If You Want to Write Poetry
If you want to write poetry, the best thing you can do is Read! Find the poets you love. Anthologies are a great way to get started. Patrice Vecchione and Naomi Shihab Nye have edited books of student writing as well poetry anthologies. Look online. The Poetry Foundation is a great resource. (www.poetryfoundation.org) Along with articles and podcasts, you can find poems listed by subject or poet. There’s a special section for teens!
Home – Teachers and Writers Collaborative HOME | california-poets sponsor Poetry Out Loud, a poetry contest for high school students. Both organizations post readings, classes, and other resources for young writers and teachers. Poet-teachers are available to visit the classroom virtually or in person.
Workshops, writing groups, and daily prompts are available online. Google resources in your area. Find your community. I was once a young woman writing all alone in a little room with a window overlooking a garden. I love solitude, but people can help in so many ways. I found a women’s writing group that gave me confidence, advice, and encouragement. Then I found California Poets in the Schools and began my lifelong career as a writer and a teacher.
Teaching helped me become a better poet. I began to look more deeply at craft. You can learn through imitation. What do you love about the poem? Look at the form, the language, the images that wow you.
Here’s a young poet, Amanda Gorman, reading at the presidential inauguration: Amanda Gorman reads inauguration poem, ‘The Hill We Climb’
If you want to write and you are looking at this website, you are on your way!
For information and workshops on teaching ancestry and genocide/holocaust studies through poetry, please visit me at www.gailnewmanpoet.com