Thursday Poetry Forms (Poetry for Dummies) Week 22

*stumbling hurriedly into the garden, curlers in her hair and still in her pajamas* Hello everyone and welcome to a new week here in our magic Gooseberry Garden! I am CC Champagne (or at least I will be once I wake up properly) back from her holidays to batter your brains with more poetry form talk.

Some of you may have noticed that we are at the beginning of a new year? 2012 it is, and according to the Mayan Long Count Calendar the end time is upon us at the end of this year. Before that though there will be Olympic Games in London, Presidential Elections in the US and all sorts of other goodies depending on where you live and what you are interested in. Personally I look forward to (among a million other things) the European Football Championships and, of course, the 20th anniversary of the Stockholm Tens International rugby tournament at the end of July.

Everything that happens around us in current times will one day be perceived as history - the only question is if someone deems it important enough to be remembered. Have you thought of that? Today is tomorrow's history! Current events, those perhaps unimportant things that we barely notice today may in the future be reported as the starting point of major events that have yet to happen, and the future historians may not always get it right! As poets, we call it poetic license but even scientists can only ever build on theories and here is one place where poetry has been important throughout history. Historically poets and bards helped spread the word on what was going on around them. Songs and fairytales told by everyman would find its way into the repertoire of the bard, or be integrated into the poetry of the times. Poetry is an outlet for the soul, but it is also an important tool for reporting on history in the making, peeling away the need for complete honesty (we are not in a Catholic church) and accuracy (we are not television reporters) and just telling it like it is to you, to the poet!

Historically poetry isn't only about emotions, about love and longing, but also about reflections of the current life and events. Reflections of what people then would think about, would do... Rather than going through rules of some poetry form today (and I might get my head handed to me for this), I would like to inspire you to write a poem that, in some way is related to current events and the New Year. Using the numbers 2012 might be one way of going about it, where they can represent numbers of syllables, numbers of words (though that would be one long poem) or be used as rhyme in the poem. Perhaps you would like to create your own poetry form, based on this new year? What would that be? And what would you, today, as a poet, want people to remember about us living here today when the future turns now into history?

If you want to share a piece you have been inspired to write by this, or any other piece of poetry, please feel free to do so at the Gooseberry Garden's Poetry Picnic Week 21 where the theme is Children's Stories, Riddles, Counting Songs and Rhyming Lyrics for Young Children, or perhaps you would like to rev up your engine and join in the Thursday Poets Rally Week 60? I personally will be attending both this week, and will hopefully come better prepared to our Thursday Poetry Forms meeting next week. *blushing* Until then I hope you all have a lovely week!

*Cheers*