Amy King's Poetry Tip of the Day

By Amy King
2007 Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere
http://amyking.wordpress.com
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Locate two or three poets you really admire and eat up everything they've written. I mean, dip into those books at inopportune moments, between meetings or on the way to the bathroom. Do this to remind yourself poetry is omnipresent and ready to be tapped into & written down. Drink from other poets now and then, but moreover, read beyond poetry; find some other aspect of daily living that strikes a chord and balance poetry with that 'other' interest. You may read books on the intersections of film and literature, immerse yourself in the political climate and her unceasing diatribes, or even dissect the interviews of great philosophers who tempt & confound you (Derrida and Wittgenstein are my faves). Bear in mind: a poet does not live on, or write, poetry alone. Even as Whitman was a journalist, a teacher, and a volunteer nurse during the war, a poet must live widely and be in the world to learn it, feel it, and invent it.