By Troy Stone | Special to the Index
With the up-and-coming new year it is important to be careful of the resolutions you dream up. Most resolutions are short lived and soon forgotten. Some actually are followed through, and it is those that are remembered for a long time.
Jan. 1, 2011, I set out to write a poem a day for the entire 2011 year. My task was started with excitement and enthusiasm. Then, life got in the way. Life stayed in the way! I then had to work around life. I had to make time to write because there was no time. I had to remind myself to write. Sometimes, I would almost be asleep and suddenly spring from my bed for my tablet because I had forgotten to write the day’s poem. After a while, my resolution became an obsession! I was not going to fail. I am sure that the world would have kept on spinning if I would have not succeeded but, it was not about the world; it was about me.
I read that e.e. cummings, between the ages of 8 and 22, wrote a poem a day, and that brought about a whole different perspective for me. I was sure that this man was not obsessed, like myself, but rather honing his craft. I didn’t know that for a fact, but it made me re-evaluate why I was doing this thing in the first place. When I started, I wanted to do something original. Obviously I hadn’t done my homework, so this no longer applied. I soon realized that I, too, was honing my craft. It got much easier after that.
Finding subject matter to write about wasn’t too hard. I wrote about the day’s happenings and events that would happen. I also wrote about nature a lot. The weather was also a good topic, and all of the above are still good subjects, but I found myself going into more depth the more I wrote. I would use interesting words that I had read from other poets. I even experimented in different writing styles like a 400-plus line ballad that I would never have attempted if my craft hadn’t grown with me.
Some days I wrote more than one poem. One day, on an airplane, with not much else to do, I wrote 10 poems on the way home.
Some days I didn’t want to write at all. If I were really tired or wanted a quick poem I would write something short, like a limerick. I wrote a lot of sonnets because I like writing in that style. I even strayed from the sonnet style and broke the rules a little because I wanted to.
Creativity had taken over. The point is, I wrote. I made myself write. And by making myself write, everyday, I became a better writer and I am very proud that I have stuck with something to the end.
I hope my contribution to the literary world, by adding 400-plus poems to it, will be recognized by someone other than myself and those closest to me that know what I have done. Maybe the result of my 2011 New Year’s resolution will find its way into a poetry book, or maybe I will just keep on writing … and writing … and writing.
Lifestyles
Writers’ Corner : 2011 – My Poetic Journey
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