Category / Blog

by Carol J Forrester

Ten Years Learning How To Be A Poet – Part Four: Does Poetry Need To Rhyme? Does Form and Rhyme Make A Poem A Poem?

Does poetry need to rhyme? I’ve touched on this topic before and received quite a bit of feedback from other poets on WordPress, more so than I would normally receive on these style of posts. It’s a conversation that sparks debate in poetry groups of Facebook as well. I notice it cropping up when poets are asked “what piece of feedback have you received and chosen to ignore.”

In secondary school, I started writing poetry and I shared one of my poems with a friend. Her response was limited to ‘it doesn’t rhyme’, and with that she declared it wasn’t really a poem. It was an experience that taught me how black and white opinions around art can be. Something is a poem, or it isn’t, and the criteria to make it so is very specific. In reality, poetry occupies a strange spectrum where the style on one end, is utterly removed from the style at the other. Everything in-between is still poetry.

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by Carol J Forrester

Speculative Fiction Prompt: March 2022

Ylanite

The first of March almost got away from me! While January dragged on, February seems to have vanished from beneath my feet before I could really get a grip on the month. We had a slight increase in the number of participants for February, so I’ve got some reading to catch up on.

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by Carol J Forrester

Sunday #Sketchbook – February Drawing Challenge

To improve my sketching speed and techniques, I’m attempting to sit down and draw every day in February. I missed Friday, and yesterday’s and today’s doodles are both on the same page but I’ve already created a lot more art than I normally would in a month. I’m aiming for as much range in the images as I can so if you have any suggestions for things that I could have a go at drawing, then please drop them in the comments below.

by Carol J Forrester

Ten Years Learning How To Be A Poet – Part Three: Performing Poems For An Audience

In part one I mentioned that the seed of inspiration for these blog posts was the quickly approaching tenth anniversary of my first poetry performance. Since then, I have read at open mics, poetry slams, and exhibitions, but my love for performing poetry began at Shrewsbury Museum in 2012. This post is going to look at the different types of poetry performance, while also paying tribute to some of my favourite memories and people.

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A large, corked, glass bottle, labelled poison, on a wooden surface in front of a misty landscape.
by Carol J Forrester

Speculative Fiction Prompt: February 2022

A large, corked, glass bottle, labelled poison, on a wooden surface in front of a misty landscape.

January is finally behind us! For a month that seemed to last forever, I’m not sure I actually managed to get much done. Ah well, new month, new opportunity to crack on and get some writing under my belt. The theme of this month’s speculative fiction prompt is Poison!

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