NaNoWriMo Day 2: What I Love About the Genre I Write
Image by Eugene Lagunov on Unsplash
I love words. I love how they can create the deepest of feelings in the matter of a sentence. I also love music. The rhythm surrounds my being and transports me to a higher place. Writing poetry is the perfect blend of my two loves.
When I first learned of poetry, I was a very young, very sickly child. My parents, also poetry lovers, bought me a children’s book of poems and read them to me nightly. This book accompanied me to the hospital for my first surgery. In the ICU, my mother recited a poem even though she knew I might be responsive. That is how they thought I would pass: after the reading The Spider and the Fly, my favorite poem.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
Once out of the hospital, I was inundated with books. That is how I came to fall in love with Dr. Seuss, as we all did in the old times. I read anything I could by him, with my favorite being How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I wanted all writing to rhyme, to flow like water around my soul. My need to write poetry, wedding and anniversary vows, and stories all in rhyme was set in motion.
When I was introduced to freestyle poetry, my mind was blown. I knew this was my true jam.
My first book, Quigley’s Quest, was a rhyming coloring/activity book about a pup growing to become a Service Dog. It followed in the footsteps of the Dr. Seuss genre. Then came the MockingOwl Roost when I had a poem published in a literary magazine. It was like a dream.
This NaNoWriMo 2021 – my first – will be interesting and scary, writing poetry! I want to stay true to my love for poetry, yet also expand the reach of what is considered to be poetry. Will I have the nerve?
Need more NaNoWriTing Inspiration? Check out these other helpful posts and resources.
- Using Landscape for Inspiration
- Who’s Your Writing Inspiration?
- Legacies or Something Close
- Falling in Love
Sue Cook lives in Freeport, Illinois with her husband Randy and two dogs. Her passions include assistance dogs, rescue dogs, music, acting, theater, poetry, and Doctor Who. She’s been in both film and theater and is a regular cast member of the podcast Doctor Who’s Line is it….Anyway? Sue is an advocate for the use of Service Dogs to assist their disabled handlers to maintain their independence. Quigley’s Quest, her first children’s book, addresses how a dog becomes a Service Dog.
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