Poetry- literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm
It’s national poetry day and April is National Poetry Month. Monday through Friday I post a new word of the day on my social media pages and I wanted to do something in celebration of my favorite writing style. For the next four weeks, all the words I share will be centered around the poetry theme. I have gathered them here for those interested.
Free write Poetry Exercise
I like to think of social media posts as blank verse poems they often have a narrative aspect to them as well.
If you struggle deciding what to post on social media for your business, why not try exploring some free write poetry exercises.
I find these writing exercises to be incredibly helpful for getting my creative juices flowing when I stare at a page and can’t come up with anything to say.
The most simple poetry exercise is setting a timer and writing down as many random words as pop into your head they don’t have to make a sentence or even have anything to do with one another.
Once the timer dings, read over the words you wrote and create a poem around them.
I like to at least attempt to use every word on the list, but you can use just one if that’s all you want to use.
TIP #1 Check Your Flow
Blank Verse- is poetry written with a precise meter—almost always iambic pentameter—but that does not rhyme.
Sometimes when we write we find ourselves stringing together words in a poetic rhythm that doesn’t rhyme. There is a flow a sound to the combination of words that compels us to read onward.
As you write your next social media post read the words aloud and see if you can find a rhythm to their sound and flow. You may just realize that there is a better word you could be utilizing in your post. You might see that you have utilized the same word three times and it is throwing off the flow of your post, synonyms, and antonyms can become some of your best friends in these moments as you rewrite the post for better sound.
The sound of your words creates vibrations. And you know what all those manifestation coaches say about vibrations right? Vibrations and frequencies are what bring the things you want to you.
Change your language so it sounds right, so it flows with the full beauty of your message, pay attention as more people start…or even finish reading.
Tip #2 Writing has no rules!
Free Verse- poetry that is unstructured and unburdened by rules of meter or rhyme.
WRITING HAS NO RULES!
There are structures you can follow, and pieces you can recreate. There are certain things people might expect to see and want to see
depending on genre, time, location, and context. But ultimately like any art form, there are no rules in writing.
Free verse is the embodiment of this no rules- rule. Your poems don’t have to rhyme they don’t have to follow the same meter from start to end. The same goes for your social media content. Your social media posts may start in one place and move to another, but if the story flows, if the story can be understood then who is to say it is not still poetry?
Stop looking at all that content you feel you HAVE to create for your business like it is just a piece of a job. Instead, look at that content for the creative artistry that it is. And if you don’t feel like you are all that creative just remember Free Verse means FREE of RULES. I like the French phrase for it “vers libre.” The sounds the phrase makes as it flows off your tongue and reverberates inside your brain create a feeling of freedom inside of me.
Tip #3 Not Everyone will understand and that’s okay.
Narrative Poetry- feature an entire story, told by one narrator from beginning to end with a focus on plot.
I see so many social media posts that portray a narrative. Most of them don’t sound overly poetic because they lack meter and rhyme, but there is a uniqueness to them in their free verse.
Most social posts are under 250 words so these short little narratives we share are more like little narrative monologues depicting images of our lives and the conversations we have in our daily lives.
The plot behind your social media posts is your message to the world. What you want people to walk away understanding, knowing, being, feeling, and/or taking action on. It’s a narrative. A poetic narrative that we don’t even realize we are weaving.
Everyone can relate to poetry…but not everyone will relate or understand every poem. Your social posts are a bit like this too. It’s okay if not everyone understands or relates to your post, that’s how you attract the clients who need you and will work well with you.
Tip #4 Share your Feelings
Lyric poetry- the defining traits are a songlike quality and an exploration of emotions and personal feelings.
Your goal with social posts is to capture the attention of your readers, people connect with emotions and feelings. If you are looking for a unique post idea try sharing some of your feelings and emotions in a lyric-based poem. Who knows maybe you will even come up with a cool jingle idea to market your business videos.
Tip #5 Break Up Your Text
Stanza- is a division of a poem consisting of a series of lines arranged together in a usually recurring pattern of meter and rhyme
When writing posts on social media it is best if you try and space out your sentences…large blocks of text are hard to read on a computer screen and most people will just scroll right past it. Typically people will break up their social posts into individual sentences…how you layout your posts may differ from post to post and that’s okay. Read through your posts before hitting publish, some line breaks will make more sense than others.
Steps and listings are best-done line by line.
Longer sentences should be either shortened or stand on their own without being combined with another sentence.
Occasionally you will want to place two shorter sentences together to complete the thought, but if the combination of the two sentences takes up more than five lines of text it can make the text block overly long.
Tip #6 Not All Poetry Rhymes
Couplet- a literary device featuring two consecutive lines of poetry that typically rhyme and have the same meter
Not all poetry rhymes!
But when it does you can often find lots of couplets.
Exercise #2 Write a poem about an industry truth or myth in limerick form.
Limerick- a humorous, frequently bawdy, verse of three long and two short lines rhyming aabba, popularized by Edward Lear.
Limerick’s are the comedians of the poetry world. If you are a person who enjoys being funny…consider writing a limerick for a social media post. Many limericks include sarcasm so if that’s your type of humor go for it…just be careful about being rude on social media it’s not likely to make you any friends or help grow your business. To safely try your hand at humor perhaps write a poem about an industry “truth” or “myth”.
Exercise #4 Write a letter to yourself
Soliloquy- the act of talking to oneself.
Have you ever written a letter to yourself or past self?
Consider doing so as an exercise for social media content.
Exercise #5 Write a Villanelle Just 19 Lines of Rhyme.
Villanelle- a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain
But what’s a tercet and what’s a quatrain? Keep Reading to find out.
19 lines isn’t much you can easily put together a villanelle poem if you enjoy rhyming. This would be a great exercise for those of you with creative businesses.
Tercets- a set or group of three lines of verse rhyming together or connected by rhyme with an adjacent tercet.
You can’t write a tercet without a couplet.
If it helps you, just remember, a couplet is like a couple so two lines.
The word Tercets has almost all the letters for the number three so three lines.
Quatrain- a stanza of four lines with opposite rhyme.
Any Spanish speakers?
If you ask me Quatrain sounds a lot like 4 in Spanish minus the choo-choo at the end.
The rhyme scheme of a quatrain is ABAB.
This is probably one of the simplest poetry rhyming schemes as it gives you more space to find a word that rhymes.
When I do want to rhyme my poems quatrains are typically my preference.
Tip #7 Proofread- Do a visual skim
Enjambment- the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
Social media does this to us all the time it creates awkward line breaks that could make it difficult to read or understand what you just read.
Always skim the visual of how your post is lining up on the screen.
Dissonance- injects discomfort into text through inharmonious sounds and uneven rhythms.
Have you ever been reading something and stopped because the flow of what you were reading suddenly just broke?
This happens to me often with my clients, they will write something and I will read over it and pieces of it just feel broken. In some cases, the brokenness of the sound can be good, but often within social posts, it isn’t. The words you write have sounds, they have rhythm, and they have flow.
Are there areas of your posts that are implementing Dissonance?…if not done properly this could break people out of the spell your words are putting them under. When the spell is broken they will keep scrolling.
Consonance vs Assonance
Consonance- involving the repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the end of stressed syllables and without repetition of vowels
Assonance- refers to the repetition of a vowel sound, usually on stressed syllables, in words that are close together
Need help remembering this?
Consonance starts with a C for consonant.
Assonance starts with an A, the letter A is one of six vowels in the English language.
Tip#7 Write a book…or an Epic Poem.
Even if you don’t think so, your life is so much more interesting than Odysseus’.
Epics- a long, narrative poem that is usually about heroic deeds and events that are significant to the culture of the poet.
As an empath, sociologist, and content development consultant I am here to hold space for you and work with you as you walk through the overwhelming writing process.
We will work together to develop your story into a clear and readable manuscript.
We will cry together, laugh together, and get the words in the order they need to be to share your story the way you need to.
Many of my clients use their books to spread their message and grow their business, but some utilize the process as a means of healing and working through their trauma.
For some, it is a cathartic release of years of pent-up emotion, pain, and hurt. It is also an eye-opening experience as they see how much they have grown, how far they have come. Writing a book can and will change your life, I don’t promise that it will heal you, but if you are called to write it may be the medicine you need to move further along the path of wellbeing.
You don’t have to write an epic poem about your life, but it is always an option.
Excercise #6 Write a Sonnet.
Sonnet- a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.
You probably remember these from your Shakespeare studies in high school. Sonnets are great little poems perfectly fitting for a social media post. With a combination of syllable measures and formal rhyme, there is a lot of fun to be had with writing sonnets. And no you do not have to use art thou or yee.
Tip #8 Play around with Emotion. Showcase Emotion.
Elegies- a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
Some words just have the ability to bring goosebumps to the back of your neck. Elegies which sounds very similar to effigies is one of those words. Play around with emotion in your social posts. Poetry is a great emotionally artistic exercise. Taking the time to reflect also has many benefits for us as entrepreneurs.
Exercise #7 Give a Shout Out to Your Clients.
Ode- a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter.
- a poem meant to be sung.
Is there something you have been wanting to say to your audience?
Do you have a client that needs a public address?
Why not have some fun with it and add some style.
Excercise #8 Write a love letter to your dream client.
Ballad- a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas.
These are often utilized to tell stories of love. They are shared orally and get passed on through the generations.
Write a love letter to your dream client.
Narrate the journey you will take together…then watch as it happens.