It's Easy to Write A Poem

I wrote this yesterday evening at a coffee shop. I'm sure I'll do some (more) editing at some point, but I thought I'd share it - just a bit of fun. :)

Writing Hymns

Most of my poems are what's called lyric poetry.* Lyric poems are typically short, written in the first person, and deal with specific emotions, concepts, or moments. This is in contrast to, for example, a narrative poem which, as you may guess from the name, tells a story. So, The Gray Havens' song lyrics are typically narrative poems, whereas Ginny Owens' are usually lyric poems.

My own poems are most often born out of a concept I've been thinking about, or a significant time in my spiritual walk.** Sometimes, an idea comes married to a piece of music. I've written a few poems to melodies created by Ginny or Sara Groves or Amy Grant, and every now and then, I get to write words that fit the melody of a beloved hymn. Those are always gifts. Faithfulness, which I've shared on this blog before, was one such poem. Another I wrote shortly after a bit of a personal/professional crisis, which I also blogged about without posting the poem. I am including it now.

Poetry Isn't Always So Serious

I was looking through my files today and I realized: I've written a lot of poetry! Much of that is serious stuff - about God, or about life. But there's a lot of lighter fare too; simple, fun poems that make me smile when I read them. The serious poems take me ages to write, and they don't come every day. Often, they don't turn out well. But for some reason, I can almost always write the fun stuff.

For instance, earlier this year, I went to a coffee shop for the sole purpose of writing serious poetry. As I sat there thinking, I decided a warm-up poem might be in order. Now, I didn't end up writing anything profound that evening, but the warm-up poem turned out pretty fun! Here it is: