Finding Inspiration in the News

Photo by Got Credit / CC BY 

You've no doubt at some point taken inspiration from the every day, the things that go on around you, whether they be in your home or during a typical errand run. But have you ever watched the news and felt there was something you wanted or needed to impart about something in a more global sense?

There is so much going on in the news, both good and bad that we feel strongly about that could be addressed perfectly through poetry. Yeats sometimes used poetry in a very political way to express his feelings about the state of politics in Ireland at the time, often inspired by his girlfriend who was a staunch activist.

You don't necessarily need to be a staunch activist in order to participate in the dialogue where it pertains to politics, world news, or even what's going on in your own community. Poetry can be a very powerful way of expressing your views. It can be a somewhat kinder, gentler approach to a heated topic that can give the reader pause and really make them think without fear of being preached to or pontificated at. Putting your words into prose gives your take on the issues a more timeless, artistic scope, something bigger than a Letter to the Editor ever could.

I'm a news junkie who ran a political satire website for a time, and so the news is an ongoing part of my life. Sometimes it's difficult to bear the enormity of the many tragic events that transpire on a regular basis, but writing about is a way of making sense of it all in my own mind, or at least coping with it. And in the case of the good news that finds its way in between the unthinkable, it's a celebration to write about.

The Pope just landed in Washington D.C.; how do you feel about it? What is your take on the madness of the circus that is the 2016 Presidential Election? Talk about it! Seriously, humorously, whatever strikes your fancy, but get your thoughts out there in prose. And who knows, it might just be a good way of dealing with Breaking News without letting the news break you.

Linda Roy is a writer, singer/songwriter/musician whose humor blog elleroy was here mixes funny with a soundtrack. She is the founder and lead singer of the Indie/Americana band Jehova Waitresses and her writing has been featured at The Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, Erma Bombeck Writer's Workshop, Humor Outcasts and In the Powder Room, among others. She is a 2014 BlogHer Voice of the Year recipient and has contributed to several anthologies, including the third book of the New York Times best selling "Pee Alone" series, I Still Just Want To Pee Alone. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

OctPoWriMo: Day 15 - Making News Your Muse

In September I wrote about using what you find in the news as inspiration for poetry.  Whether it be a headline that jumps out at you or the story itself; perhaps a line from the story - any of these things can serve as inspiration for the beginnings of a poem.  For instance, a phrase might pop out at you - you see a line like 'China slams debt crisis, calling for new world order', which sparks an idea for prose using the words 'new world' or 'new world order'.

The example that most comes to mind is John Lennon's lyric from the iconic song 'A Day In the Life', which he took parts of almost verbatim from the newspaper, adding poetic touches to it to create a more artful vision of the events.

'I read the news today oh boy...about a lucky man who made the grade...and though the new was rather sad...well i just had to laugh...I saw the photograph..." 


'He blew his mind out in a car...he didn't notice that the lights had changed...a crowd of people stood and stared...they'd seen his face before, nobody was really sure if he was from the house of lords..." 

The Prompt: Regardless of where you get your news from, be it newspaper, online or television news, choose a headline, phrase, line or the story itself and craft it into the framework of a poem. Your poem needn't be a piece of news, the piece you choose is merely a springboard for the bigger picture. But if you choose to write about the event itself, that can make for a powerful poetic statement. See where it takes you and have fun. It can be about anything - not necessarily a serious piece of world news. Even something pulled from the funnies can make for good material.