A young woman Reading by Rembrandt
Hello Poet friends. I think we have come to a wonderful start so far.
We have started a new series on Monday that is more about reading poetry than writing, sharping our ability to identify our poetic devices. Please join in the intense discussions we have on Mondays. Remember to sharpen your poetry by reading as many as possible of the poems tonight.
We’ve had our first Guest-blogger on Poetics, Kathleen brought in the wind and inspired some great poetry. We will have more guests helping out later and I hope you will all be pleasantly surprised.
And not the least we have opened up for Open Link more frequently, every second Thursday you can link up any poem you like. Of course I encourage you to revisit old prompts that might interest you, or maybe go back to the discussions that we have had on the Monday Bar. Maybe today is the day to follow through and take that bold step in your poetry we discussed on Monday.
For many of us April is extra intense, as April is National Poetry Month in the US. There will be many prompts, but there also many pledging to write a poem per day.
This really brings me to a point of sorts. Sometimes we all face what is called writers block. Why not spend a minute or two sharing your best tip to overcome writer’s block. Maybe something we can use in a future prompt.
Participating is easy
- Enter a link directly to your one poem and your name by clicking Mr Linky below
- There you will find links to other poets, and more will join during the next 33 hours
- Read and comment on other poet’s work, we all go here to have our poems read
- Promote your site and poetry you like on social media of your choice
- Have fun
dVerse 
Good evening friends.. hope you have managed to find your inspiration.. some days are easier.. admitted.
Evening all! I’ll be looking for some tips on writer’s block… my muse is like a shotgun: has a few powerful rounds, but it takes forever to reload…
Ha.. Mine can be more like a leaking balloon sometimes… But reading always help me…
Love the comparison, Anthony!
I really like short forms and find that writing lunes or contains help loosen writer’s block. I tend not to worry about content when I’m doing these exercises, more the puzzle of working the short form and the sound or flow of the poem. The upside, along with getting the writing flowing, is how natural and comfortable these forms have become.
-heidi
Yeah, I really need to let go and just write… no thinking, just writing… I tried it before but I back into the old habit.
Anthony, I can suggest two – one is you force yourself to write or you can start playing with an old piece that you dont like in particular. ….I use both myself.
ya know, I’ve never gone back to a piece…. once it’s done it’s done. I have been forcing myself lately and it’s all trash… but that’s needed at times.
I find that writers block for me is mostly cluttering my mind up with too much other stuff and not leaving room for me. And if I take my time back, even a little bit, and just sit and write, the memory muscle comes back. I may not like what I am writing for a while – but at least I am taking the time to do what I want to do – write..
I think that may be my problem… I have a lot of other things going on and don’t really have that much “me” time.
Yes, good & fantastic start 🙂 Thanks for tending the bar Bjorn ~
My inspiration is to read and read where I get ideas and try it out with my writing ~ I am still in the office but will be back to visit and hit the trail ~
Happy OLN everyone ~
Glad to have you here.. reading is a wonderful way to get inspiration.. the more you read and think about why it affect you is excellent… have a wonderful day Grace.
When I get blocked, I take a nature laxative, LOL. Truly, I spend time outside, no matter the weather and just inhale the world around me. I pay close attention to things I haven’t noticed before or give me attention to the familiar. And when blocked, I always find inspiration in reading other poet’s works. Dickinson, T S Eliot, Kerouac…it depends. Or I read about their lives.
Sometimes getting the inspiration from nature can help.. Looking closely at the overlooked details I find amazingly effective..
And Also, It relaxes me. Keeps me from fretting about being unblocked. Sitting by our creek and listening to the water or watching the frogs in and out of it and alongside….really does make me think of something other than not being able to write.
So do I. If stuck, I go for a walk to see what I can see/hear/smell.
I agree – sometimes reading a poem inspires in me a congruent thought.
Hi everyone! Writers block is for me a general lack of inspiration. When I find myself in that situation, the most effective way to get re-inspired and un-blocked is by reading lots of poetry. Random poetry, and some old favorites.
Looking forward to reading y’alls poems tonight!
I agree.. the block is really that general lack of inspiration… but maybe it comes from feeling that writing is a must…
I finally finished and posted my Terza Rima / Hebrew-acrostic style poem. I’m hoping to enter it in a poetry contest that closes next week. I’ll be back after a while to read some other poetry.
As for tips re: writer’s block, just write anything, even if it may not be any good. Eventually something good will come. Peace, Linda
I agree.. sometimes just writing writing can help.. sometimes I do not know where it will end, and just by following the words you have something..
yes I like that
OH! The write a poem a day in April…I just like to write a poem whenever they start spilling out of me…I sort of run around trying to catch the spillage! Hmmm…I love National Poetry Month, though so maybe I will try that challenge…Will see. Poetry is therapy for me after all, and the more therapy the better (especially lately…lol). I love all the new stuff and goings on here, Bjorn. Sometimes cannot squeeze every post in- I know I missed a few, but when I can I love to participate. I need to try to get to more reading of my fellow poets here.That is a little goal I set for myself. I think I have noticed a lot of new faces…or that could be my adhd. Either way, thanks and appreciate this place in the blogosphere.
There are new one coming and old one returning.. we are open for everyone 🙂 I think doing all the prompt became a burden, so that is one reason to have OLN more frequently…
it’s all good! 😉
You’re a wise commander 🙂
Good evening one and all, hope the week has been kinder to you than it has been to my head and inspiration. I’m sure I’ll feel better, though, after I’ve had a read through your poems and looked at your pictures (there are also a number of talented photographers and artists amongst you, I’ve noticed).
I’m off to a crime fiction festival in Lyon at the weekend – and these events, meeting other writers, hearing them speak with such passion about their writing, is something that really helps me overcome writers’ block. (Plus, the excellent food in Lyon is enough to inspire anyone…)
The passion and is certainly very inspiring.. I think that permeated through the words of the young poets you presented on Monday.. .and that in itself is very inspiring… Maybe we should do crime-poetry some day 🙂
This appearance of OLN every other week puts extra pressure on me to keep current with my Cinemagenic series, BLACKTHORNE, but hey, creativity thrives within the parameters of prompt & need. Your collaboration poem is flawless, seamless. Do you always write with the same poets? Who starts the first stanza?
Collaboration is always one way to get inspired, and we actually rotate who does the first.. and the group has been the same for more than a year now… We write across several timezones, with writers from Australia, Cyprus, UK, US and Sweden…
Bjorn, thanks for bar-tending during Open Link. Yes, I agree that we are indeed off to a good start! Looking forward to reading some poetry now!
I will soon go a round again.. but there are such good inspiring discussions here…
I have been blessed, I guess, with inexorable curiosity, & the volume of stimulation, in nature, in my photography, my writer’s journal, the media, films, & other’s poetry just pump me up with the adrenalin rush of inspiration. Mostly though, these days, I rely on the poetic prompts at dVerse, always challenging, & just let my pen scribble its way toward completion. Although, for me, the end of the poem, or any writing is not closure; it is just pause, reflection, & review.
The prompts are so great.. and they are still there.. so fun to return to them and get inspired.. to find a technique, a form, or just go back and read some old favorites… 🙂
good evening… i think one source of writers block is perfectionism… we want a perfect poem and then we’re even afraid to start writing…?
cold and rainy over here today and my daughters are watching germany’s next topmodel with heidi klum… so i will watch a bit as well and in the breaks do some poetry reading…smiles
I think you are right.. and once we have perfected it.. is it really any better than what we wrote really quickly… ? We are our worst critics sometimes.
Sometimes I just have not the energy to write. Like a fish that’s played out with no fight left on the line.
Nice to see you bar tending, Bjorn…i’d like something sweet and fruity! For writer’s block…hmmm…sometimes i just gotta wait for poetry, enjoy music, take a walk, read…clean the house (because it needs it!) 🙂
Clean the house.. I would rather think that would make me very inspired… 🙂
An old limerick about dealing with writers’ block:
To write humor when not in the mood
Takes a major adjustment of ‘tude.
