Best of the ACW Archives ~ Writing Poems

by Jeanette O'Hagan

'Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.' Rita Dove

A Poem is a 'literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.' (OxfordDictionary)

Why read or write Poetry?

Poetry is a great way of expressing deep emotion or crystallizing an idea. Wordsworth said poetry is "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” As such it can give release of deep emotion or evoke like feelings in the reader. It often gives words to the inexpressible.

In the past, many stories and ideas were told through poetry because the rhyme, rhythm and repetition aided memory (e.g. Homer’s Iliad, Proverbs). 

Poems in fact are all around us – in the psalms, lyrics of worship songs or popular music (rock ballads, love songs), children’s picture books, proverbs, greeting cards, limericks – even advertising jingles. Poetry doesn't have to be so erudite and literary that we have no idea what it is about. Nor does have to be doggerel.

Most modern poems are relatively short and may only take a few hours to write and minutes to read. 

Read more at the following link:

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/writing-poems.html