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Top 10 Ideas for How to Start a Poetry Club

By L.L. Barkat 8 Comments

Poetic Poppies Poetry Club

Start a Poetry Club!

I love a good book club—online or in the living room. I also love the chance to do poetry with others in a Mischief Café. Starting a poetry club feels like the perfect combination of these experiences.

So, here are ten ideas for how to begin a poetry club (and keep it going). The ideas are arranged in order, with the first ones helping to lay the groundwork and the last ones working to help the club explore more deeply.

1. Start With the Familiar—A Memoir Book Club Selection

Your friends, co-workers, or students are already familiar with regular book clubs. Thus, to begin your poetry club, consider starting with familiar territory: a memoir with a tender story at its heart.

Our choice is The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Save & Make Your Life With Poems. It’s an engaging memoir that also begins building the foundation for “why poetry” and “how poetry.” Plus, it includes extras like :

• how to keep a poetry journal
• how to be a poetry buddy (with a friend)
• how to do a poetry dare (with a community)

The Joy of Poetry Nancy Marie Davis Painting

Megan Willome’s The Joy of Poetry is not a long book, but it took me longer to read than I expected, because I kept stopping to savor poems and passages, to make note of books mentioned, and to compare Willome’s journey into poetry to my own. The book is many things. An unpretentious, funny, and poignant memoir. A defense of poetry, a response to literature that has touched her life….It’s also the story of a daughter who loses her mother to cancer. The author links these things into a narrative much like that of a novel. I loved this book. As soon as I finished, I began reading it again.”

—David Lee Garrison, author of Playing Bach in the D. C. Metro

2. Ease in With a Poetry Coloring Party

Many people don’t realize that poetry can be a low-key experience that doesn’t require any particular expertise to make a start. A great way to communicate this truth is to ease in with a coloring party. Use our free coloring page poems and our poets coloring book to kick off your party.

(We had so much fun creating our poetry coloring book that we couldn’t decide on the cover. So take your pick: Annabel Lee or Ode on a Grecian Urn.)

Coloring Page Poems Coloring Book - Annabel Lee Cover

Download Coloring Book

 

Coloring Page Poems Coloring Book - Ode on a Grecian Urn Cover

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free take your poet to work day coloring book standing only
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Download “Popular Poets” Coloring Book
 
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3. Try Good Poetry Audio

Why try audio at the start?

First, audio is engaging and enjoyable when done well. It’s like hearing a story—you feel more free to just enjoy and not analyze, and that’s important for creating some baseline comfort in your new club.

Also, you’ll eventually want to be reading poems to each other during your poetry club. Listening to good poetry audio from the start will help you learn, in a fun and seamless way, how to read a poem aloud.

Try these, to begin:

• Laurie Klein, a reader for NPR member stations, reads themed poems (patron content)
https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Poems-to-Listen-By-Laurie-Klein-Black-Oaks.mp3
• Major Jackson’s Slowdown podcast

And, for basic tips on reading poetry aloud, we suggest you consult this great article by Tania Runyan, author of How to Read a Poem: Based on the Billy Collins Poem “Introduction to Poetry”:

5 Great Tips for Reading Poetry Aloud

4. Speaking of How to Read a Poem, Make This Your Next Book Selection

To get everyone in your poetry club on the same page, so to speak, it can be helpful to use this fun, thoughtful, and totally accessible book as one of your early reading experiences.

Those who have more familiarity with reading poetry will enjoy the book’s engaging perspective and its built-in anthology. Those with less poetry-reading familiarity will get a gentle introduction to how poems work and how to approach discussing them.

The book also includes simple activities that your club can go through together, as you make your way through each of the vital topics that are covered.

How to Read a Poem: Based on the Billy Collins Poem “Introduction to Poetry”

how-to-read-a-poem-covers1

While this book says it’s an invitation, it’s really much more. It’s a conversation—between you (lucky reader), Tania Runyan (funny, helpful friend) and these poems (brilliantly brought to the table by Runyan). No reader, experienced or new to reading poems, will want to miss this winsome and surprising way into the rich, wonderful conversations that poetry makes possible.”

—David Wright, Assistant Professor of English at Monmouth College, IL

5. Choose a Poetry Collection With a Theme

Now that you’ve got a good foundation for your club, you’ll want to start digging in with poetry collections and anthologies. These are organized in different ways. Some are simply collections of poems from a certain time period in a poet’s life (or a group of poet’s lives). Others are more theme based.

