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Poetry seems like a perfect tool for journaling. Poems are passionate, evocative -- and often short. The crystallized language of the poem is a powerful, versatile means of self-expression. Yet many journal keepers, especially writers, feel intimidated by the poem (holy grail) and by poets (high priests of words). Don't panic -- journal poems can give you a new way to describe your day or your life, and you'll never have to read them aloud to the class.
What is a poem, anyway? Maybe you hesitate to write one, but could you find one? Found poems hide out the music of something else you read today -- an instruction manual, want ad, reference book, memo. Or find a poem you've already written in your journal.
Make a list of words for a poem about the day, or about this month.
If the thought of writing a poem still freezes you, there can be freedom in structure. Consider the Japanese haiku. Westerners often think of haiku as three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, combining a vivid sense impression with sudden insight. In Japanese, those 17 syllables are written in one line down the page. The AHA Poetry page contains essays considering, and examples of, Eastern and Western haiku. The Haiku Generator might inspire you to generate your own.
How about writing a sonnet, a ballad,
a diamante, a sestina -- or even a limerick, if it's been that
kind of day? Get some definitions and experiment with the many
forms of poetry.
Journal therapist
Kathleen Adams, in an interview with Journaling
for You, recommends writing
deliberately bad poetry! What a freeing idea -- the worse
the poem is, the more successful the exercise. So pour angst or
silliness into it. And if the exercise doesn't succeed, maybe the
poem will.
Faith Richardson's journal poems
Personal poems from registered nurse and fiction writer Faith
Richardson.
Off Course
On moving from a journal
entry to a poem, by Leslie Findlen.