If I’m still uninspired,
I tell me, “You’re fired,”
Or pretend I’m about to be sued.
Okay, none of this stuff’s really true.
When I’m blocked, I don’t know what to do.
So I shower or walk,
Read the news, turn on talk,
Absorb info, inviting a cue.
At long last something starts to take hold,
And a concept begins to unfold,
As I play with the news
Which teases my muse
In my quest for some comedy gold.
To write humor has to be the hardest of all.. To laugh on command.. I admire everyone who can come up with humor…
What makes it extra interesting/challenging is the subjectivity of humor. One person’s humor is another person’s drek. 🙂
Oh GOD.. i’m coming here to get away from writing, as I need to comment on other folks poetry for a while, to get away from Epic Free Verse Poetry, in several hundred thousand words.. since the buds started coming out on my Dogwood Tree.. this month…
But truly.. i have a dry spell of 40 years.. so i am going to ride this ‘MAGICK LIKE SPELL’ of creativity.. as long as I can stay atop my wave of words…
Anyway, I do not truly have a label yet.. for what I do..
Maybe ‘E-land neworal tradition in story telling’.. haha!…
But anyway no shortage of words for me…
And truly the only place in the world to even share what I do……
Truly my best answer for promoting creativity of all kinds to get those juices flowing
is in creative movement and connecting to other flesh and blood humans in real life…
Whenever I go rave dancing I can write twice as much the next day, with endless energy.. yeah.. it is generated some interesting stuff for the potential of my human mind and body in pioneering balance..;)
Anyway.. I will be back to comment.. and read much more during the next several days.. later as driving the wife to go shopping is tugging at my collar..;)
OH, AND THERE aren’t too many photos.. this time but lots of words…. lots of words…..yes.. lots of words…;)
Ha.. yes contact with other people can for sure be very inspiring… strangely enough though My best poems are often written when I’m lonely and down.. Maybe we are all different…
I agree with you, Björn that we are off to a good start and hope the trend continues.
I think we have all the means to do that.. some wonderful poetry here…
Great start Bjorn! Thank you for tending the bar! I try to read more than I write, but even then, my muse often is on holiday for extended periods–and right now, I am deep in rehearsals for a production of Fiddler –so I may read a bit and see if I am inspired or not–Thank you!!!
I think I read a lot more than I write.. and sometimes the inspiration comes first.. hope you can come back.. the link is open for 48 hours…
OK, I just looked at 16 great poems in here & don’t find any Blockages! 🙂
No words seems to be flowing all right..
I need to get to bed now.. I will try to make a round again tomorrow..
Good night and see you tomorrow ~
Ah, good start to OLN, Bjorn! Good night for now.
Tips for writer’s block: keep writing, even if it’s no good. Go through old notebooks to see what triggers you can find (I note interesting phrases/words higgledy piggledy in my notebooks). Write about the experience/emotion of writer’s block. If desperate, write limericks and/or haiku: the form can usually spark something even when we’re totally mired.
I would love to have note books.. but sometimes I just start to write.. sparked by wordpairs that spark my fantasy or sounding good together.. I find limericks requiring even more inspiration.. and I have grown so critical on my haiku.. so i guess I had to find it elsewhere..
When I say noteboks, I mean the scribbled on bits of paper I find in pockets, handbag and all over my desk…… I have a friend who does “proper” notebooks of everything she’s ever written, numbered and indexed. If I did that, I’d never write anything!
I thought we were on the prompt on beauty so I sat down and looked at some crocus, came back and Open Link was up!
