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moondogz
Member
since 2007-05-01
Posts 397
Great White North

0 posted 2007-09-24 08:05 AM



I'm curious about other peoples poetic journeys.
Guess I'll go first;
    I was on my way back east to my mothers funeral in 1995, I was 47 years and had never written a poem. I was alone on my journey.
When the plane lifted off, got above the clouds and levelled off, I was sitting by the window. When I looked at couds below, my first poem offered itself to me.
            
               moon.
                

© Copyright 2007 Paul R Breen - All Rights Reserved
Stephanos
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since 2000-07-31
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Statesboro, GA, USA
1 posted 2007-09-24 11:39 AM


I wrote my first poem (other than the 'Roses are red' variety we all write to our mothers) to a girlfriend when I was about 17 years old.  I never gave it to her.  Some 10 years later I found it, rummaging around in some old belongings.  I read it and thought "that's not half bad", and so started writing poetry on a more regular basis.  Of course I had literature in college, which introduced me to the works of the great poets.


Funny, I actually remember the lines of that poem ...


Take my hand.  Across the land
We shall journey endless fields
We will laugh and run in the golden sun
Love waits to be revealed

Black velvet nights and brilliant days
The sky a wonderous blue
All the gifts of nature, my dear
For me to share with you



moondogz
Member
since 2007-05-01
Posts 397
Great White North
2 posted 2007-09-24 12:43 PM


Hey Stephanos, that's excellent, thanks for
sharing the beginning of "your journey."

oceanvu2
Senior Member
since 2007-02-24
Posts 1066
Santa Monica, California, USA
3 posted 2007-09-24 03:38 PM


Reading Robert Burns at age 13 got me hooked on poetry.  It started out as a heritage thing -- if one was a Scot, one read Burns.  Burns got to me.  I then started reading everything I could get my hands on, and writing, generally in imitation of whomever I was reading at the time.  Then, for my 17th birthday I received a present of "The Collected Works of Wallace Stevens."  THAT shut me up for almost ten years by suggesting how little I had to say.  I married, colleged, did VietNam, and then wrote again seriously for a few years before taking a 30 year hiatus.

I think it was VietNam that got to me.  I didn't even want to talk, let alone write, but I continued to read, and hang out with folks like Alan Ginsburg, Diane di Prima, Peter Orlofsky, Ram Dass, and the revolving salad plate of writers, artists, and nut cases at The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado, while growing flowers for a living.

I returned to writing poetry after getting some fresh validation from the world as  writer -- of Saturday Morning Cartoon television scripts!  I started writing "for real" again after my confidence had been restored.  This was about eight years ago. I was 57.

You could fairly say I started writing poetry twice, once as a kid in New Jersey, and again as a proto-coot in California.

I'm enjoying the trip.

Jim

moondogz
Member
since 2007-05-01
Posts 397
Great White North
4 posted 2007-09-24 04:53 PM


Hey Jim, facinating "trip"....sounds like the makings of a book/movie..thanks for sharing it with us.
                   moon.

nakdthoughts
Member Laureate
since 2000-10-29
Posts 19200
Between the Lines
5 posted 2007-09-24 06:13 PM


other than in school, Moon I had the same thing happen to me on a plane in the clouds  after returning from helping my mother after my father's death~~

M

Edward Grim
Senior Member
since 2005-12-18
Posts 1154
Greenville, South Carolina
6 posted 2007-09-24 10:49 PM


I thought jumping off the mortal coil was a bit rash, so I started writing. I first began writing poorly; then continued to write poorly as the years progressed and am happy to report that I am still writing poorly.

"Well I wish that you would cheat with someone, 'cause you're like diggin' holes in water and we know that can't be done."

moondogz
Member
since 2007-05-01
Posts 397
Great White North
7 posted 2007-09-25 01:41 AM


nakdthoughts, quite interesting that you had a similar experience. In my case it was like the death of my mother precipitated an explosion of creativity...like someone popping the cork on a bottle of champagne, though I loved her dearly. Strange sometimes the way things unfold.

Edward Grim, dude your way to hard on yourself...funny though.
                  moon.


rwood
Member Elite
since 2000-02-29
Posts 3793
Tennessee
8 posted 2007-09-26 09:27 PM


Hmmm...in the 1980's

Pensacola, Florida

to express myself...cuz Madonna said so.

and there were so many expressive people making an impression at the time...you know the age of MTV...with Devo, Flock of Seaguls, Men Down Under, The Rolling Stones--in Lycra,  (as Nacho Libre says "sometimes men like to wear stretchy pants) ACDC and Big Hair everything and...Flash Dance.

I couldn't sing (as well as some songstresses in my family), so I wrote.

but I didn't share a word with the general public until I found Piptalk, in 2000. Thanks Ron!  

moondogz
Member
since 2007-05-01
Posts 397
Great White North
9 posted 2007-09-27 02:29 PM


Hey, that made me have a flashback to all those great bands and songs of the 80's;
Devo, UB40, Talking Heads, Martha and the Muffins, Parachute Club etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyzsBqk8u1w

Martha and the Muffins singing Echo Beach....Thanks rwood.

               moon.

William James
Junior Member
since 2008-05-05
Posts 31
Ohio
10 posted 2008-05-07 04:18 PM


Wow, all interesting beginnings.  I got divorced and while courting online I felt limited in how to express my feelings.  For the next 5 years I wrote about 100 poems.  The first ones were of the 'Roses are Red' type but I seemed to find a venue to express my hopes and desires in verse. I am happily married now and being happy does not lend itself well for me to write emotionally.

