Hey guys! I'm just getting home from a poetry
workshop that I took in Delray. It was at
the Murder on the Beach Mystery bookstore.
It is an amazing bookstore, small and locally-owned,
and they have a great series called the authors
academy, which are writing workshops taught
by different authors. Some of them are Florida
authors. and they cover a wide range of topics
from memoirs to children's books, general
fiction and now poetry. I hadn't been to a
poetry workshop in quite a long time, so I
was really looking forward to this one. I
really love writing poetry when I sort of
need a break from writing my book, which I'm
working on slowly but surely. So I really
love poetry as a vacation from a huge story
that I'm writing.I really enjoyed the workshop.
The teacher, Judy Ireland, is an amazing poet
- you should check her out, and I will put
some links in the description box below so
you guys can check out some of her poetry,
because it really is good. I think you'll
really like it. I think she's very talented.
SO what I really wanted to get into was an
exercise for poetry writing, and this was
the exercise that we did today. And I will
give you one piece of advice that Judy Ireland
said that really stuck with me, and that's
that it is as much about what we leave out
of poetry as what we put in. So, you can really
say less and the reader will fill in the emotion,
and that lets them connect to the poetry more
completely for them, rather than putting in
something that's so specific that they might
not be able to identify with it. So the exercise
is we're going to write down a few things
from our day or past few days, and there will
be 11 things and we're going to write them
down. And you can take about 30 seconds to
a minute for each thing and, really try to
do it off the top of your head, as quickly
as possible, so that it's as organic as it
possibly can be. So it's not anything you
have to think too hard about. Because the
idea is sort of just that when you think of
things your brain is already making connections
that you don't realize. Once we're done with
that we're going to put it together, sort
of piece by piece, like a puzzle, and make
a poem out of it. And then you can revise
it if you want or if you like how it turned
out, you can keep it that way. I think it's
really fun, so let's get started. Now, the
first thing you're going to want to do is
take out a pen and paper and write the following
things down. The first thing is: write 5 objects
that you see every day and the order in which
you see them. So, I wrote "black cat, glasses,
window, trees, pool". And that was just me,
I'm not going to repeat all of my answers
for all that, but you do it now, pause the
video if you need to, but don't pause it too
long and don't think too hard. Now we'll do
number 2: For number 2, write down three non-primary
colors, like shades, so for example cerulean
is a shade of blue, so don't write red yellow
or blue, but you can write down any other
color, like lavender or periwinkle, do what
you want, do some colors that you're feeling
right now. the 3rd is you're going to write
down an object that you have encountered in
a dream, either recently or ever. The 4th
is an experience you had as a child that made
you angry at the time or now, whichever. The
5th: write down a forbidden thought pertaining
to love. Number 6: write down 3 questions
for which you've never found an answer. 
Number 7: write something about love that you find boring
Number 8: write down 3 slant rhymes
- so, two words where the consonants are similar
so you kind of have a a similar sound on your
tongue. The example the author gave was "moon mine".
I wrote down "purple petal" or "jangle
jewel" and another one that is included in
my poem, so I'm not going to say it just yet.
but you can really do whatever. I'm not sure
how good mine are in the scheme of things,
but I like them. Number 9: write 3 things
that people said to you in the last 48 hours
- little short phrases. Number 10, write 3
transitional objects, so something to get
you from one part of your life to the next.
The example the author gave was a teddy bear,
mine was a sweater, so it can really have
a meaning to you or it could be a more traditional transitional object, but I chose to do ones that were transitional
for me personally. Number 11: if you had a
rock band, write down what the name of your
rock band would be. Go. So once you've done
that, we're going to put the poem together,
sort of like a puzzle. The first thing you're
going to do is take number 11, which was your
rock band name, and that's going to be the
title of your poem. Write that down. The first
line of your poem is from item number 6 - 3
questions for which you've never found an
answer. That's your first line, so write that
down and make sure to leave some space between
all the things I'm telling you to do, so we're
going to do things kind of out of order, and
then you can either reorganize them if you
want later, or just keep it the same way I
tell you. Then you're going to write the last
line, so like I said, keep some space, and
that is going to be from item number 9, which
is 3 things that people said to you in the
last 48 hours. Then in the middle, you're
going to take item 5, which is a forbidden
thought that you had pertaining to love, and
put that in the middle of your poem. THen
in there somewhere, whichever order your want,
put in a combination of items 4 and 7, which
is the experience you had as a child that
made you angry and something about love that
you find boring. SO sort of combine those
two thoughts to be one sentence, or one thought
or one idea and then put that somewhere in
your poem where it mixes and if you want at
this point you can start thinking along a
theme, if you've already been making connections
between the things you've put on the page
already, that's a good thing and you want
to go with it. I found that while I thought
that all of the items seem extremely random
at the time I was writing them down, when
I started putting them in an order, sort of
slecting which ones I was going to use, I
started seeing connections between them and
how there is a common denominator between
all thoughts that you think, and YOU are the
common denominator, so find that commonality
there and grasp onto that. Then again in there
somewhere, you're going to do a combination
of items 2 and 8, so use one of your non-primary
shades and combine that with one of your slant
rhymes. And then just sort of see what you
have on the page, and see what it looks like,
and then go ahead and fill in spaces where
you think they need to be filled in. If you
need to connect some things or move some things
around, feel free to do that. This is just
sort of to get your brain thinking in a more
creative way and searching for things - searching
for deeper meanings sort of. But just to get
you thinking in a certain mindset. So I'm
going to read you my poem, and keep in mind
this is my first draft, so it's not very good
- well, okay, I won't say that, I like it,
I really enjoy it, I enjoy reading it, and
I'm happy with it at this point, especially
for a first draft. The title of my - Oh, and
if you haven't finished your poem, then go
ahead and do yours now, and pause the video
so that yours won't be affected by mine at
all, so pause it now. Okay, hopefully you
are done with your poem now, and I would love
to hear your poem in the comments. I'm going
to read you mine now. And the title is "Ouroboros",
which was my rock band name. So the title
is Ouroboros. Is honey magical? And if so,
what of the bees? And what of their loyalty
to the hive? Sometimes life puts us in a cage,
sometimes we put our self in one. Did you
feed the cats yet? We are more like animals
than we think. But who knows if we are in
the zoo or the jungle? Hanging from a tangerine
tired tree, picking fruit all day long. Don't
wake me up when I'm sleeping. So that was
my poem. I really, really would love to read
you guys' poems, if you want to do a video
of you reading it or just leave your poem
in the comments below, I would love to hear
it. I really loved hearing everybody else's
poems from the workshop because it was really
interesting to see what everybody did from
one exercise. It's the same exercise, but
it really shows you, I don't know, just how
differently everybody's brains think that
the other people in the class could come up
with something that was so unique to them,
and it really gives you an idea of their sort
of life flavor and I think that exercises
like this are really fun, because it kind
of just gets you in the mood to be creative
and think a little bit differently and make
connections in ways that you wouldn't have
thought of before. So i'm a big fan of writing
exercises, if you have some more poetry or
short stories or other exercises, send them
to me and I'd love to try some. And if you
guys want more exercises like this, then leave
a comment down below saying that you want
them. So have fun with your poem, share it
with your friends, because I think your friends
will enjoy seeing this little bit of your
creativity, so also share this video with
your friends, because I think it'd be fun
for you to see what your friends come up with,
especially when you know them. so have fun
with it and I hope you guys have a great day!
by the way if you like my jewelry, go check
out my etsy shop, catcoule.etsy.com, and have
a great day! bye guys!
