P: Poetry

In my younger days, I loved writing poetry. Poetry was a wonderful outlet for me and I think I wrote poetry well. My staccato voice and love of powerful words found a great home in poetry.

When I divorced, my sole request was to have all of my belongings returned to me. Unforunately, my ex-husband did not fulfill my request. Instead, he held on to a few of my most prized possessions including books I had been published in and my beloved blank journal in which I wrote my poetry.

I have not written poetry since. That was thirteen years ago.

Thirteen years of no poetry. In fact, it was at that point that I had really focused my attention on the sciences and any writing I did was non-fiction. Facts were my life; creativity eluded me greatly.

In 2006, I began writing fiction just for myself. I enjoyed it tremendously. Pushed by my publisher, I submitted it and have been writing fiction ever since.

Still no poetry, though.

That is until recently.

A dear friend of mine is a writer in The Netherlands. She recently discovered the Dutch form of poetry known as Elje.

An Elfje is a Dutch poem of consisting of 11 words. The stanzas are broken down such as this:

1
23
456
78910
11

So it's one word, then two, then three, then four, then back to one.

I don't know why, but something about Elfjes appealed to me. They weren't intimidating. They seemed like a fun form of poetry.

There are rules for writing these, but I (along with my friend), have decided that rules are simply meant to be broken! :) I have no idea what the rules are, I just write them as I see/feel fit.

And they are. Since I started, I have written several elfjes (I average about one poem per day). I cannot describe how cathartic these poems have been for me. They free me, cleanse me, heal me. Most importantly, they challenge me. It's a new genre. There are so many ways to write these, so many different ways to express one's self just through elfjes. I simply love enfjes!

Poetry takes on many forms and are a wonderful way to express oneself. I highly suggest writing in any form of poetry that appeals to you. Elfjes are just one wondeful form of self expression. :)