Poetic Habits: A Poetry Diary

I have been so busy all summer that I haven’t really written poetry at all. My writing assignments for educational market books have been nonfiction, and the poetry picture book I really need to work on is one where the editor has asked for a revision and I’m not sure where to go next. So summer feels like a black hole, as far as poetry is concerned.

But I’ve still written more than 50 poems.

OK, poems is too strong a word. They’re poem sketches or skeletons, which may or may not ever turn into anything. But at least they keep some small part of my brain working in a poetic fashion. And it’s only because I have a poetry diary.

For 2007, I decided to try a photopoetry diary. I had heard Anne Ylvisaker talk about how she did a photo diary of sorts, forcing herself to take one new picture each day while she was in a major writer’s block episode. I thought, “Well, that’s kinda cool.” And then I thought it would be neat to add poetry to that. And my photopoetry diary was born.