Rainy Adventure: A Little Poetry Tutorial

There is no such thing as preparations for adventure,
because adventure is not something external.

If you are not packed already,
always ready as a matter of daily routine.

Then all you need to pack,
is all the curiosities already in your purse and whatever you have in your pockets.

It is not true that adventure requires driving,
but if that is what the heart wishes for, then allow me to explain.

Adventurers like simple roads,
highway by highway they take them to the end.

Eventually the highways end,
and there is always a town.

And you guessed it, it is full of strange creatures,
and often refereed to as the end of the road town.

In my case it was Florida Keys,
75 South and then US-1, it always takes a few days.

I think the first few adventure are the longest,
later you only do the things you like.

I took to bicycling, never too far, and not always,
just on interesting days when there is nothing going on.

My bicycle is always ready,
always waiting by the door, I don't even put it in the garage.

I just grab a bottle of water,
and skatoosh.

I go as far as the nearest interesting thing,
and as slow, as one could possibly go.

My adventure path runs by a noisy highway,
but I just grab a pair of ear plugs, no problemo.

I bought a proper mudguard fender this year,
so I like to investigate the trails after it rains in some unusual way, cloudy weather can be just as nice as sunny.

It is really important to take photos,
as many as you can snap, will do; you can sort them out later, and make a safe backup.

All adventures need something to ponder about,
for example I am just about to go on a tiny, bicycle adventure myself.

And I set the aim,
to be about helping people structure poetry.

And I already have something extremely important to share,
all interesting poems need an equally interesting package.

I actually became aware of this as a little boy watching Indiana Jones movies,
the way the whole move seemed to change when he flew across an ocean is what made those movies so interesting.

While we are talking about adventure,
we are using the adventure to teach about poetry.

Not all people are interested in tiny adventures,
likewise not all people are interested in little poems.

But, I think most people will find something curious,
as we move from one to the other.

Proper poetry wants you to pay attention to the rhythm of your words,
and ensure that the rhymes come in predictable places, this is very similar to music.

In this adventure poetry tutorial, I will show you how to write less strict, a more open type of rhyme,
this flexibility will allow the message behind your poem to stay clear, and mostly understandable.

If you have never used a rhyming dictionary before,
you can just search the web for it, and use an on-line one.

So we are going to write two lines of text, the first one can be long-ish and must end with a word that has rhymes,
and the second one should be shorter as to quickly end with the rhyming word.

As you read them, and I think all poems should be recorded as audio by their authors,
try to somewhat speed through the second line to get to the rhyming word as quickly as possible.

A neat and tidy poem should have between nine and twelve, maybe sixteen such creations,
but it is up to you, it depends on how much you have to say.

So, first line can be long, that where you say something meaningful,
but end it with a word that has rhymes.

To write the second shorter line, you have to go through the words that rhyme with the last word in the long line,
and add a short relevant sub-statement that strengthens your first line.

Sometimes you may need to change the first line to end on a better word,
to make the second line easier to write, oh, and short and simple words are usually the ones that have nicest rhymes.

Let me show you a simple example poem,
that uses this approach.

As bicycling goes, cloudy weather can be just as nice as sunny,
even if the clouds look a little funny.

But yes it will probably rain a little bit,
but it is still worth it.

For one it makes for an amazing bicycle-selfie photo op,
and you don't even have to stop.

When you get home you can show everyone what a mighty adventurer you are,
and become a superstar.

So here I stretched my own rule and used only four stanzas,
just to keep it simple.

Each line took about two tries to get it right,
I really wanted to rhyme sunny with bunny, but it made the line way too long.

You can think of that as an invitation to the second part of the poem,
where you talk about the friends you made along the way.

I saw a frog or an otter, angry birds that were just about to swoop down to peck me,
and about five maybe seven bunnies, including a really tiny one.

In closing, I want to underscore,
how important it is to wrap your poem in another poem, or story to make it more interesting.

And bring to your attention that this poem was so sweet an simple,
because I lived it, I was there, my shirt got wet, I talked at the bunnies to keep them from being scared...

I even ended up with rain, on the inside of my bug eye-protection glasses,
I had to stop to wipe it off.

A colorful poem is easiest to write,
when you were actually there, in the middle of the story.