Poetry games

I rather like poetry games. I find them stimulating, good fun and sometimes a way out of a dry patch. Some years ago I took a course with The Poetry School entitled Adventures in Form and we explored all sorts of forms, distorting old ones and trying new ones. I particularly enjoyed Oulipo poetry using the N+ Generator. Type in/cut and paste one of your poems and see what happens.

If you want more games of Oulipo check out this site which explains and gives examples. There is also something here from The Poetry Foundation in their glossary of terms.

I searched around online for other things and came across poetrygames.org but it may be a bit basic for most poets, yet great fun for beginners, or just as a fun tryout. There seemed to be a lot of stuff for schools online. I didn't look at any but I was amazed. Things have changed since I was at school back in the 60/70's. I only remember one poem being read out to us in the school hall. I can't even remember if it was primary or secondary. I quite liked it. But it was the only brush I had with poetry. When my son was at school he studied poetry and I still remember the poem Digging by Seamus Heaney and I thought what a wonderful poem. He also studied Gillian Clarke whose poetry I knew vaguely. It seems I learned more from helping my son with his homework than I ever did at my own school.

Finally I came across these Poetry Bingo Cards by Maria Taylor and published by HappenStance Press. I think I bought them at a poetry publishers day in London a few years back. I think anything that makes poetry fun is good, and I do use other things like random words to create poetry when I am completely stuck. With my self-challenge of writing a poem a day for a year I do often get stuck. I'm having a bit of a struggle now, yet when I come through 'the wall' I hit several days when things just happen and the words flow.

If you know of any other websites or poetry games you use do let me know. I know there is a problem with my site in leaving messages quite often. You can always leave a message via twitter @heather91404743