Poetry- Writing and Reading

Funny Love Poems

When most people think of love poems, they think of serious and soulful expressions of passion. Long sonnets by Shakespeare or romantic poems by Browning and Lord Byron are the norm for love poetry. However, funny love poems can be good for a laugh. They may not be romantic, but they do give your friends something to enjoy.

Some of the best funny love poems are limericks. Limericks started in Ireland and follow a standard form of five lines and a rhyme scheme of aabba. Here are a few limericks written by anonymous authors:

There once was an old man of Lyme Who married three wives at a time When asked “Why a third?” He replied, “Ones absurd! And bigamy, Sir, is a crime.”

There was a young fellow named Hammer Whose had an unfortunate stammer “The b-bane of my life” Said he, “Is m-m-my wife D-d-d-d-d-d-damn er!”

She made friends with a young undertaker; Her last boyfriend had forsaken her. But she started to curse When he turned up in a hearse. She said next time Ill date a baker!

There was a young lady named Constance, From boys she wouldnt stand any nonsense. If her partners grew deft She would lead with her left; The results would not weigh on her conscience.

My sweetheart and I are just wed. Already I wish I were dead. Two weeks shes been spending. It was time never ending. We are thousands of pounds in the red!

Limericks are fairly easy to write if you can rhyme well, so you might try writing a limerick yourself that includes the name of your friend or loved one. This is a good way to make a funny love poem that is personalized.

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WHAT IS A POEM?

Most self-proclaimed poets today dont have the vaguest clue about what a poem is.

If you were to ask 1,000 writers who call themselves poets to tell you just what they think a poem is, you might get 3,000 different answers.

And then youd have to decide which of those answers was right.

Ask yourself what you think a poems is.

Is it definable?

If so, what is it?

How does one describe it?

How does one write it?

And after you think you have written one, ask yourself if its worth reading and if its worth remembering.

People who dont write poetry might say a poem has to be rhymed, in lines and stanzas, and filled with musical language.

Does this statement tell you what a poem is?

Maybe its a statement about poetry and not about poems.

Does poetry have to be musical to be poetry?

What is poetry?

What is the difference between poetry and poems?

Can one write a poem that has no poetry?

Can anyone write poetry that is not a poem?

Can any piece of writing be a poem?

When does writing become poetry?

When does poetry become a poem?

These are very intriguing questions seldom addressed today by the so-called literary establishment.

Can this literary establishment answer these questions intelligently?

Will those answers clarify and explain what poetry is, what a poem is?

Does the literary establishment even know what they are talking about?

Do well-known poets always write poems when they are writing poetry?

And when they are writing poetry, is it really poetry?

And are all of the pieces of writing in their poetry books actually poetry or poems?

If you read someones so-called poetry, can you call it poetry?

What is poetry?

Maybe it should be named so-called poetry or so-called poems or just creative writing.

Can it be called poems?

What is a poem?

How does one write a poem?

Does a poem have lines and stanzas, or lines and no stanzas, or sentences and stanzas, or sentences and paragraphs, or just lines, or just sentences, or just words, or just syllables, or just letters, or maybe just punctuation without words like the piece Hemingway wrote?

Can one write a poem without words?

How many words does a piece of writing have to have to be called a poem?

Can a poem be just one word?

How many poems does a writer have to write to earn the title of poet?

Is a poem a piece of writing that moves the reader?

Does a poem move a reader intellectually and emotinally?

If a poem moves a reader intellectually and not emotionally, is it still a poem?

If a poem doesnt move the reader at all, can it still be a poem?

If a poem has no poetry in it, is it still a poem?

What is a poem?

A poem first of all is a story with a beginning, a middle and an end but not necessarily in that order.

And today usually but not always a poem is a lyrical poem that is a short short story with a beginning, a middle and an end.

And maybe that lyrical short short story is inhabited by people just like long story poems called epics.

