At the Lucidity Poets’ Retreat, speaker/writer/educator Charlotte Renk shared six things that she calls the Qualities of Effective Writing. One of them is MUSIC. She specifies repeated sound and structure, but often a poem or essay ‘sings’ to me in other ways. It seems to call to me, deep inside. I think this is the true music of the written word…when the energy and vibration you get, the thing that makes your heart beat, gives you a song.

Also at Lucidity, poet/writer Pat Laster shared a compilation of judgement. She asked several people who judge contests to share what they look for. The responses were very diverse, but a couple things were almost universal…1) how the piece moves them and makes them think and 2) what it says to the reader…not just in content but the underlying meaning.

Maybe they are also looking for the music!

And poet Linda Banks said lyric poetry exists somewhere between speech and song. Yup, I’m with her on that one. In her presentation on lyric poetry, she said we must investigate/re-create moments, objects, living things, concepts or experiences and expound on them musically, revealing their true essence.

There’s that music thing again.

We all start out with poetry in our lives. Some of the first things we ever learn are nursery rhymes and games like pat-a-cake, which depend on rhyme and rhythm. We are happy with Mother Goose, and games and jingles until we get a little older and have to start studying the poems and tear them up into little segments. I think that’s when we lose interest. Sometimes, knowing how something works makes it lose its appeal. Like knowing the secret of a magic trick.

Maybe taking a poem apart isn’t the best thing…after all, a note is just a note, but a whole chorus of them is what creates the song.

Just a thought…