a card and a poem at the same time, here is a prompt on how to create Collage Poems. Whatever you come up with, if you consider it successful in capturing the essence of your dad, check out this opportunity to be published in the upcoming issue of Instant Noodles Literary Magazine,
If you’ve never had a writing mentor, you may not realize you need one. If you’ve had a mentor, you probably know what an impact they’ve had on your writing.
A mentor’s role can be complex, encompassing the roles of teacher, editor, advisor, parent, friend, coach, cheerleader, critic, judge, proofreader, and sounding board.
As such, they are an invaluable resource at any stage of your career, but especially so at the beginning, whatever your age.
Many poets go it alone at first, but almost no one significantly improves alone. A good mentor shortens the time and distance between where you are and where you want your writing to be. They help you see the habits you repeat without noticing, the strengths you underestimate, and the opportunities you’d never spot on your own.
In a field where progress can feel slow and uneven, the guiding hand of a mentor gives you structure, accountability, and a clearer path forward. If you want your work to grow better with intention—not just luck—mentorship is one of the most effective tools you can invest in.
If you are lucky enough to find a mentor at the right stage in your writing life, then you will be ahead of the game in more ways than one.
Reasons You Need a Mentor
This article by Shane Manier makes a great case, among many other excellent points, for hiring a mentor as a time and money-saving move.
Many writers naturally gravitate toward MFA programs hoping to find that kind of mentorship; sometimes the magic happens and an inspirational teacher becomes a long-time mentor:
Dr. Cody Smith found one in her MFA professor Jonathan Johnson.
“I remember thinking, This is what it means to be a teacher. Jonathan was a teacher who, instead of teaching you the material, taught you how to love the material.”
But realistically, given the elusive and indefinable chemistry that is involved in the mentor/mentee relationship, and the time constraints, there aren’t enough Creative Writing professors to go around and they have so many students throughout the years, that it can’t always work out.
For those of you outside creative writing programs, there are other places you can search for mentors. In my case, I went searching for mine online. I began looking for the websites of poets whose work I had read and admired. Some of them offered workshops or classes. I found that one poet whose poetry I had never forgotten over the years, Andrea Hollander, offered one-on-one tutorials, so I contacted her.
That fortunate decision led to a years-long series of phone tutorials (no Zoom back then!) with Andrea, who became a friend and mentor as well. We have kept in touch over the years; we share our writing news and she continues to support my work and alert me to publishing opportunities. Even after all these years, every time I write, I hear her voice in my head, guiding me, much as you would remember what a parent would say or advise in certain situations.
You might prefer to meet with your mentor in person, in which case you should attend local poetry events to search for one, as this author did successfully:
“At a poetry open-mic event, I connected and found one of my mentors, having witnessed his performance and interaction with fellow poets and event organisers.”
”The AWP Writer to Writer Mentorship Program is open to all AWP members who identify as emerging writers, but they particularly encourage applications from those writers who have never been associated with an MFA program, and those writing from regions, backgrounds, and cultures that are too often underrepresented in the literary world.”
”The Latinx in Publishing Writers Mentorship Program offers the opportunity for unpublished and unagented writers who identify as Latinx (mentees) to strengthen their craft, gain knowledge about the traditional publishing industry, and expand their professional connections through work with experienced Latinx authors (mentors).”
“A five-session workshop on the vocabulary of poetics · Taught by Tamarah Rockwood
The heart of the workshop is the mentorship. Starting in Session 2, every participant submits one poem per session for individual written feedback from me, returned by email before the next class. Across the series, that produces forty-eight feedback letters, one for every poem from every poet in the room. This is not a lecture you are buying. It is a writing relationship.”
Some of you may fear to be too heavily influenced by a more experienced poet’s style in a mentor/mentee relationship and this discussion from New Writing North addresses that issue:
“I’ve heard people speak of mentors with concern. The usual fear is usually one of influence – that the mentor’s style and interests will rub off too heavily on their work. Personally, I see it as a dialogue. The chance to speak directly to a writer you admire about poetry in general, and about your poems specifically.”
Pay It Forward
In the end, we all can hope that the advantages outweigh these concerns and the difficulties we have to overcome to find a poetry mentor. In my case, I know I would not be where I am without my mentor’s timely guidance. She gave me confidence to find my own voice and style and helped me learn to distinguish between a promising poem and one that needed more work. She pushed me to challenge my abilities and try poetic forms I had not attempted before. She inspired me to submit my work more widely and to dare to aspire to more discerning markets. But most of all, she taught me how to be a good mentor in my turn. I have tried, in my small way, to emulate her and to encourage budding poets that I have met and give them confidence to send their work out into the world.
