Poetry? Surely not!

I've never been one for poetry, I rarely find poems I really like but then I hardly ever read many. In high school I struggled through poetry lessons and didn't see the point in them. When I had to write a sonnet for an English assignment, my dad offered to help and ended up writing it. It ended up being published in a poetry anthology and performed at the annual school drama evening. I got book tokens for my poem being published, but didn't pass them on to my dad!

Anyway, my aversion to poetry largely continued after I left school. I occasionally came across poems I liked, but never wrote any. However reading and reviewing a few poems on writing.com has got me thinking about writing some myself. Two in particular set me on this line of thinking. One was a long poem and the history and legend of Saint George. It was an acrostic poem, using 'SAINT GEORGE PATRON SAINT OF ENGLAND' as its basis. For those of you that don't know, an acrostic poem is one where the first letter of each line of the poem spells out a word or phrase. So in this poem, the first line begins with the letter 'S', the second line with the letter 'A' etc. It wasn't so much the fact it was an acrostic poem which made me like it so much, but the fact that it told the story of a historical or mythological figure. I liked the fact that poems didn't need to be abstract, arty things but could tell a tale and teach the reader something.

The second poem I liked, was very different in style. It was short, with shorter lines and less verses. Also easier to read. It was about a word: its definition, usage, pronunciation and history. The word was ' Floccinaucinihilipilification' and the poem's title was 'Ode to a Word'. I loved the fact that the poem taught you something in such a simple but interesting and amusing way. So now I'm going to try my hand at a poem or two. Watch this space!