How to Make Time for Poetry

For this half an hour, time could stop and should feel as if for the first time, you are in control of it’s manipulation.”  – dimitrireyespoet.com

In poetry circles, the question of how poets make time for their poetry often gets thrown around. Whether I hear it in a workshop, panel, or q&a session after a reading, the response is always somewhere around, “You simply have to make time for it.”

So you’re working and you’re in college. You have a family and you have friends. You have a place to clean, you have places to go, and you have a life to live. So tell me, where do you find a time to write all of your awesome poems?

All artists have to find a schedule that works for them, and trust me, many of us are still searching! If you are experiencing this very normal artist’s dilemma as well, here are some ways that you can make time for poetry.

1) Wake Up 1/2 Hour Earlier

Let’s say you normally wake up at 7. Waking up at 6:30 will allow you some very necessary time for a writing session.  Before you do anything at all, instead of checking your phone, take out a notebook and write! Think about this as a, “me time” session rather than an, “uggggh is it really a half hour earlier?!” session.

There are many benefits to writing in the morning; you aren’t influenced by the day, nor are you getting tugged in a bunch of different places yet. You’ll also notice it slightly quieter the depending on how early you rise.This is because the world isn’t necessarily awake yet and neither are you, so much of this time would go uninterrupted and without distraction.

2) Settle Down ½ Hour Later

Not a morning person? Reserve some time to write and aim to go to bed 30 minutes before you’d usually go to sleep.Think of this as your winding down time, the moment where you get to reflect about your day. It’s away from your bosses, customers, coworkers, registers, clipboards, desks, friends, parents, pets, and anything that calls for time being taken away from your life. For this half an hour, time could stop and should feel as if for the first time, you are in control of it’s manipulation. This is your time and it should be a meditative experience.

3) Unplug

If number 1 or 2 isn’t your jive, try to unplug altogether. Today’s social media craze has so many people around the world glued to their electronic devices and spending hours of their day on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. In effect, there is much in life we miss out on because we are strolling #cutekittens or #arthurmemes instead of enjoying our existences. (Yes, those two hashtags are in my search history!)

By putting your phone on airplane mode, turning it off, or leaving it home, you are detaching yourself from a created and digitized world which will allow yourself to experience your own.

This’ll probably stimulate your writing as well, allowing you an easier option when choosing to pick up the pad and pencil instead of the cell phone.

4) Write the Journey on Your Journey

A lot of our time is spent in transit to places. If you’re on a commute where you aren’t in the driver’s seat, this is a good opportunity to get some writing done. Whether you are in an uber, lyft, bus, or train, part of creating the time for poetry is using the time you have. This kind of writing time is my personal favorite because although you are in an area where you’re surrounded by people, you still feel as if you are alone. It’s an interesting set of energies to write in a crowded place.

5) Expand Your Mind on Your Commute

If you feel that being on public transportation is too shaky or crowded, reading is just as important as writing; it helps you get inspired and it gives you an eye and ear for well crafted work. . Be aware that a good poet is not only a great writer, but an excellent reader and a wonderful communicator.

Side note: reading or listening can be substituted for writing with any of these tips. Just make sure you aren’t avoiding the writing part completely!

You can also listen to podcasts or interviews about poets. Here are some suggestions:

Brick City Collective @ Split this Rock Poetry Festival 2018

Hugo Dos Santos Interview

Ana Portnoy- Brimmer Interview

My FAVORITE Podcast: The Poetry Gods

6) Break Productively

You can utilize breaks or lunches at work or school to write. You can choose to be influenced by what has been going on at work, or clock into work that day already thinking about a poem to write.  

I know a dear MVP who writes poems inside her delivery truck during her break. I used to jot down pieces of poems on nice napkins between parties at a catering hall, on receipt paper in a Kmart breakroom, and on pieces of boxes in the receiving section of a supermarket.

Realize that making time for poetry still may not give you an optimal amount of time to write a piece. At different times in my life I’ve had little to no time to write while other times I’ve had the mental space to do several of these throughout the day. Think about the different ways you can schedule in poetry time and try make the effort once or twice a week. It only takes about 20 days to form a habit so after a little while, you have the possibility of establishing a good routine.

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