|
|
|
An Introduction to Home Wall Murals
Wall murals are a creative way to decorate any room. Don’t be intimated. It is possible to paint a superb wall mural even if you feel like you are not an artist. Wall murals look great in children’s rooms, the kitchen, the bathroom, the family...
Literary Readings Make Weddings Special
There are so many options available today to help make weddings special that the happy couple planning their marriage ceremony may have to make some difficult choices as far as just what features to include. One semi-traditional aspect of the...
New Poetic Work By Ethiopian Immigrant Promotes Respect, Courage And Cultural Sensitivity
McLean, VA - "The Healing Conscious" tells the story of an Ethiopian immigrant boy on his fascinating journey to America and adulthood. Author Kifle Bantayehu, a 23 year-old second-generation Ethiopian immigrant, recounts this poignant tale in...
Surviving Heartbreak Hell
It's been months since your breakup but you're still stuck in bed grieving over your lost love. You couldn't eat (or stop eating), sleep or work because he's all you could ever think of. You keep repeating your heartbreak mantra, "Why did he leave...
Unconditional Love
I study of God's command to love one another.
Everyone wants to have a special someone that they can love, and be loved by in return. However, OUR(human) love is usually based on conditions; I will love them if they love me; If they do nice...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Writing Your Wedding Vows the Way Poets Do
Let’s face it, not many of us have the kind of skills or experience to write truly poetic wedding vows. Or do we? Here’s the truth: Even if you don’t know Dylan Thomas from Bob Dylan, and you’re pretty sure T.S. Elliot was that guy who wrote the words to Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Cats,” all is not lost! In fact, there are ways to learn to write the words you want. With four simple steps, you can take what you feel in your heart and make it come out as sweetly as any Shakespearian sonnet.
Step 1: Decide on a theme
Finding a theme should arguably be the easiest part of writing poetry for your wedding vows. But you don’t want to be stuck with something trite or cliché, even though the theme of romantic love is probably the oldest known for poetry. There are lots of ways to avoid writing the same old “roses are red, violets are blue” type of poem. One trick the pros use is to envision what a newspaper article about your relationship would say. Would it discuss how and where you met? How your relationship has stayed strong, even during the hard times? What your love has meant to one another? Since newspaper articles get right to the point, this exercise can help you pick out an overriding theme for your vows.
Step 2: Allow time for reverie
No, not “revelry” (hopefully that will be what your wedding day is all about), but reverie – a quiet time devoted to a kind of dreamy meditation. Try some tricks for allowing yourself time to truly think about your poem -- and not just those things that allow you to “act like a poet.” Go for a walk alone, listen to instrumental music, or simply shut the door to a room in your house and ask not to be disturbed. The most important thing to remember with any of these methods is that you don’t let other people interrupt your time.
Step 3: Choose your topic
Theme, as discussed above, is the driving idea behind your poem. The topic, however, is the specific vehicle you use to express the
theme. While finding the theme should be the easiest part of writing a poem for your wedding, finding a topic that isn’t hackneyed and trite can be a challenge. For instance, love is your theme, but the beauty of your betrothed’s eyes may be the topic. You are using the example of her eyes as the symbol for your love. The key is to find something new. There’s something that makes your chosen one special, be it appearance, wit, or style. That’s the topic you want to choose. Poets use tools like automatic writing, journals, or “dream work” to come up with topics for their prose. (These tools are all discussed in detail in the home-study course I put together for couples personalizing their wedding vows – visit http://www.WeddingVowToolkit.com for more info.) But anything that allows you to spark your creativity can suffice if you’re short on time.
Step 4: Pick Your Style
As many different poems as there are, there are almost an equal number of styles in which they are written. There are traditional forms, modern, post modern, and many more. You can work on fitting your rough draft poem into one of these many forms, or you can go with no form at all. The benefit of working on an art form is that there are no hard and fast rules on what the end product must look like. Perhaps you’d like to try your hand at penning your vows in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. Or, to go a completely different route, maybe “experimental” is right up your alley. No matter what you choose, just make sure it fits your style. After all, personalizing your wedding vows means just that – they should be personal, not forced to fit into a style that just isn’t “you.”
About the Author
Chris Simeral is the creator of The Ultimate Wedding Vow Toolkit, the wedding-coordinator-approved home-study course for couples personalizing or renewing their wedding vows. Learn more at href="http://www.weddingvowtoolkit.com/">http://www.weddingvowtoolkit.com.
|
|
|
|
|
| Poetry.Com: Free Poetry Contest, Poems, Publishing |
| www.poetry.com/ - Similar pages |
|
|
| Funny poetry for children |
| Includes funny poetry, contests, lessons, and poems about school. |
| www.gigglepoetry.com |
|
| Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More |
| Organization presenting poems, biographies of poets, historical and thematic poetry exhibits, events calendars, discussion forums and contest information. |
| www.poets.org |
|
| Poetry Archives @ eMule.com |
| Educational resource dedicated to researching poetry. Includes an online archive of poetry by numerous recognized poets. |
| www.emule.com |
|
| Poetry Daily, a new poem every day. |
| An anthology of contemporary poetry offering new poems from books, magazines and journals currently in print, as well as an archive and daily news. |
| www.poems.com |
|
| Poetry for Kids - Funny Poems for Children by Poet Kenn Nesbitt |
| Features poetry for kids about animals, weather, and aliens. |
| www.poetry4kids.com |
|
| Poetry |
| Searchable archive of online texts from a wide range of recognized poets, both historical and contemporary. |
| poetry.eserver.org |
|
| Poetry |
| Website of the print magazine includes a weekly featured poet, information on current issue, subscriptions, and programs of the Modern Poetry Association. |
| www.poetrymagazine.org |
|
| Poetry 180 - Home Page |
| Home page of the Library of Congress Poetry 180 Project. |
| www.loc.gov |
|
| Poetry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Article discussing the nature of the form, its history, terminology and the different traditions. |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Poetry.org - Resource site for poetry and poets |
| Here you can learn about the history, meaning, and types of poetry, as well as terms ... And there is our selection of poetry from various famous poets, ... |
| www.poetry.org |
|
| Verse: Poetry Anthologies and Thousands of Poems. Bartleby.com |
| With thousands of poems by hundreds of authors, Bartleby.com offers one of the largest free collections of verse, poems and poetry anthologies on the web. |
| www.bartleby.com |
|
| About Poetry |
| Poets and poetry online including poetry festivals, readings, audio and video archives, contests, zines, word games and collaborations, haiku, and sonnets. |
| poetry.about.com |
|
| Poetry in the Yahoo! Directory |
| Explore the world of poetry, including sites about poets, collections of poems, and information on writing. |
| dir.yahoo.com |
|
| Scholastic.com | Writing with Writers: Poetry |
| Study the genre of poetry by taking part in step-by-step workshops with three of your favorite authors. Then have your work published online in our ... |
| teacher.scholastic.com |
|
| Poetry Magazine |
| International digest of world poetry. Features contest listings and discussions for poetry writers. |
| www.poetrymagazine.com |
|
| Poetry Archive |
| The Poetry Archive is an ever expanding archive of poets reading their own work. |
| www.poetryarchive.org |
|
| ETTC's new and improved Poetry Forms |
| Interactive Poetry Form Finder Testimonials Poetry Forms Lesson Plan Ideas ... Choose your poetry form from the list of links on the left. ... |
| ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us |
|
| representative poetry online |
| www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/intro.html - Similar pages |
|
|
| Boston Review | Poetry |
| Stephanie Strickland, The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot (Second Annual Poetry Contest Winner) Jesper Svenbro, Rainbows (translated by John Matthias and ... |
| bostonreview.net |
|
|