Get your poet on!

By Cate Masters

April is National Poetry Month! I had no idea until this email from Gotham Writer’s Workshop. Though late, you can sign up for National Poetry Month’s Poem a Day at Poets.org Past offerings are archived.

Myself, I receive a poem a day year round through NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, which also has cool facts associated with the date.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has the right idea by showcasing seven local poets. Hear them read their works here. Poets.org had a cool idea for Poem in Your Pocket Day, to be held April 29th. Coworkers might not be receptive to shared poems, but other ideas include:
- Distribute bookmarks with your favorite immortal lines
- Add a poem to your email footer
- Post a poem on your blog or social networking page
- Project a poem on a wall, inside or out
- Text a poem to friends

Think poetry is low tech? Think again. Poets.org even has Poem Flow for iPhones: “A veritable box of light with words and thought in fluid motion.” It’s true that inspiration can come from anything, I suppose.

And Billy Collins has posted some animated poems on You Tube (but disabled the embedding, so you have to click on the link, sorry) -- among them, Forgetfulness and The Dead Maybe to entice younger generations to the medium? Hopefully.

I began writing poetry at the tender age of ten (well, I thought they were song lyrics at the time – the girl band thing that never was). I was lucky to have several very cool friends who also wrote poetry, so we collaborated and exchanged poems. Yes, some were laughable. But I still have them all in a binder, and I treasure them. In poetry, I found an emotional release, a means to interpret my feelings in an understandable manner, and the beginning of a writer’s voice.

Like short stories, poetry is great for sharpening your writing skills. Poetry demands precise language to convey images and ideas. I highly recommend Frances Mayes’ The Discovery of Poetry for any writer. I have many favorite poets, but recently discovered Barbara Hamby, whose poetry is like entering another dimension. It takes me right out of the present to an amazing place.

I credit poetry for leading me to fiction, though sometimes I fall back into writing poems when deeply moved. In February, Little Episodes published one of my poems in a fundraising anthology. Little Episodes’ aim is to “the arts as a platform to raise awareness for people who suffer from depression, addiction or mental illness.” I donated the poem when I learned of their cause, having lost two cousins to suicide during my teens.

I also included several of my poems in my upcoming release, Fever Dreams, due May 7 from Eternal Press. Don’t worry, they’re later poems, not written when I was an angst-ridden teen. :) They fit nicely because the story’s hero’s infatuated with the heroine, and his emotions pour out in his poems. Unlike me, his go on to become song lyrics. Sometimes we must live vicariously through our characters, I guess.

Giveaways!
In celebration of the release, I’ll give away a PDF copy to someone who comments on this Popculturedivas post before May 7. If you want, share a favorite poet with us – is there someone who can move you, take you away from reality with just a few lines of prose?

I’ll announce the winner on my blog at http://catemasters.blogspot.com on May 7. More giveaways will be coming up, so follow my blog if you’re interested.

This week, if you sign up to follow my blog and email me before Saturday, you could also receive a PDF of Design for Life, released by The Wild Rose Press in February. A reviewer said: "Ok, So I'm a softy and I love a story that gets me a warm and mushy inside and this one totally did it. I LOVE Ms Master's ability to make me feel the ups and downs along with the characters. It makes for a really good read." (I love that reviewer!)

Below is the book trailer for Fever Dreams, with incredible guitar music from my talented nephew, Fred Bair:



Cate Masters writes fantasy/dark fantasy, historical, contemporary and speculative fiction, described by reviewers as “so compelling, I did not want to put it down,” “such romantic tales that really touch your soul,” “filled with action scenes which made it a riveting story,” and “the author weaves a great tale with a creative way of using words that makes the story refreshing to read.” Visit Cate online at www.catemasters.com, www.catemasters.blogspot.com or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.