Poetry Thursday

This idea has grown a blog, complete with a FAQ:

What is Poetry Thursday?
Poetry Thursday is an online project that encourages bloggers to read and enjoy poetry, as well as sharing it with others.

Do I need to get permission before sharing copyrighted work?
It depends on the work you are using. See our post, Using Copyrighted Work, for more information. This post includes links that explain the ins and outs of sharing copyrighted material.

How do I participate?
If you want to participate in Poetry Thursday, share a poem on your blog. (If you don't have a blog, leave a poem here in the comments.) The poem can be one of your own or one written by someone else (just be sure to take a look at our post, Using Copyrighted Work).

The blog is lovely, visually, and well-designed. It includes some nice linkage, some of which is new to me. This week, in addition to -- or instead of -- posting a poem, we are asked to:

. . . talk about your relationship with poetry. What has it meant to you throughout your life? Have your feelings about poetry changed over the years? Has reading or writing poetry changed you?

I began writing during a very difficult time, as many of us do. Writing helped me move through the pain, as reading often does. I've discovered that poems which left me unmoved in my twenties can bring me to tears today, and vice versa -- like all else, my response to different poems and poets changes.

Poetry, writing and reading, deepens me; it deepens my life. It helps me to identify, and cherish, what is important, what is significant; and to step past what is not.

It can also be fun. Via Big Window we have Erasures:

Erasure is a process by which you can take any text and from it, create a poem.

. . . you will find a number of source texts.  Choose one by clicking on the title.  You will be sent to a new page where you can click on any word or punctuation mark to make it disappear.  Clicking where it was will make it return. By removing much of the text a newly sculpted text (poem) appears.

And here is my Erasure poem.

Comments

[Lynn]

I love the Erasures poem you wrote! That is so cool. Thanks for sharing the Poetry Thursday information with folks.

[GreenishLady]

I really like that poem. I clicked on the link to Erasures first, and looked at that source text.. thought "How could anyone make a poem out of THAT???", then found you had! Well done. I'd heard of this before, but never saw anyone do it.

[endment]

My firewall completely blocks out your Erasure poem. :=(

[sage]

Hi there,
I just found your blog and love it. I am a writer and will participate in your Poetry Thursday each week. I posted a poem on my blog yesterday, Thursday. Please check it out. Also, would you please me send me the button link for Poetry Thursday so I may add it to my blog?
Thank you so much. I look forward to hearing from you.
sage

[SB]

I've sent an email off to you, sage, pointing you to the Poetry Thursday Blog, which is where you need to be to get the button and info on participating. I'm not the host of this; I just write about it!

endment, can't you make your firewall accept sites you approve? You would like doing this Erasure exercise, I think.

Lynn, I am delighted to share something so well done. You and Liz Elayne have done a great job with that blog!

& thanks for the compliment, Lady. I love exercises like that one.

[Cherilyn Ferroggiaro]

Facinating idea! Good luck. :)