I find myself surrounded by inspirational people. Most I have never met. I follow and read the works of poets from past and present (from all over the world) and hope to catch a glimmer of their talent. My goal, to appreciate the beauty from other walks of life, and if I am fortunate enough, to portray their bits of insight within my own pieces.
Sometimes I am lucky enough to call them friend. Today I would like to introduce four more poets joining my Poetry Friends page: https://stepsinbetween.com/poetry-friends/
Take a few minutes and read some (or all) of their work; Clare Glynn-Chitan, Martha Maria, Jenny Ni Ruiseil, and April Thompson. It’s a place of “girl-power” at the moment. I suppose it’s time to balance that out with my next grouping… add the male perspective. But for now, I can tell you that each of these women writers has come from her own unique walk in life and has found the courage to share her experiences through poetry.
I want to thank each of these poets for adding their work to this collection and invite others who are interested to let me know. My intent is to promote and share in the beautiful works we can find all around us. Let us continue to lift each other up…
Writing Advice: Link a Line
I think it’s time we all play a little writing game, and I will try it in my circles too. If you have a writing group that meets, or you have some online friends that might play along, introduce them to a little game I like to call, “Link a Line.” Yes, I made that up. I suppose it’s a concoction of the traditional Exquisite Corpse or Renga games (definitions below). As you discover how to play, you may realize you are already familiar. Perhaps you know the concept called by another name, but the gist is the same.
Someone begins the game by providing some lines of poetry. One person adds a line or two, inspired by the lines above it. Another person adds lines to those lines. And so on it grows. Since I am doing this online with friends, where participators will add their lines in the comments, they will actually see all the lines growing to become the final poem. This not the case with Exquisite Corpse or Renga. I have tweaked the format a bit to fit the busy, impulsive life in which I live. Feel free to make up any rules you like. You could decide the number of lines, the number of syllables in each line, or even create a theme in which all writers adhere to… whatever you decide, experiment and have fun.
Here are some definitions to the above-mentioned games:
Exquisite Corpse is a collaborative poetry game that traces its roots to the Parisian Surrealist Movement. Exquisite Corpse is played by several people, each of whom writes a word on a sheet of paper, folds the paper to conceal it, and passes it on to the next player for his or her contribution.
In order to write a poem, participants should agree on a sentence structure beforehand. For example, each sentence in the poem could be structured “Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adjective, Noun.” Articles and verb tenses may be added later or adjusted after the poem has been written. The game was also adapted to drawing, where one participant would draw the head of a figure, the next the torso, etc. The name “Exquisite Corpse” comes from a line of poetry created using the technique: “The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine.”
Renga, meaning “linked poem,” began over seven hundred years ago in Japan to encourage the collaborative composition of poems. Poets worked in pairs or small groups, taking turns composing the alternating three-line and two-line stanzas. Linked together, renga were often hundreds of lines long, though the favored length was a 36-line form called a kasen. Several centuries after its inception, the opening stanza of renga gave rise to the much shorter haiku.
By Celaine Charles, September 16, 2018
Content and Image Links:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/renga-poetic-form (renga)
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/play-exquisite-corpse (exquisite corpse)
https://weheartit.com/ (two friends)
https://davidjagneaux.wordpress.com/ (games)
Categories: Thoughts on writing...
Tags: #celainecharleswriter, #friends, #Friendship, #poetrycommunity, #poetrycorner, #Poetryfriends, #stepsinbetween, #writinglife, amwriting, authors, encouragement, encouragment, inspiration, poems, poetry, poets, supportthearts, writers, writing
Steps In Between 
You are wonderful. I look forward to reading everyone’s poems and also trying the poetry games sometime.
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