Poetry Perfection

The smell of ink is intoxicating to me - others may have wine, but I have poetry.  

~Terri Guillemets

Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement.  

~Christopher Fry

Part of our Christmas/New Year celebration is reading/writing poetry. Okay, it's something that we do year-round, but it is especially important now.

Traditionally poetry was a part of the Japanese celebration of the new year. Probably the most famous form of poetry in Japan is haiku. A haiku consists of three lines: the first line contains 5 syllables, the second line contains 7 syllables, and the third line returns to five syllable. Rhyming is optional. Topics are usually from the natural world, but these days anything goes. It's easy and can be pretty fun, so here are some ideas for your own poetry reading:

- gather your friends and/or family together and make sure there is plenty of paper and pencils to go around
- have everyone write their own haiku on the same subject (everyone writes about winter, things they're grateful for, favorite goodnight story, etc.). Each one gets to read their poem aloud OR select one person to read them all and everyone can guess who the author is.
- poetry circle: everyone writes a haiku and then passes it to the next person who then adds on their own haiku in response. Read them aloud!

Last year my friend, Lindsay, celebrated her birthday with a poetry slam and asked everyone to write a poem in honor of her and to be prepared to perform it.  The results were both hilarious and inspiring!  Everyone should have poetry in their life!

The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then
~Roger McGough