Everyone needs encouragement and poets especially operate in a very obscure and underrated field that is not always well received or understood by the general public.
As poet Chloe Yelena Miller says in a Savvy Verse & Witinterview by Serena Agosto-Cox, “May we all find the mentors we need at the right time”!
AL DENTE In cooking, pasta or risotto al dente (/ælˈdɛnteɪ/, Italian: [al ˈdɛnte]; lit. ’to the tooth’) is cooked to be firm to the bite, requiring a brief cooking time. The term also extends to firmly-cooked vegetables. In contemporary Italian cooking, it is considered to be the ideal consistency for pasta.
What does al dente mean to you? To your neighborhood vampire it probably means something different. How about to the prospector mining gold?
Send us something that you haven’t overcooked!
Submissions close on July 5, 2026; the issue publishes SEPTEMBER 1, 2026.
READ ONE OF OUR MEMBERS’ LATEST POETRY COLLECTION:
by Nadja Maril,a founding member of Old Scratch Press Collective
Many decades ago, I choreographed a dance to accompany a poem. I selected a poem by E.E. Cummings, “In Just—” Which in my mind I titled, “In Just Spring.”
I picked that particular poem for its exuberance. I could imagine myself interpreting the verse with movements that were both fast and slow, languorous and springy. The challenge was to select movements that I could execute while reciting the words.
in Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it's spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer old balloonman whistles far and wee and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's spring and
the
goat-footed
balloonMan whistles far and wee
This poem was written in 1923, over one hundred years ago.
Cummings was an experimenter who developed his own personal style. Although classically trained, with multiple degrees from Harvard University, he used punctuation as it suited him. Spaces on the page were seen as opportunities to spread out the pacing or to combine several words into one breath. Conjunctions were sometimes nouns and selected words might take on additional assigned meanings.
Hailed as one of the most influential and important poets of the 20th century, Cummings embraced the concept of Visual Poetry. Words were placed on the page to create shapes and images that serve to reinforce the mood of the verse.
It was easy for me to dance the role of the goat-footed balloon man, after seeing the words establishing his presence “skip” across the page.
The line “whistles far and wee” is spread out, which enabled me to say the individual words with enough time to run from one side of the stage to the other side.
In writing poetry, thought is often devoted to line breaks and capitalization. Traditional or avant garde, the last word in a line typically takes on greater importance. By choosing not to capitalize the first word of a line, emphasis is softened.
Try changing the line breaks on a poem you are working on. How do your changes impact the poem? Try adding extra spaces between words or merging them together. Once again, how do these changes reshape a poem’s texture and meaning?
In contrast, when you write a prose poem using sentences, it is the order and sound of the words that must create the poetry. No one approach is better than another. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve.
In a few more weeks it will officially be Spring, here in the Northeast USA where I live. I look for birds returning from the winter vacation in the south and I hear “in-Just” recited inside my head. Crocuses begin pushing up through the muddy soil. Bicycles are pulled out of storage and pastel chalk pictures are drawn on the sidewalk. No balloon man, but it is the start of outdoor birthday parties.
The idea of adding movement to your recitation of a poem, may inspire you to choose different words when writing verse.
WRITING PROMPT: Try writing a poem about a season, place, or time. Maybe your piece is about a mood such as anger or maybe it is about a feeling such as being satiated. Often a poem focuses on the visual, but instead think about movement. Use active verbs. In Cummings short poem the wind and the balloon man whistle. The children run and dance.
What did you create? Maybe you’re on to something you like. Keep playing with the concepts and see where they lead you. Part of the enjoyment of writing, is discovering what works and what doesn’t work.
Read the work of other poets, and as March is Women’s History month, I am going to suggest three women poets:
Writers and Readers, don’t forget to forget to follow us on Facebook to get the latest news and learn about submission opportunities.
Nadja Maril is an award winning writer and poet who has been published in dozens of online and print literary journals and anthologies including: Lunch Ticket, Spry Literary Journal, Invisible City Literary Review, Instant Noodles and The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts. She is the author of Recipes From My Garden, published by Old Scratch Press (September 2024), a Midwest Review California Book Watch Reviewer’s Choice. An Anne Arundel County Arts Council Literary Arts Award winner, her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and The Best of the Net. She has an MFA in creative writing from Stonecoast at USM.
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 