Pure poetry

Let's start with a quick plug: NORTHLANDER IS COMING OUT!!!
Book 3 of the Son of No Man Series is due May 27th, 2022, so get your preorder copy HERE. I love bringing the Northlander War to a close, mainly because Darknim DoomDragon is a kick-ass 60-year-old warrior who puts the younger generation to shame. But he's got class. If they weren't enemies, I'm sure Tohmas and he could be the best of friends! Dragons, magic, gods, and battle are coming down. 

Ok, on to the main event. Poetry.  Yes, you heard that right. Poetry. 

I get it; that's not my usual gig. I'm not a poet. Ok, ok, I have a book of poems from my teenage years, when poetry was a manifestation of my angst or something. We all try to find ourselves at that age, and poetry was a great way to explore identity. In high school English, I was encouraged to write poetry. I mostly wrote poetry on behalf of characters because I am still a prose girl at heart. I don't know if my teacher knew that. I expect some of what I wrote might have worried her if she didn't.

But the idea of how poetry informs prose came up lately, so I'm running with it for a blog post. 

Surprisingly, I didn't find much information about this. Heck, I don't even know a lot about poetry. I know what sounds good. So how does that help prose?

Poetry is what sounds good (or looks good). It's patterns, cadence, emphasis, and so on. A good writer uses all those things in their writing, whether for one sentence or a thousand. It's not a new concept- it's an old one. Stories were told in verse or song, like the Odyssey or Shakespeare's plays. Verse! But there were stories in there too. 

A good poet could make great prose if they could stretch their style and sense of rhythm to that length. I honestly believe it would be hard to go the other way around! I'm not a poet. Maybe I should try to be. Because when you read a beautiful sentence that flows just right and gives you chill, it's the poetry of the words coming through. That's good writing. That's something to aspirate to. 

I'm going to share my favourite poem: The Road less Taken. I love it for many reasons (probably why it's my favourite!). 1. The pattern and rhyme satisfy my scientific, logical mind. 2. The topic is so relatable for me and my hiking 3. The message at the end hits home. Because we should all go down the road less traveled to see where it leads. That's what took me to publish my books, after all. 

Enjoy the poem, then check out below for the month's freebies and deals!

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