I don’t know about you, but once in awhile my poetry springs from the oddest of inspirations.
Not too long ago I was driving home from judging a high school poetry competition, and I was in a very poetic mood.
As I came around a curve in our neighborhood, I noticed someone had placed an old toilet by the road. For some reason I thought it sad and humorous at the same time to see the commode on the curb.
Don’t ask me why. I’m not making this up.
[bctt tweet=”Sometimes poetry springs from the oddest of places. #poets #poetry”]
And then I realized so many words rhymed with commode and road that it kept going from there.
By the time I pulled into my driveway, I had “Ode to a Throne” rambling through my brain.
I highly doubt it will ever get published anywhere else, but for your entertainment, I’ve decided to share it below.
Ode to a Throne
Against the green, green grass you sit,
abandoned and alone—
a symbol of our progress
thrown beside the road.
Maybe you malfunctioned
and coughed up a filthy load,
or maybe you refused to swallow
the refuse that you bemoaned.
Throne of Plain White Porcelain,
how you long for a loving home,
But never shall you have one—
Oh woeful commode, dethroned!
I’d never claim that this is my next award-winning poem, but it was fun to write—a break from reality. And that’s all that matters.
A note on rhyming
Rhyming is not a technique I use often because to make it work effectively, you have to have patience, an extensive vocabulary and a good sense of syntax (word order). The exception would be children’s poetry which lends itself to rhyming much more easily.
A challenge of rhyming is that many beginning poets make the mistake of forcing rhyme which makes it sound contrived rather than natural. You’ll see when you try to use rhyme. It’s really not that easy. And it will give you a new respect for William Shakespeare, Emily Dickenson, and Robert Frost.
Also note that I use approximate rhyme to make it work. No, that’s not cheating. Poets have done it throughout history, including the ones listed above.
Assonance is another technique I used for the purposes of rhythm and rhyme. So many words have the long “o” sound. And conveniently, a number of those words related to my subject.
Despite the Oddity
This poem was meant to be written despite its ridiculous subject.
Therefore, the point is that you don’t have to look far for inspiration. Poetry can morph out of everyday life experiences and from places you’d least expect.
So the challenge is to find out where your next poem is hiding. The trick is to pay attention to what inspires you even if it seems bizarre at the time.
[bctt tweet=”Poetry can morph out of everyday experiences and from places you’d least expect. #poetry #poets”]
Have you ever been inspired to write a poem or story by an absurd object or event? Tell me below.
