Born to Rhyme – #Poetry #NationalPoetryMonth #WordMusic @POETSorg

Image by Lolame from Pixabay

Here we are, halfway through April, and I haven’t even mentioned National Poetry Month. This year marks the twenty fifth anniversary of this annual event. You can find out more about NPM activities here: https://poets.org/national-poetry-month 

And you’ll find an older post about some of my favorite poems here: https://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2018/04/saturday-seven-favorite-poems.html

I’ve written poetry for most of my life. As far as I can recall, I wrote my first poem when I was seven years old. We’d gone out with family friends on their boat, north of Boston, on a cloudy summer day. The sultry, slow mood made a deep impression on me (apparently!)

I still recall the first stanza:

The sky is as gray as an eagle’s wing.
The sea has a leaden tint.
Drowsy waves gently slap the side of our craft.
And then on the breeze comes the sound of a bell
Telling a story and ringing the knell
For the ships and the sailors ever gone.

A bit pretentious, but make allowances for my age!

Who taught me to write poems? No one, as far as I remember, but my parents read poetry to me and my brother from a very early age. In addition, my dad wrote songs for us, in doggerel verse that undoubtedly sensitized me to the sound and the rhythm of words.

I was a poet (if I can dignify myself with that term) long before I started publishing erotica and erotic romance. Through all the angst of my teens and twenties, poetry was my preferred mode of self-expression. Both joy and grief found their way into my verse. Many of my works probably qualify as love poems, or at least lust poems, since I was very much consumed by both hormones and romantic fantasies. You can find a variety of my verse on the free reading page of my website: https://www.lisabetsarai.com/freereads.html

Aside from contributions to my high school newspaper, though, none of my poems were published, until 2002, when I had a non-erotic poem accepted to Slow Trains Literary Journal. I was astonished to find that the journal, and even the poem, are still available online.

http://www.slowtrains.com/vol2issue1/saraivol2issue1.html

When I started publishing erotica and erotic romance, my poetic output dwindled. Then Ashley Lister, a fellow author, started a series of poetry exercises on the Erotica Readers & Writers Association blog, introducing various poetic forms and challenging readers to try them out. This was a totally different experience for me. In the past, emotion had triggered the urge to write poems. Now the form came first, and the emotion had to be summoned. Nevertheless I was surprised by how much I liked many of these poems, despite their formality. After many years, I renewed my love of the music in words.

I’ll finish off with one from that period, an English Sestet.

Suggestible

By Lisabet Sarai  

You mention taking me across your knee;
My mind supplies the heat of skin on skin.
Of whips and wax you speak, so casually;
You sketch perverted outlines I fill in,
Elaborate, embroider and refine
Are these ideas of yours, or are they mine?

Happy Poetry Month! Why not read, or write, a poem to celebrate?