But a lyrical poem can also be a story about the beauty, ugliness, indifference or cruelty of nature.

A poem can be a story about anything!

A poem can be written in any writing style and still be a poem.

But for a piece of writing to be a poem it must have a beginning, a middle and an end!

A poem telling a story about a thought, a feeling, or a moments insight has a beginning, a middle and an end.

Of course any of these three parts can be implied and need not be explicitly expressed.

Most pieces of writing passed off as poems today are just fragments of poems.

They are beginnings without middles or ends.

They are beginnings lost in middles looking for an end.

They are middles and ends without beginnings

They are lines of words that neither begin nor end any complete thought or feeling let alone a story.

They are thoughtless storyless solipsistic soliloquies seemingly straight out of diaries and journals.

Can diary and journal excerpts be poems?

Sure, if they have a beginning, a middle and an end.

But almost all diary and journal writing masquerading as poems are just fragments of poems.

Poetry editors today are daily bombarded by bits and pieces of poems.

And when poetry editors do occasionally find poems in their submissions, most of these just belabor the obvious.

They do not GRAB your MIND and HEART.

GRAB means no cliches, no platitudes, no worn-out stories, no maudlin sentiments, no mawkish mumbo-jumbo-gumbo, no dead-but-not-buried hodgepodge-garbage-barrages, no elliptically elliptical musings that say nothing, no elegant excreta, no grandiloquent gobbledegook and no googoogaga.

GRAB means original stories clothed in magical language telling you something you have not heard before or telling you in a creative way and from a fresh new perspective something you already know.

GRAB centers your consciousness and kickstarts your imagination!

GRAB smax you with WOW!

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Are you in love? Do you want to share your feelings with your special person? Are you a man of few words? Check this out! Romantic love poems would enable you to realize your dream of winning over the heart of love of your life. Even if you have already treaded the path of love and gone too far, love poems can impart a special meaning to special relationship that you share with your special person. Make your courtship a joyous experience with love poems.

Love poetry is like the potion of romance that has been around since donkeys years and without it romance almost stumbles. Poem is more loved and liked than the prose because of its rhyming quality and the highly imaginative style that compels people to dream. Just a glance at these love poems would send a shiver down your body if you have a sense of understanding the essence of love and romance.

You can find love poems online that are sentimental. Sending love poems online to your love is a simple gesture thats filled with emotions and warmth. Enclosing a love poem in a card is like the icing on the cake. You can either create your own poem or look for any of the great poetry that you might have read earlier. Classic poems are for love stories that are legendary.

Some couples find romance in humor too. There are funny love poems for those romantic couples who are class apart.

Romantic poems can be written and presented on any occasion, birthday, anniversary and wedding, to name a few. Love poems can be read for fun too. You can get inspired from reading them. You can also share them with your friends and relatives. If you have never fallen in love then you must read and discuss romantic love poems, who knows cupid might strike its arrow in your heart too.

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“It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” -William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

Poetry does have a place in our world, a necessary place. Less and less do we find poetry taught in schools, and many people say poetry doesn’t belong in our lives. That idea is wrong, sadly wrong. However, a resurgence of teaching literature and poetry has occurred, even to teaching literature to medical students and others in the health-care fields, according to Dr. Pereira.

The study and writing of poetry brings much to our lives. The Rev. H. C. Beeching agrees in “An Address on the Teaching of Poetry” Ambleside Online because the study of poetry sharpens powers of observation and helps one store memories. He states, “…the purpose of poetry is to communicate or extend the joy of life by quickening our emotions.”

Peter Pereira, MD, writes in “The healing power of poetry,” The Writer March 2007, that “the reading and writing of poems can help us (physicians) develop empathy and thus become better doctors.” Empathy is defined as an emotional connection and understanding. Therefore, Beeching and Pereira agree on that point: the purpose of poetry helps with emotional understanding.

