Honor your own unique thoughts and gifts. It's Spring!

Today I planted a few things in the soft, loamy earth. As I put in a few small plants, I began making a comparison with the fertile ground of the mind. I saw that as I dug, the hard crust began to give way. I pulled out some hard rocks---how like our thoughts. They can often be covered with a a crust of cliches and hardened concepts. We need to soften the mind and dig around, letting the fertile ground appear. Let fresh ideas sprout. April is here. It is poetry month.

Shakespeare's birthday is April 23rd. Honor the bard. Honor your own unique thoughts and gifts. April 29th is carry a poem in your pocket day. Carry you favorite poem and read it to yourself several times. Read it to other people you encounter that day. It even could be one that you have written. Let the ground be fertile!

Suggestion for a sleepless night

Cant' sleep? Do what a friend of mine does. Read poetry. I am not implying that poetry is so boring that it will put you to sleep. But it can be soothing, especially if read aloud---which may mean moving to another room. But the sounds and rhythms can be as calming as deep breathing. Keep an anthology by the bedside. I recommend "Americans' Favorite Poems" edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz.

Beautiful images can quiet a busy mind. Haiku is a garden of beautiful images. One that I re-read often is "The Essential Haiku" edited by Robert Hass.

Of course, there are also many poems that can sprout in your ear buds and are the next best thing to having someone read to you. And we all love being read to sleep.

How I write a poem.

People often ask how do YOU write a poem...does it come all at once or in bits and pieces?


Do you sit down to deliberately write it or just grab it when it suddenly hits you?

The answer for me is all of the above.

I keep a notebook where I jot ideas, phrases, words or feelings throughout some days and sometimes at night.

They may gestate in my mind for a day, a week or a month.

Then I will sit down, comb through them, play with them and try to form them into a meaningful poem.

Other times if I have a deadline, I'll sit down and wait for the muse to appear. I may carefully and deliberately grind out what looks like a pretty good poem and then at the end---reject it and write something with a totally different theme.

In other words, for me there are no set rules---oh wait I do have one rule---to be as honest and as true to my experiences as I can.