We suggest you begin with a theme-based collection, which can give a sense of cohesion for those who are newer to the poetry club experience. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Earth Song nature poems climate poems anthology

Kevin Young

Thomas and Beulah poetry by Rita Dove

6. Memorize Poems (Or Parts of Poems) Together

As your group becomes more comfortable with poetry, you might want to try committing poetry together. You needn’t memorize whole poems. You could also just memorize certain stanzas you love. For a bit of fun, make certificates or badges to celebrate your memory accomplishments. Here’s a sample of one of ours, from a Prufrock challenge:

Committing Prufrock Printable Barista Badges

7. Create Poetry Collages

Consider reading just one poem for some of your club meetings, then spend the rest of your time together creating artistic responses to the poem. Collage can be an especially fun way to respond. Then you can also share the poetry club love on Instagram using the #poetrycollage hashtag.

View this post on Instagram

Todos los días son días para leer a Safo . #Collage #CollageArt #PoetryCollage #PoesíaIlustrada #HandmadeCollage #AnalogCollage #CollageAnálogo

A post shared by Isabella (@ladeltijereteo) on Sep 17, 2019 at 8:08am PDT

8. Learn About Form Poetry

While it can be easier to launch your club by exploring modern poets who write in free verse, your club will also eventually find it enriching to learn about the broader world of poetry. Form poems are part of that world. Still, we recommend having a fun way in. To that, we offer humorous and informative poetry infographics you can use to begin your explorations. They include a little history, a little how-to, and some recommended poetry reading.

Check out all our infographics, here.

How to Write a Limerick Infographic

There’s also this super helpful guide on how to get started (and keep going) with writing form poems.

 
How to Write a Form Poem-A Guided Tour of 10 Fabulous Forms-poetry writing book

BUY ‘HOW TO WRITE A FORM POEM’ NOW!

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9. Consider a Particular Poet

Some poets, like John Keats, have an interesting history. And, they even have fictional works that explore their history and their poems more fully.

To try this with Keats, begin here:

• a few good poems, history, and short fiction
• an engaging novel, Adjustments
• the movie Bright Star

Adjustments by Will Willingham

10. Stay Poetic Even When You’re Not Meeting, With a Daily Poem Delivery

Finding the best in poetry isn’t always easy, but it’s always rewarding. To help you out, we offer a daily inbox poem delivery (paired with a beautiful, meditative photo). We do the hard work of curating the best in poetry, so you can use your precious time to simply enjoy the poems.

You can use Every Day Poems to plan content for your clubs. Or you can extend your club friendships and stay poetic with along with someone else, by being poetry buddies for a time. Learn more about one poetry buddy partnership, here.

Photo by Sonja and Jens, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by L.L. Barkat.
 
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L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.' Her poetry has appeared on the BBC and at NPR, VQR, and The Best American Poetry.
L.L. Barkat
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Filed Under: Blog, Friendship Activities and Prompts, Poetry Club, poetry teaching resources, writer's group resources

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About L.L. Barkat

L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.' Her poetry has appeared on the BBC and at NPR, VQR, and The Best American Poetry.

Comments

  1. Bethany R. says

    February 29, 2020 at 4:54 pm

    How fun is this?!

    Reply
    • L.L. Barkat says

      February 29, 2020 at 8:14 pm

      If you start one, even one for a season, we’d love to hear about it. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Laura Lynn Brown says

    March 4, 2020 at 2:03 pm

    I love “The Hungry Ear” and “Thomas and Beulah” — both full of engaging poems, each an example of one smart way to arrange a collection (whether one author’s work or an anthology). One a buffet of many different poetic voices, one a long, slow, simmering dish from one poet-cook.

    Reply
    • L.L. Barkat says

      March 7, 2020 at 10:35 am

      I might need to get The Hungry Ear from the library again for this NPM, especially since the topic of the 30-day challenge is food.

      (So many delectable poems in the world. So little time. 🙂 )

      Reply
    • Bethany Rohde says

      May 3, 2021 at 2:39 pm

      Just looked up your recommendations here, Laura. Intriguing. Thanks for sharing them.

      Reply
      • L.L. Barkat says

        May 3, 2021 at 2:42 pm

        I’ll be curious to know which ones you end up pursuing a little 🙂 Thanks for reading! 🙂

        Reply
  3. Maxwell Joy Moore says

    February 25, 2024 at 6:40 pm

    I started a group called “Writing on T”, and its for Black trans and gender diverse people on testosterone. It’s been a great 3 meetings so far.

    Reply
    • L.L. Barkat says

      February 26, 2024 at 10:32 am

      Maxwell, that’s great news. Is it a poetry writing group? 🙂

      Reply

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