Pereira goes on to say that since physicians have less time with their patients than ever, they need to develop listening and interpretive skills. The study of poetry, especially the lyric poem, may be an way for students to learn needed skills.

Empathy is using one’s imagination to be in another’s position. Poetry exercises one’s powers of imagination as well as helping to gain skill in the use of language. Doctors, nurses, aides, as well as family members, friends, and business people need those skills.

Two other things Pereira believes to be true about the purpose and need for poetry are that reading and writing poetry can help patients facing life-threatening or life-altering illness. I addressed this in my article “Writing through Troublesome Times.” Poetry helps a person to “vent” and to pour emotions onto paper or computer screen, and then to manage the emotions and pain involved.

Pereira’s third idea is that the reading and writing of poetry can help heal the world. The quote I used to start this article addresses that thought to some extent. The doctor states, “Poetry of witness has long been a way that cultures and civilizations all over the world remember things - their war stories, the cultural milestones - and give voice to the oppressed or the disappeared.”

A way to bring some healing not only to individuals, but to the world, gives poetry a purpose and a need that can’t be ignored.

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I adore writing poetry. I’ll arm myself, with pen and paper at the ready, and accept any challenge of conquering a new poetry form.

Last year was the first time I questioned whether or not I could meet the challenge and bury it on the battlefield. Sure, I’m a perfectionist, but what could make a person who’s played with poetry for almost thirty-five years hesitate before charging? It was the narrative form.

I’m not talking about the ballad or epic - which are types of narrative poetry - or other rhyming narratives. I’m referring to the more modern, freer, narrative poetry. It was different than anything I’d ever done before. To me, it seemed more like a story than a poem. I even remember wondering how they could get away with calling it poetry.

EXAMPLES TO READ: (both easy to find on Google if you aren’t familiar with them)

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
The Wood-pile by Robert Frost

I write stories and poetry, but when I write a poem - I’m in poetry mode, and I felt stuck in neutral. How could the Poet-in-Me mix the two?

Stephen Minot said, in Three Genres - The Writing of Poetry, Fiction, and Drama, “Narrative is as natural a structure for poetry as it is for prose.”

Poet-in-Me then rationalizes that Story-Writer-in-Me borrows stuff from the “Poet’s Toolbox” to write more effective stories, so why not knock on her door and borrow a couple of things?

Narrative Poetry Basics in Brief

BRIEF HISTORY

Narrative Poetry is poetry that tells a tale and can be traced back to Homer’s Iliad and possibly beyond.

MUST HAVES

*Tell a story.

*Pay particular attention to rhythm and sound.

COULD HAVES or What’s The Poet’s Choice In All This?

*YOU choose the form or whether or not to even use a particular form (aka ballad, etc.)

*Imagery - depth of imagery up to the author - but keep in mind that a primary part of poetry is imagery, and you are writing a poem that tells a story, not a short story.

*Rhyme - use it or not - internal, external or none.

Since I’ve tried using narratives in my poetry, I feel as if I’ve written some of the best work I ever have in my life. It has opened a door I never knew was locked and I crossed a threshold into a land I never knew existed.

Simply, It has helped me grow as a writer.

WRITING EXERCISE: If you are a writer that really considers yourself more of a poet, try out narrative poetry as a way to build a bridge to story writing. If you consider yourself mainly a storywriter, use the narrative form to ease your way into poetry

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Poetry is made up of so many specific patters and language. There are as many forms of poetry as there are writers who pen it. Here I have gather some resources to specific patterns of poetry and I have attempted to describe for you the figurative language found in poetry.

Specific Patterns of Poetry

• What is Traditional Poetry?
“Traditional” poetry is the kind of poetry we hear most often. Traditional poetry has a certain form

ex: Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall;

• What is Free Verse Poetry?
Free verse is poetry that is written without proper rules about form, rhyme, rhythm, meter, etc.

