Once I wrote mainly poems, but since that time I have learnt that some pieces work so much better as stories. True there are poetic forms that work brilliantly to tell narratives – think Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Ballads are superb for narrative.
Yet I am not a big rhymer – I freely admit it; is it something I will fix? I’m not sure, perhaps with a large and interesting online rhyming dictionary to consult I might have more of a go.
I don’t choose to write ballads, yet my dear hubby can write them endlessly; he is a rhyming machine. He creates beautiful pieces for family and to make us laugh – so effortlessly. This leads me to ask do writers have a form they meld with easily – a form that is their gift? Should they stick with this form? Should they challenge, recreate and test themselves? What do you think?
All I can say is thank goodness not all poetry has to rhyme or I would firmly have my feet in the camp of story.
Poetic prose, verse novels work on the borders of poetry and prose – do you ever wonder why people use these forms? Is it because they can’t make up their mind? Is it because when anyone uses metaphor they realise there is a super fine line between poetry and prose?
I find myself experimenting with boundaries. I tease their limits. I look for the innovators and see just what they are up to. I go on writing field trips in different genre landscapes.
I feel I need to explore the full writing rainbow. I am a child with multi-coloured crayons, lost in my love of the written word, or is it found in my love of the written word?
Writing short meditations on themes that could be prose or poetry can sometimes let me off the hook of a firm decision. I find myself in a liminal space.
Yet if a poem is just become a bit too prosey I switch to writing it as a story. If a story is a touch poetical I see if I need to tip it into that realm. And then of course there are blogs.
Blogs are an art form in themselves.
They rely on how we scroll the screen, do away with paragraphing rules, might be photo essay, filled with hyperlink explorations, part memoir, part passion – and more.
They can be professional, full of dot points, informative, educative, specialist – and yet which blogs do you or I remember? Perhaps another topic for another writing/reading Saturday saga.
Today I’ll write a poem as a story and a story as a poem, just to see what happens.
By June Perkins
Gumboootspearlz 
Hello June. Thanks for following my blog to start with. Indeed there are endless forms to express yourself by language. Which forms do fit us the best do partly depend of talent of course and also of such pragmatic things as time and rest. But for me the more important question is what personal goal you have with it. To mee poetr is a way of concentrated expression of my deeper hidden feelings, thoughts and reflections. It is even an important way to discoverthese, get conscious of them and start thinking about them,
So for me poetry is a way of dis-covery of my self and soul, Also by sharing it with others and communicating about it.
And then of course you can still choose thousands of forms. I’m now exploring the form of the classical japanese haiku or senryu. This is a short and strict form that focusses on expressing just one thought thoroughly. For me it helps me peeling of my thinking and concentrate. I also see it as a contra-weight to the information bombardment we have to deal with daily.
Good luck with your futher odessey for finding the right forms for this time (or me they also change whith my other develoments).
Friendly greetings, Mart,
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Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments and for sharing more of your story – yes I will be doing more form explorations. I think the theme within the form is as important, if not more important than the form, that is the strong impulse to understand, divine meanings, create and communicate – things of importance to the writer.
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