What are we reading at Tweetspeak Poetry? Catch up on the top posts from last month (or so):

10. Poets and Poems: Billy Collins and Aimless Love – For his Poets and Poems series, Glynn Young featured Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems,  saying that it’s everything a Billy Collins collection of poetry should be, and more.

9. Poets & Writers Toolkit: 4 Ways to Generate Writing Ideas – How to generate writing ideas is a frequent question–and writing topic–for writers. How do you get your ideas?  Charity Singleton Craig shared four ways.

8. Twitter Party: The Poetry Home Repair Manual – Tweetspeak Poetry’s recent poetry jam on Twitter used Ted Kooser’s The Poetry Home Repair Manual for prompts. Glynn Young strapped on his toolbelt and crafted some wonderful poems from the party.

7. Journey into Poetry: Julie L. Moore – She started by writing gruesome short stories in junior high and now has three three full-length poetry collections. Poet and teacher Julie L. Moore shared her journey into poetry.

6. Ghazal for a Gazelle: How to Write a Ghazal Infographic – It’s not like Tweetspeak to feature a poetic form and not give you a new infographic to go along with it. Our infographic shows you how to write a ghazal, complete with a smiling gazelle.

5. Operation Poetry Dare: The Conclusion of the Matter – Nancy Franson completed the Poetry Dare and declared, “I officially love poetry!” So was it just a stunt, or was this a true poetry-avoidant conversion?

4. Top Ten Poems with Make-or-Break Titles – The title of a poem sets the stage. In this post, Lyla Willingham Lindquist broke down how changing a title can create an entirely different poem, plus featured nine other poems with make-or-break titles. If that’s not enough, just consider that there’s poetry about roadkill.

3. Down Syndrome Awareness Month: Lunch at Pizza Hut – Throughout October, we featured poetic and artistic looks into the experiences of those who live with Down syndrome in one way or another. This fiction (or is it?) feature is a reprint from The Unknown Contributor.

2. Ghazal Poetry: Sing the Childhood Loss – Ghazal poetry sings the ache. For a lover, yes. But also, at times, for simple loss. We invited you to sing the ache of what cannot be reclaimed in your ghazal poem with this prompt featuring a ghazal by Grace Marcella Brodhurst-Davis.

Well, sure, our October theme is the ghazal. But who knew our most popular posts over the past couple of months would relate to how to write poems in this centuries-old form? Let’s have our traditional drumroll please,  as we unveil most popular post at Tweetspeak in the last month (or so):

1. Ghazal Poetry: How to Write a Ghazal and a Playlist! – Ghazal poetry is poetry of longing. Check out these easy instructions for How to Write a Ghazal. And smile at “Hip-Hop Ghazal, ” by Patricia Smith in L. L. Barkat’s Ghazal Playlist.

Photo by  Claire Burge,  author of Spin: Taking Your Creativity to the Nth Degree. Creative Commons license via Flickr.

_________________________

 

Want to take your creativity further? Check out Claire Burge’s new illustrated title,  Spin: Taking Your Creativity to the Nth Degree from T. S. Poetry Press.

And join us for our new book club discussion on Spin, beginning November 6.