The greatest American writer of free verse is probably Walt Whitman

With free verse the poem can tell a story, describe a person, animal, feeling or object. They can serious, sad, funny or educational. There are no limits

• What is a tongue twister?
An expression that is difficult to articulate clearly; “`Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.’ is a tongue twister”

•What is ode poetry?
An Ode is a poem praising and glorifying a person, place or thing.

• What is Monorhyme Poetry?
A poem in which all the lines have the same end rhyme.

Ex:
Late for school
I’m looking like a big fool
My brother thinks he rules
While I’m loosing my cool

• What is monody Poetry?
A monody is a poem in which one person laments another’s death, as in Tennyson’s Break, Break, Break, or Wordsworth’s She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways.

• What is Concrete Poetry?
Poetry in which the poet’s intent is conveyed by the shape formed by the letters, words, or symbols that make up the poem rather than by the conventional arrangement of words

Here is a good example of a concrete poem:
http://webbschool.com/rhood/creativewriting/concrete_poem.htm

• What is Quatrain Poetry?
A Quatrain is a poem consisting of four lines of verse with a specific rhyming scheme.

A few examples of a quatrain rhyming scheme’s are as follows:

#1) abab
#2) abba — envelope rhyme
#3) aabb
#4) aaba, bbcb, ccdc, dddd — chain rhyme
http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/quatrain.htm

• How to write Pantoum poetry
http://anitraweb.org/kalliope/pantoum.html

•What is Palindrome Poetry?
http://www.fun-with-words.com/palin_explain.html

• Forms of Poetry for Children
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/poeform.htm

• Diamonte Poetry
http://www.chasesc.com/CHASEDiamontePoetry.htm

• What is an acrostic poem?
http://www.teachnet-lab.org/miami/2003/sampedro/what_is_an_acrostic_poem.htm

• Acrostic Poetry
http://www.teachnet-lab.org/miami/2003/sampedro/what_is_an_acrostic_poem.htm

• How to Write a Clerihew Poem
http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poetryclass/clerihew.htm

• The Art of Haiku Poetry
http://www.lsi.usp.br/usp/rod/poet/haiku.html

• How to Write Limerick Poetry
http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poetryclass/limerickcontesthelp.html

• How to write Cinquain Poetry
http://www.edu.pe.ca/stjean/playing%20with%20poetry/Hickey/coleres.htm

What is a metaphor?
A figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity

Understanding metaphors
http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/gallery/rhetoric/terms/metaphor.html

What is a simile?
A figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with `like’ or `as’)

• The Simile Satellite Activities
This site explores the function, form and effect of simile in poetry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/listenandwrite/teachers/simact.htm

What is alliteration?
the repetition of consonant sounds - usually at the beginning of words

What is onomatopoeia?
a word that sounds like the thing it describes

Example:
splash, wow, gush, kerplunk

What is a trope?
The intentional use of a word or expression figuratively, i.e., used in a different sense from its original significance in order to give vividness or emphasis to an idea. Some important types of trope are: antonomasia, irony, metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche. Sidelight: Strictly speaking, a trope is the figurative use of a word or expression, while figure of speech refers to a phrase or sentence used in a figurative sense. The two terms, however, are often confused and used interchangeably

Examples: Metaphor, simile, oxymoron, and hyperbole are all kinds of figurative language.

What is personification?
A person who represents an abstract quality; “she is the personification of optimism”

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/personification.html

What is Synonyms?
Words or phrases which have similar meaning.
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/palmasola/synonyms.htm

What is a stanza?
A fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem

What is imagery?
Image is language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching.

What is a muse?
Muse: the source of an artist’s inspiration; “Euterpe was his muse”

To get a list of other Poetic Glossary terms Please see Todays-Woman list

http://www.todays-woman.net/dll.php?name=Dictionary or Robert Shubinski has assembled an excellent on-line resource

http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html

This link also gives the term, definition and example of literary terms.

http://www.kidskonnect.com/FigurativeLanguage/FigurativeLanguageHome.html

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