Inspiration for Poetry

Have you always wanted to write poetry but don’t know what to write about? Or are you stuck in a rut or experiencing a block with your poetry and just need some fresh ideas? Look no further. This week on my blog I’m giving you three ways to be inspired to write poetry.

1. Start with what you know and use your life experiences.

When I first started writing poetry, I wrote about parenthood and about my family. With a baby and a four year old at the time, I loved writing about our adventures, my emotions and how my little baby was developing. I would think up my poems while I was settling my baby and write them up on my phone. My material was right in front of me. It was the time I was living in; those early years of parenthood when you are sleep deprived and emotional and have these brand new challenges in front of you. I loved using poetry as an outlet for this. I still do now but I’ve added a lot of other topics to my repertoire.

If you’re unsure where to start with this and which part of your life you want to focus on, try doing some free writing. This is when you sit down and just write. No censors, no inner editors, just writing for as long as you want or need to. Once you’ve got some writing down on paper, read it and see what themes emerge and what you could work into a poem. You could write free verse (no rhythm or rhyme scheme. Check the internet or social media for examples) or you could write in rhyme. It’s entirely up to you. Have a go and see what you come up with.

2. Use images to spark your imagination.

Pick an image from the internet, a magazine or even a photo you have taken and write some notes on it. What’s happening in the picture? Does it spark your imagination? What could you write about it? After I’d been writing poetry about parenthood for a while, I wanted to try writing for children and I used to use pictures from Pinterest to do with fairies and fantasy to get my imagination going. I still love writing fantasy poetry now. You can use all kinds of images to do this and who knows where your mind will take you.

3. Use writing prompts online and from books.

There is an abundance of writing prompts available online. You can find them on social media and via search engines. Plenty of social media sites have accounts that provide writing prompts. There is a group on Facebook, for example, called The 365 Poetry Prompt Challenge where the host gives you a prompt every day. There are several of these groups and pages if you’re willing to search and there are prompt books available to buy too. I’ve actually written three prompt books that double as poetry collections. After each poem, there are prompts to inspire further writing. One of these is The Perfect Haiku Prompt, where all the poems to prompt you are haiku poems. If you follow the link, you’ll also find the rest of the series if you’re interested.

I hope some of these tips appeal to you. I’d love to know how you get on.

Jen x