Ten Ways I Find Inspiration
1. A tune rolling around in my head that repeats
for a good portion of the day might inspire me to write a poem. It will be like a two line chorus. Finally, I’ll wake up and realize that the
words are a part of a poem and sit down to write.
2. Other times, I am surfing along and I hit a
story or a picture that inspires me and the words just start to flow. As most
of you probably know I ran across a photo of a baby in a gutter in China that
inspired me to write and the poems came non-stop. I now have a book being edited called 100 Million Girls, about the
extermination of little girls, who are killed after birth because their parents
do not want them.
(See www.100millliongirls.blogspot.com
for more information.)
I read story after story related to this
issue and wrote poems from several different angles. I wrote about how we in the west minimize
women and how that is not so far away from the extermination of women in much
of Asia, Latin America and few other places in the world. Just today, I found another website that is
having some success in fighting gendercide in China and I was inspired to write
a poem about one of their success stories.
3. I
also might pick up a book like Wingbeats:
Exercises and Practice in Poetry (Dos Gatos Press: 2012) and pick a title
that interests me. Or, I might look for poetry prompts online.
An example of a poetry prompt I saw the
other day in Poets and Writer’s:
Write a poem that begins with a description
of a photograph you have in your possession. Delve into the memories evoked by
the photograph, or reveal what personal significance the photograph has for
you. For inspiration, read Natasha Trethewey's "History Lesson."
4. Another
way I might find a poem is just talking to someone. I was talking to a Hispanic waitress while
having lunch the other day and she told me a quaint phrase her mother used to
say in Spanish and it stuck with me. I
came home and wrote a poem using the phrase.
5. Once I overheard a lady talking about an
incident from her childhood in Mexico City that I thought would make a great
poem. I haven’t written that one yet, but it is filed away in my head.
6.
I have written poems about dreams,
conversations, trips, and personal experiences.
7.
I was inspired to write a response to the poem
that women love by Maya Angelo that swims around the internet, “Phenomenal
Woman.” I wrote “Okay Man” which has not
seen near the viral reaction that Maya Angelo’s poem did.
8.
I also write about issues within my family when
I am upset, including deaths and illness.
9.
Of course I can be inspired by weather or
nature.
10. I
recently took an online class in Visual Poetry so I am looking for poems in
paintings and things lately.
Where do you find your sources of inspiration?
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I also have another blog I hope you will check out called 100 Million Girls,
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