As I believe I’ve mentioned before (you will find much use of this phrase here in Spinning, and among my peers over fifty; it generally is used as a “cover your ass” catchall for possible memory loss and the dreaded fear of repetition), while poetry is not a literature form that I will ever be proficient in producing nor totally enamored with enough to run out and buy books of, the study and understanding of it has brought a much greater appreciation and awe of the craftsmanship required. It has also served me well in utilizing its techniques for story writing. Condensation of words through dependency upon imagery, hidden meaning within words, evoking relative feelings through structure and word choice, and so many more of the elements necessary to poem and prose have improved the style and voice of my writing narrative.
One of the places I’ve visited this morning is Poetry Magic, that gives a rather full definition of poetry forms as well as useful advice in technical and creative areas that has convinced me it is one of the better sites to use as a resource base for poets that I’ve run across thus far. While I am not linking it to Spinning, I will be linking it on Narratives, the Writing Group with which I am involved. If you are aware of sites that offer more comprehensive or valuable help to poets, please do let me know. Unfortunately I’ve had to narrow my searches of the past three months to fiction writing otherwise I’d never have been able to leave my chair at the computer at all!
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology