poetically challenged

In the games I highlighted in that post, the poet needs the participation from other people -- readers, other poets, etc. -- to play the games. I've developed a game I like to play on my own that has actually helped me to produce some poems that I am fairly pleased with.

What I do is take a series of words at random from the dictionary. The first word is the first word of the poem, and the second word chosen is the last word in the poem. The third word is the title.

This has proven useful for me. What happens is that you've established a beginning point and an ending point, as well as the framework (the title). The poem, then, grows out of language/words in a very particular and peculiar way. I've written a number of poems with this method, and am pleased with several of them.

There are, of course, other variations of this game. I have also chosen several words from the dictionary, letting each form the first word of each of the poems stanzas, with the final word forming the title. I have one poem that turned out nicely with this variation on the game. I found several of the words had lesser-used meanings of which I was not previously aware, and the poem took on a nautical theme that I might never have come up with otherwise, particularly as I didn't know the nautical applications of several of the words before.

For linguaphiles like me, this game can be very fun. It really stretches how I look at a poem, as often for me ideas come first, with the poem growing up around the ideas. This method makes language primary, with the ideas growing out through the words. For me, at least, it has proven a very useful exercise.