I don’t think I’ve ever seen this topic talked about before. It’s great! Very useful!

Beautiful! I especially appreciate the line, “It’s no man’s land that the sun drowns red.”

This was a helpful article and has inspired me to find a quiet nook and try my hand at a villanelle. (:

Thanks Graham!

I haven’t tried a villanelle! Now it’s at the top of my lists of forms to try. 😉

Me neither but I’ll try and see. Thanks for the article.

Ah, yay! A post about poetry. This makes me happy. (:

Me too 🙂 ! Great ideas here. Thank you for posting

Graham, this is wonderful. Just your simple way with words and the gentle sway added so much to the message itself. After reading it once, I feel as if I need to go through it again, just to soak in one more time its beauty.
If your goal was to wash readers with a sense of peace, you achieved it.

Mm, I agree with Libby. Simply beautiful. The swaying motion of the poem was entrancing.

This poem is stunning. I felt connected to the poem at once. It did feel like I was being rocked on a boat. Great work!

I cannot express how much I love this poem!! I’m printing this out and adding it to my poetry favorites collection. 🙂

What a lovely poem! I relate very much to it.

I love the structure! It’s really nice with the theme.

I love how beautiful your picture is, but how, at the same time, it’s rather vague, and gives the reader room to fill in the blanks. I like how you did this a lot.

This is so cool!
I love shorter poems that still have enough meaning in them to keep me thinking for a while. Great work!

I love this one! The repetition tells a powerful narrative in and of itself, and the short simplicity of every line makes you focus and listen. Excellent work!

I knew this was going to be a good article when I saw the squirrel, and I wasn’t disappointed. 😛 Personification is one of my favorite literary techniques, so it was nice to see it get some attention. These are some great insights! 😀

Very interesting! Thank you!

Poetry certainly speaks in its own unique way.

Thank you, Jonathan. I will proudly resemble “quasi-clickbait” as long as I am saying something meaningful, and relevant. 🙂

I get that this is late, but I really enjoyed this Graham. Thanks for writing it.

I love “This is Just to Say” and other poems like it, but more often than not, my friends frown when I read it to them and say, “That’s not poetry.” I wish there was more good nonconformity like you described in point #1 among poets and publications.

Point #2 definitely resonated with me too. I’ve seen poets who place embellishment and dramatization above that sense of honesty and I think what could’ve been a remarkable poem becomes bloated, tiresome, and feels inauthentic.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts!

There are few things I love more in this world than the rain. Thunderstorms soothe me and the smell of the rain is like nothing else!

I could feel this and almost smell the rain. I love this!

I keep rereading this because it’s just so beautiful. I love rain, and the diction and imagery in this poem…wow. I love the texture of this poem. (Is that an odd comment/does it make any bit of sense? haha) And the line breaks really tie in well with the lines about not needing to rhyme and having its own peculiar form. Anyway, I’ll quit gushing, but this is lovely. ^.^

Beautiful words that are both simple and well-chosen — an art itself. I love reading your work, poetry buddy! 🙂

I love the picture that accompanies this! Thanks for sharing your work! Then ending was my favorite.

Thank you!

Nice job! 😀

Wow, this really makes one think. I love the metaphor of “the fortress in between my ears.” Very nice work!