April is National Poetry Month in the United States. I admire people like my friend Greg who takes on challenges and sometimes writes a poem a day.
I'm not sure if I can call myself a poet. Maybe I'm a frustrated poet. My mind used to get flooded by words and rhymes and even free verse that fell onto the page, which, after some revision and tinkering, became something. Maybe that rarely happens anymore because my mind is always occupied with other creative pursuits. Maybe the Saint Mary's River of my college years was my muse, and I'm far from it. Maybe I just need to cut out some other things and write more.
I'll share here a few snippets of micro-poetry I've done. They range from whimsical to dark to nostalgic. Some lines were written while I was still living in Boston, others more recently. There's even a line or two that dates back to my days at Saint Mary's College of Maryland. All are paired with images I've created while living in São José dos Campos. None of these are finished works in themselves; many came from scraps of drafts that never grew into to a full poem. And yet they seemed to want to be shared.
What I love about the Instagram culture of poetry is the power of a single image with words, and how art and poetry blend together. They usually stand as independent pieces. But what if I put a bunch of pieces of micro poetry and blackout poetry together, like a small art exhibition? Will they blend together and read as one poem, or as many small windows into the writer's mind and heart? Let's find out!
I'll let the brevity of this post emphasize the unfinished nature of these snippets. Which did you connect with? What makes a poem meaningful to you? Share some of your favorite poets/poetry, or even some of your own snippets!
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