Good timing, smiles 🙂 That is what OLN is for ~
Warning–my poem is religious this time–or spiritual with two Christian names in it. It’s the time of year when plants copy the resurrection here in the Northeast of the USA. Maybe that’s how I got to be a Jewish Pagan Christian Quaker–letting nature walk hand in hand with anything else I thought I understood. Nothing holds still. In April, I write lots of junk–but I also feel the crust come off of thought control–there is little time to think, little chance to hold back. How exciting! Put down the words and ask later what I found in that prompt, that window, that silence.
And you are off to a great start here at the new dVerse Poets Pub. Congratulations on your team that continues old traditions (like talking together) and starts new ones that it is too early to pinpoint. I don’t always visit everyone as I am such a slow reader with too many committees to keep up with. But I love how my mind and heart leap into action from reading your prompts and poems. Great nurture indeed.
Good to see you Susan ~ I will check your poem in bit, smiles ~
Its been a wonderfully busy day – filled with spring break kiddos – lots of activity. Many thanks to Bjorn and Grace and all the pub tenders for the fresh new start. I have posted a poem that fell into my lap and will be back on the weekend to read after we put the kids on the plane back to NM.
Have a wonderful rest of the week!
That was a wonderful poem, Kathleen!
Thanks for dropping by and gifting us with your words Kathleen ~
Writer’s block is a frightening reality for sure. I tend to rely on nature and emotion. If I am stumped, I look at photos I have taken and somehow they touch on a current thought or dredge up feelings from the past.
Still on vacation…and internet has been far from reliable but so glad I stopped in. Looking forward to reading a few before bed. 🙂
I think vacation can be a great inspiration.. much more so since I feel revitalized when I get back..
Writer’s block… difficult…
in a way – I think that different people have different ways to come out of it. But in case this can help anyone, what eventually got me re-started on my way out was poetic songs. Their music accompanying and augmenting the words touched me as nothing else could at the time.
But blogging is the best. Being surrounded by writing people and interacting with them, as I’ve already tried to express, did and does more than I can say 🙂
I agree….blogging is a great source of inspiration, especially when one does this within a supportive community. I think everyone kind of inspires each other.
I like the prompts here and at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads to spur my poetry as well as reading other poets- Mary Oliver just now and contributors here and in the Garden. It’s all good.
I think that prompts and reading is an excellent way to spur creativity… actually it is also inspiring to write prompts… 🙂 So nice to see what others can do with your ideas.
Hey Bjorn, this is fun having OLN during the week again! My writer’s block go-to’s are to talk a leisurely walk and take time noticing…also reading the work of those who inspire me…and listening to jazz. Looking forward to hitting the links here. 🙂
I also take leisurely walks specially during spring and autumn ~ Good to see you Jennifer ~
Music can be wonderful to get in the right mood..
Yes, great new start, and I love the red. I am linking to some old erotica (erotic haiku, to be precise) which didn’t find many readers at the time. I am slightly unwell at present, so apologise in advance if I take a long time to read everyone else’s suff. My tips for breaking writer’s block are the same as others’ here: I go for a walk in nature, I play with form, I read old notebooks, I read lots of other peoples’ poetry, I respond to prompts…. If the block is really long, I remind myself that it’s input time and that there is probably a lot going on subconsciously. This always proves to be true. Eventually the muse will stir again, and I discover with delight that there has been some kind of quantum leap happening. 🙂
(Oh, and an erotic tanka too. 🙂 )
I just remembered – one of the best ways I have found to beat writer’s block is the practice of writing ‘small stones’, a way of ‘mindful writing’ based on looking outside oneself and describing briefly but exactly what one sees, hears, etc. Pioneered by author and Buddhist priest Satya Robyn, who likens it to finding a small stone, taking it home and polishing it. For me, this always results in writing.
Oh yes – writing very short poems is a great way to find inspiration.
just as warm
Hey Björn! Hiope you’re doing well… stopped by to join the fun tonight but the Mr. Linky thing said it’s expired 4 hours ago — 😦
Anyway – here’s my latest if anyone’ interested… I guess I’ll try again next month… Does the link expire at noon?
My Latest Piece.
The new schedule is an open link ever second week. Open at Thursdays 3 PM EST..