Poetry -- Maya Angelou, Limericks, Free Verse and More *podcast transcript*
- Jenna Vander Waal
- Nov 28, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: May 19, 2025
Hello! I’m Jenna Michal! Welcome to A Writer’s Journal! Here you’ll get your weekly dose of writerly inspiration. Why? Because sometimes all you need is one spark of inspiration to get you writing.
Each episode I will start off with a writing tip based on knowledge from professional writers. I will provide you with 3 writing prompts every week to use as you wish. I will also share a fragment of my own writing spurred on by one of the prompts. Then, I’ll end each episode with a book rec!
I hope you enjoy!
- Writing Tip -
Maya Angelou is the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as well as the poet who wrote Still I Rise and Phenomenal Woman. If you haven’t read any of her work I highly recommend checking it out. I’ll provide links in the description to Still I Rise and Phenomenal Woman.
While speaking on writing, Maya Angelou gave the advice: “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” So, inspired by her words, know that writing isn’t supposed to be easy. If you are frustrated with how your work sounds try to revise it again and again, adding and subtracting words until it finally runs smoothly.
- Topic -
The topic for this week is poetry! Yay! I love poetry! It allows us to spill our emotions out on the page. With poetry we can explore the metaphorical world more than we can with prose. So sit back and relax, and listen to these three poetry prompts.
- Prompt #1 -
Prompt number one is to write a Limerick. The Limerick is a poem comprised of 3 long and 2 short lines. The first two lines as well as the final line are longer with a count of around nine syllables in each. These three lines also all rhyme. The third and fourth lines are shorter with around 6 syllables in each. These two lines should rhyme as well.
I’ll read out an example I wrote of a Limerick so you can understand what it's rhythm is meant to sound like a bit more. I did break the syllable rules a bit. I gave the first two and last lines 6 syllables and the third and fourth 3 syllables.
“I could write if I want
but those words they would taunt
That blank page
It’s a cage
Try not to let it daunt.”
Today most poetry being published falls into the poetry type called free-verse, but, I thought it would be fun to start out by giving you a format to follow. That way, if you have no idea where to begin, you don’t have to come up with everything from scratch.
Also, limericks are such a fun one to begin with because of their rhythm. And, because there are a lot of humorous routes you can take when writing one.
If you get an idea from the Limerick poem and decide you don’t want to be confined to that poetry structure. You can break free from it as well. Here’s a poem I came up with also about Writer’s Block that falls into the free-verse category instead.
“It’s a nice idea to write some poetry
My fingers loose and almost too free
The words they strife in my pen
They’re motives prove tension in Big Ben
A clock fondly known, tick tick, the words, they’ve gone
My words and my mind they batter ‘till dawn
They squeal in my pencil, pick me, pick me
But at last, why don’t they see
This is nothing too deep, just a bit of poetry.”
- Prompt #2 -
This next prompt falls into the free-verse category. The main idea of your poem could be following a simile between one person in your life and something that reminds you of them. That’s it. That’s the prompt. Get writing!
- Prompt #3 -
If neither of those sounded like poems you want to write, my last prompt is to write an Ode. An ode is a great way to be thankful for what you have. And if you are the type of person who often finds your writing to be dark and dreary, you can take a break from your regular writing to stretch new writing muscles by finding a joy in your life and celebrating it through a poem. Pick one subject you want to address. It could be anything or any person no matter how important or seemingly insignificant it may be. It can be fun to pick something that might not be thought about much so both you and your readers can see it in a new light by the end of the poem.
- Challenge -
My challenge for you this week is to draft 3 poems. They don’t have to be long, nor do they have to be perfect, so don’t worry if you’re busy this week. Just try to push yourself to get three drafts down.
- Book Rec -
Time for this week's book rec! I said before that I recommend reading Maya Angalou’s work. I’ve read quite a few of her poems and her most famous memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She has a very powerful story.
The fiction book I recommend this week is actually a Middle Grade book called House Arrest by author K. A. Holt. The book is written in verse, so it's an easy read. If you’re used to adult books, you’ll be able to read it in one sitting easily. House Arrest is written like a poetry journal in the perspective of Timothy, a young boy placed under house arrest. Through his poetry, we get to see why he did what he did.
- Outro -
Thanks so much for listening! It’s a pleasure to talk about storytelling with you guys. Please share your writing with us in the comments section of this podcasts transcript on my blog. The link is in the description. I also have a Bookstagram page dedicated to what I’m reading if you’d like more recs: @acollectionofpages_.
Join us next week as we talk about how we can meld other forms of art into our writing.
Adiós escritores! See ya next week.
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