delilah b.

Hi, delilah b ---

I wanted to respond in support of your statement of purpose: "Poetry is an expression of the mind with an important meaning...." I used to feel that I must have an important meaning before I set out to write, which was seldom.

Then I discovered the rhyming dictionary and a way to use it which set me free.

Say I'm writing a couplet. When I have a first line, and I'm looking for a second to rhyme with it, I look up a number of words that rhyme with the prior line's last word. I choose a rhyme, if possible, that's not spelled the same way, and see if I can make a second line with that rhyme, regardless of where it carries the thought or imagery or feeling.

I am astonished by how this takes me in a new direction and enables me to write better than I can write using a conventional approach.

I invite you to try it. You can see (and hear) how I use this technique by clicking on "Poem for the Week" at jamiesonspoetry.com.

Leland