Fall Reminds Me Of… // Fall Week

Specialty coffee drinks, sweaters and scarves, the leaves changing color. There is so much that comes to mind when people think of the fall months. I’ve talked about it non-stop and other bloggers have talked about it non-stop. But what about the things that come to mind when people think of fall that aren’t so widespread or cliched. The things that are more personal.

For me, it’s poetry. When fall rolls around I start to think of poetry more than any other time of year. I want to reach for my favorite collections and discover new ones. I want to pull out a pencil and a piece of paper and start to shape the words that float around my mind into a poem.

(A random fact about me… while I prefer writing fiction on a computer–my hand can’t keep up with my thoughts if I draft by hand–my preferred way to draft poetry is on paper with a pencil, preferably smaller pieces of paper, like sticky notes or small notebooks.)

I’m not entirely sure why fall = poetry in my mind. In college my senior seminar was a poetry class and I took that during the fall, but even before that I always associated with fall with poetry. Maybe there’s something about the season that inspires the poetic side of me.

If you’d like to take a look at the poetry collections that I always reach for during fall, they are:

>> The Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda. I’ve read Neruda’s poetry ever since I first discovered RENT (he’s mentioned in the song La Vie Bohème) and I’ve loved all of his work, but this collection is definitely my favorite. In some ways it reminds me of one of my favorite childhood books, Caretakers of Wonder–which I believe is out of print now like most of my childhood favorites.

>> Whorled by Ed Bok Lee. I had the chance to meet Lee at a poetry conference in Minneapolis a few years ago and after I heard him talk about this collection I knew I had to read it. I had plans to read it slowly, but I ended up reading it in one sitting.

>> Collected Poems by Jane Kenyon. This is always a great collection to pull out, because I haven’t read all of it yet. I like to reread my favorites and then look at some of the poems that I haven’t read yet.

WHAT DOES FALL MAKE YOU THINK OF?

Share your thoughts in the comments and I’ll include your ideas along with a link back to your blog or social media at the end of the week.

>> 5 Ideas for a Small Fall Party