Untamed

Since writing poetry, I have been reading books in a new light. I find myself really taking notice of the way they write words, how that in itself can be poetry.

Descriptions of surroundings, people, landscapes and homes all appear different when you feel the words.

I have just finished reading “Where the Crawdads sing”. I have never had a book reach me in this way before. I felt like I was there amongst the marshland shrubs and trees with those birds around me. It was like I could almost smell the marsh itself.

I mainly read non-fiction books but since discovering this love of words and descriptions and how it can help my poetry, I am finding I want to read more fiction and poetry books. The story telling, which after all, is what poetry is about, can be beautiful.

Reading poetry books can also help your own writing.  I recently completed a course in poetry writing to broaden my knowledge and expand my skills. My husband bought it for me for my birthday and it made me look at my writing in a totally different way.  It was so valuable.

For one of the exercises, we had to take a line from a well-known poem and make a poem of our own.  I enjoyed doing this and read through poems online and in books. It opened up my eyes to the different kinds of poems there are and such a wide range of vocabulary in all of them.

Reading poetry and books can have so many benefits to our minds that seem to constantly be going at 100 MPH.

It can provide escapism, be a digital detox, widen your vocabulary and cultural knowledge, reduce feelings of isolation and depression and be a mood booster.

I started writing poems because I couldn’t get what I wanted to in words. On paper it is so much easier, and I’m sure that’s why many of us write.

It can be meditive, helps you focus. Like you emerge with a feeling of serenity from sitting reading a verse.  But most of all, reading books and poetry gives you ideas as to the types of writing that are possible for you to try writing.  It can be done in such a short time frame, reading two very quick verses and submerging yourself in them is a lot quicker than reading a full novel.

Grab some books, poetry or otherwise. Lose yourself in them. Re-read the lines again and again. Look up words you are not familiar with. Dive deep and breathe it. You may be amazed at what you come up with.