User:Labombarde/Poetry Prep

Poetry Prep

This Wikibooks subpage will contain personal notes on preparations for writing and reading poetry. See Exercise 1: Prepare your preparations.

• 3x5 cards
  • Cards
    • Couplet Exercise - green cards.
  • Holders
    • In Transit - Pocket wallet for carrying 3x5 cards on the go. I use an old wallet from AA for mine. With a pen, of course.

Organize and plan

Many a free spirit will impulsively rebel at the thought of suffocating poetry with too much structure and order and scheduling. At the same time, discipline is an important element for even the wildest seemingly undisciplined poem; and even the most random explosion give direction only through restriction or channeling or inhibition of its force. So with all due warnings against allowing order to inhibit creativity, this section will address my own personal approach to organizing and planning my encounters with poetry.

The exercises

Before reaching the close of the first week of repetitive exercises recommended in Writing and Reading Poetry, it becomes clear that serious commitment to those exercises must be organized and scheduled, subject to triage.

Daily core

• Exercise 3: Write - Start each day writing out what you remember from your dreams. If you can't remember what you dreamed, write down your first impressions of the day.
• Exercise 1: Prepare your preparations - Which for me is represented by the very file that includes this very material. Start today's work on this file by reviewing and reorganizing your plans for this particular day. Set objectives that can be met and measured.
• Exercise 2: Your turn to write couplets - Couplets. If you can't do one now, then set aside the 3x5 card that will pick it up sometime during the day.
• Exercise 4: Keep your own rhyme dictionary - Rhyme Dictionary.
• Exercise 5: Keep a poetry reading journal - Poetry Reading Journal.