Sweet Soliloquies

When I found this poetry challenge at Clover, Bee and Reverie: A Poetry Challenge, hosted by Lu of Regular Rumination, I immediately knew I’d join.

While I do enjoy it, I believe I’d be more at ease with writing poetry if I read more of it. It will also be a treat just to study and enjoy the magic that is poetry.

The purpose of this challenge is to encourage more people to read and enjoy books of poetry. This years challenge will go through 12/31/2010.

There are four levels of participation:

Couplet: Read 2 books of poetry

Limerick: Read 5 books of poetry, and finish at least one badge

Octave: Read 8 books of poetry, and finish at least two badges

Sonnet: Read 14 books of poetry, and finish two badges, and one expert badge.

What is a badge? A badge just means you need to read two books of poetry that are connected in some way: same time period, some subject matter, same form, same author, etc. An expert badge means four books, same constraints. Some possible badges:

Light Verse or Humorous Verse
Folk Poetry/Folk Songs
Epic Poetry / Long Poetry
Translated Poetry
Beat Poetry
Modernists
Ancient Greece and Rome
Asian Poetry
Romantics
Victorian Poetry
19th Century American
Age of Reason
Parody
Contemporary Poetry
Elizabethan/Tudor
Metaphysical
Baroque
Narrative poetry
Elegy
Prose poetry
Post-modern
Drama
Lyric
Confessional
Political Poetry
Minority Poetry
Mystical

If you have another interest not listed here, let us know, we’ll add it to the list.

Finally – the Free Verse Option. We know that some people want to read lots of poems from lots of different authors. Because of this, we’ve set up an equivalency: 20 individual poems = one book of poetry. So, if you WANTED to, for instance, for the couplet level, you could just read 40 individual poems, instead of two books of poems.

I’ve decided to join at the Octave level but might move up to Sonnet if time allows.

My tentative poetry book list is:

1. Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing
2. Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death
3. Tangled Hair: Selected Tanka by Midaregami
4. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (if I can get a copy)
5. Selected Poems by E. E. Cummings Edited by Richard S. Kennedy
6. …
7. …
8. …

If you decide to take on this challenge, sign up here and please let me know so I can check in on your progress and thoughts on what you’ve read. I do hope you’ll join us!