Finding the right poems....

As an English Literature major, I am sure many of you would assume that I have an affinity with poetry. I should be cuddling up with thick volumes of Shakespeare and Byron shouldn't I? For me, the response is not really, but I'm working slowly on it. Despite my inclination to read fairly complex prose, poetry often baffles me and I'm not happy about that. Thus I am always delighted when I read or hear poetry that I can follow and which affects me on an emotional level. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I like Dr. Seuss with his deceptivlely simple creations. Producing "children's" works has not prevented him from creating compelling works which touche on issues which affect us all. Thanks to studying poetry in school, I have found myself liking Wiliam Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Colerige with their Romantic age works as well as John Keats.

Often I have found myself most enjoying poetry with simple structure but compelling meanings. Not all of the poets I've enjoyed follow this criteria, but anything like this definitely grabs my attention. If you're like me and you tend to struggle to appreciate poetry, I think the poem below by Tanya Davis should help, and I suggest that this piece would be ideal to start reluctant poetry students into seeing poetry in a different, eye opening way. I love Davis' steady flow of words and ideas here, and I'm reminded of how much hearing poetry recited can help invoke meaning. Ms.Davis is a poet/musician and I plan to look more into her inspiring work as part of my poetical education. Her website should help you learn more:

Which poems/poets make you embrace poetry? Post andd let me know. Inspire me to get to know a new poet.

Inspiring Creativity with Creativity

I really enjoyed this video for a number of reasons. It reminds me of the many tips in the past which I have read, and though there are someone I won't be doing (Drink coffee?!) I feel inspired to try some of them once more. The whole format of the video is the most inspirational aspect of it though. Everything: the use of graphics, music, the simple phrases and the concrete and abstract images which awake all kinds of ideas in my mind helps gently invoke a creative atmosphere. You feel like you can really get out there and take this advice. Excellent!