Ideas for writing poetry
Let yellow and gold inspire you to write poems.
1. Write a celebratory poem about the colour yellow. List some of the inspirational things that yellow may bring. Using this list as your structure, build a poem in honour of yellow. You may like to refer to Carole Satyamurti's poem "Imperial." [Poetry Review, Vol.89, No.3, Autumn 1999].
2. Gold is a colour we associate with values. Tributes are 'golden.' Below is a poem written by IWB member Anne Hendy. It first appeared in The Usual Suspects, published by Through the Mill, ISBN 0-9541479-0-1
Spend some time recalling an influence that you now think of as 'golden.' From these memories form a specific image and allow it to become central to your recollections.
Think about a person who has been inspirational to you. Select a particular attribute and write a poem in tribute to that person.
Legato
there were long evenings
which stole from our nights
as you played in different moods
there were parties with laughter
bawdy or funny
loud melancholy
just the way it went
our children lay
listened and learned
the brush of a family
at ease with itself
and now your firm hands
are knotted and twisted
yet still you stroke the keys
as a lover might
no longer precise
but I hear the melody
and words never spoken
are teased from inside you
a pin-tucked man
you carve a bounty
arpeggio figures of ivory
filling our ghost rooms
and full-grown children
in other places
furnish their houses
with the touch of you
Dad on the piano
Second Segora Poetry Competition deadline 14th November, 2008.