Will

Falling rain
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Member Elite
since 2008-01-31
Posts 2178
Small town, Illinois
11 posted 2008-05-07 04:45 PM


Well... It all started in early 8th grade.. We had to ryhme in language for some project. And i said a few lines and there we go a poem! And after a few try's it just came naturally. And my first poem that i remember was called "Letting go".  

But yeah thats how it al started out for me.
Letting go

Tears running down my face
Thinking of you
Walking in a steady pace
Trying to start a new

Your death was a gaint blow
I'll never forget your face
But in my heart i'll always know
Your love left its trace

My hands are shaking
but i don't know why
Now your new life
Belongs in the sky

Your never ending love
Shines down on me
Like th ewings of a dove
Is now set free

My heart has moved on now
So good-bye and farewell
I loved you so much
I bet you can tell



~Zach~

"Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant."

Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354
Listening to every heart
12 posted 2008-05-23 04:04 PM


I started at a young age; kept the book through two marriages, and when I went to look for it one day, couldn't find it! Well, after some frantic searching, the lost was found...

and thus

~*~

The Other Book

Thank you,
Lord
for returning to me
my precious book
of early poetry.

Between sheaves
of decade-aged paper
ramble thoughts
and my capers
of long,
long
ago.

The book I thought
lost
has been found
again,
having given my anguish
of its presumed loss
over to you
and then

it was returned to me ~

all my joys,

that which purged
all my tears,

in which
all my thoughts merged

over time
over boys
over wine
over children
over life...

when I was a child,
when I became a wife.

To those decades of
written words
long ago

I’ll take the
lines,

I’ll rewrite them
so,

that all the poets
who read my verse
will know I tried
to shape some good
from the worst.

I know I’m not likely
to objective be,
over old words,
probably more
reflective
of old stories
and old lines,
but thank you
Lord,
for the return
of mine.

~*~

©KRJ
3 September, 1999

Ringo
Deputy Moderator 10 ToursDeputy Moderator 10 ToursDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Elite
since 2003-02-20
Posts 3684
Saluting with misty eyes
13 posted 2008-05-23 08:20 PM


I've been writing as long as I can remember... I think I started writing poetry (such as it was) after seeing my mother's poetry when I was about 7 or 8.

What would you attempt to do...if you knew you could not fail?.
www.myspace.com/mindlesspoet

yourfriendmacaroni
New Member
since 2008-06-14
Posts 7
United States
14 posted 2008-06-15 01:29 AM


It started on one very strange and restless night. 15 years old, as a freshman, after a stressing day of finals with a quadruple dose of ADD pills in my system. I couldn't fall asleep [wonder why, hehe], and with the inspiration of "The Catcher and the Rye" by J.D. Salinger and a few wierd borderline hallucinations caused by a mix of the meds and exhaustion, I cranked out a few of my first serious poems down in a notebook.
Huan Yi
Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688
Waukegan
15 posted 2008-06-15 03:50 AM


.


The only reason
anyone cares the minute after
you’re dead and/or five feet from
where you wrote the poem
is because somehow it touches
their lives

Is that really so bad?

Most poetry is simply
personal shorthand
in rhythm and/or rhyme

Where it becomes offensive
to taste and/or art
is when it pretends to be
anything else


.

Penwing
Member
since 2009-07-27
Posts 73
Waverly, MN
16 posted 2009-07-28 05:14 PM


I was in the sixth grade and had always had an un-refined tallent with words.
my english teacher had us do a poetry book project exploring all aspects of the art and after the project (on which i got an A lol) things just took off. now 2.5 years later i am writing very heavaly and it is my dream to be a published author.

My first poem? it was a couplet highlighting my grandmother and her death.

why i write poetry? because in my life paper (besides all of you ) is the only thing that listens to me

where i write? anywhere where worldly distractions to not interfere.

that is the start of my poetic life

,Penwing

Huan Yi
Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688
Waukegan
17 posted 2009-07-28 09:26 PM



.


Poetry
Is often nothing
Made into something
By those incapable
Of changing the oil
In their own cars


.

N|D|N|C|Lost-Poet
Member
since 2009-07-30
Posts 360
New Orleans
18 posted 2009-07-30 12:47 PM


A broken heart brings so many changes. I've always been creative, and for years listening to my friends saying I have a gift with words. Started to write.

Hope to be a novelist, screen-writer, playwright, and director one day.

Of course after I'm a Marine. Ooh-Rah.

First paragraph I ever wrote.

"A broken heart is like a vase full of roses,
beautiful pieces forever in poses,
Soon to wither and welt,
Truth to lie, feelings unfelt."

(Yes I know unfelt isn't a word, yet I strongly believe that poetry in itself is freedom of all structure, even punctuation and proper grammar.)

crosscountry83
Member
since 2009-07-30
Posts 345

19 posted 2009-08-04 12:56 PM


When? For me, about five days ago
Where?  Right here, at my computer haha
Why?  I saw what amazing things some people could do with words and I wanted to try my hand at it. I've done a few poems, getting a little better... (still not very good at all) These are a few of my favorite first ones:
/pip/Forum110/HTML/001355.html
/pip/Forum110/HTML/001353.html
/pip/Forum110/HTML/001287.html
/pip/Forum108/HTML/000591.html

If anyone wants to read lol. I doubt it though.

Rileigh

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