Birth of a Poem

How a poem can come into being:

A writing prompt of Superstition (For the month of February, I am posting a new writing prompt to this blog, with some hints, tips, and thoughts about the prompt). I’m very much enjoying doing this, and find my creative input for the month has gone up considerably!

Some Initial Thoughts:
(These thoughts came to being in the comments section of a friend’s blog. The results show how useful and productive it can be to visit the blogs of people who’s writing you like, because they often have interesting people who also follow their blog, and can lead to interesting though pathways …)

A humorous poem about someone scratching off their cerebrals!? 

Wise owls watching, someone scratching … I’m getting hints of a poem in near rhyme here … 

I’ll work on it, and see if I can get some superstition into it too! 

I don’t have that many humorous poems in my collection-to-be yet, but I am a humorous kind of person, so a funny owl poem might be just the thing!

Owl Superstitions 

In some cultures, having an owl around may signal death …

I’m not a superstitious person, and I loved having this owl living in our shed last summer. I felt privileged, and no-one died because of the owl’s presence. I suspect some mice and other creatures may have died though. I hope the deaths were fast and relatively painless, unlike the one in the poem that was inspired by these thoughts.
***************************************************

And so, after three days, much thought and some editing, (quite a bit of it, actually) the poem below is the final? result.

Having written that comment, some changes are always possible – it’s my poem and I want it to be as good as it can be!

 

Beware the Hungry Owl

(a poem in ‘near rhyme’)

Wise owl 

watching, 

a silly fool

head scratching –

man’s purpose unclear.

Steady stare, 

owl waits,

with no complaints –

Silly itching duff,

he’s ripping off 

his cerebrals!

 

Not surprised –

owl reaches,

its hunger aroused.

man retches,

brain bits to scoop –

a bloodied soup.

Man falls down,

owl follows to dine,

‘Loves fresh brains!’

owl claims,

‘yummy for my meals!’

 

*************************************************

Many thanks to my poet friend John Malone , for his inspiration and input into this horrid grisly (but fun) poem!

 

Inspirations come from many places, and can go in weird and wonderful directions! And I love owls, a lot.

 

This poem has a rhyming scheme of
ababccddeef
ghghiijjkkf

Because the poem is written in ‘near’ or ‘slant’ rhyme, the rhyming pattern is not one that immediately hits you in the ear, and with the first rhyme not being there until the first line of the secone stanza, that may not be immediately obvious either.

Poets like playing with words, I think. I know I certainly do, and sometimes the games the poet plays might not result in a poem that receives great acclaim, but it keeps the poet happy, and they will go on happily ‘poeting’! It certainly works that way for me.

After all, I’ve spent hours on the poem in this blog post, and this blog post may be the only place the silly little poem ever gets published!

I’d love to read your thoughts about what I’ve written here. Do you have any thoughts about how some of your poems come into being? I’d love to read all about it, leave a comment!