Do you write more poetry than you read?

[Terri2]

I think I write more poetry than I read, but maybe I should read more. It almost seems unfair, to put all my feelings out w/ poetry but not take the time to read more of other people's work.

What do you think?

Do you write more poetry than you read?

[msstroda]

I try to read others poetry, but I believe I probably DO write more than I read. I have written poetry since I could first pick up a pencil (or crayon LOL).

[daclawson2]

I write more than I read but lately i have read a lot. I tend to do both at the same time. I tend to write poems in the pages of a poetry book that I am reading. Reading is the easiest way to inspire me, most of the time it only takes one or two words to spark a poem in my head. I've written short stories based on one or two words.

[tinyViolin]

I do! I'm so ashamed...haha.

There's a great spot on the e-zine Slate that hosts a contemporary poem for a week, or discusses a classical poem. It's great to see what poets are doing and discuss their work, in about ten minutes' time. They also usually have a recording of the poet reading her piece.

[andr70]

I read more then write...er..in fact I don't write poetry at all, not so talanted, you know.
but I really enjoy reading...

[J.Seishu]

I write way more poetry than i read. it's really fun and creative and a great way to kill some time.

[blueeyedreader]

i write more than i read. im always doodling before class and in the margins of my notes. when an idea comes to me, i have to write it down before it leaves my head.

[vaccumbags]

dude i am not a writer i read lot of poem

[henrinaiara]

i often write poet for my wife.. but i not often read the other poet writer..

[Josie]

I read and write a lot of poetry. I think the two go together. I started to write poetry four years' ago (in my retirement) for local children. I visited them in the local primary school and they said they were bored. It transpired that they were bored with a modern poem which was just a sentence spiralling down a page. I offered to write one for them with rhyme and rhythm and also with a story. It was a poem about an invisible friend. It was my first poem. Since then I have written 650 poems and 330 are just about to be printed in five books for all key stages in the schools. The "print" button should be pressed today. If you like reading and writing poems, please do visit my website: Just Google: JOSIE'S POEMS Do come and let me know in my guestbook if you like them and if you know of teachers/parents/children tell them. The other advice I would like to give is: Don't offer to go into local schools to listen to children read for you could be led into a completely new career, ha ha.

[manicrabbit]

In the past, I wrote more poetry than I read. But I have been having a bit of dry spell, so I am reading more now. I just hope this doesn't last too long.

[Josie]

I agree that reading a poem that you like really does spark your imagination and even if you don't write immediately, it is like planting a seed. I have written many parodies on poems and as I write for children, I have encouraged children to do the same. I write with rhythm/metre and it is often the rhythm in the poem that sticks in my mind. Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll is a famous poem to parody. Children love doing it and I've seen many parodies of it, but mine, which is going into books for schools is called Brave Brave Sledderclob, and this is it:

‘Twas terrible the barby greaves
Did pyre and slimber on the dume;
All groppy were the burraflees
And the flurid blanes were troom.

Beware the Frohtuck, please beware!
The toothless flob, the sightless frab.
Beware the carracarrabat, and tear
Fast from the clumbling prab.

Sledderclob grabbed his trusty sword
And driddled through the Mory Fran.
Then crossed the Mixel Netherford
And rested gently on the cran.

Then, with a privel glint of hand,
The Frohtuck came with hair betract.
But pruffing o’er the preevy sand
His fliching sneezum cracked.

Left right and centre, down and through
Sledderclob advanced with spreed.
He drubbed the Frohtuck by his proo
And did the fatal deed.

The Frohtuck lay with brickling prown
Upon the clubey dranit sand.
Whilst fluvered Sledderclob looked down,
His sword still in his hand.

‘Twas terrible the barby greaves
Did pyre and slimber on the dume;
All groppy were the burraflees
And the flurid blanes were troom.


Try it yourself. It is great fun to make up words, and, of course, there is no problem with rhyming, ha ha. Hope you like this one.

[AdamWest]

Yes, it's just so much easier and more fun that way..

[lagym888]

i read more poetry than write. maybe i dont have the inspiration to write poems again.

[Josie]

When it was decided that poetry was just as effective without metre and rhythm and rhyme, and much of modern poetry has dropped this, for me and for many others (especially children), we feel that something important was lost, but not forever as there is now a swing back to it. Rhythm and metre, I feel, should be key elements which distinguish poetry from prose. All the other elements can be put into prose, ie alliteration, assonance, personification, metaphors etc etc, but the rhythm/metre which is built using the natural accentuations of our fantastic English language, can be used to create a musical feel to the poem - and poetry was always linked to music I believe in the earliest days. You can change the mood of the poem using the various metres and you can bring in the sound of the subject too, whether it is the soft padding paws of a leopard, or the chuff chuff chuff of a steam train. You can make a poem funny or sad using metre or rhythm, and it is a key ingredient in helping to develop phonemic awareness which in turn helps children and ESL students of English with literacy. It would be interesting to hear from others on this subject.