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This week: In the Beginning: First Line Structures Edited by: Red Writing Hood <3  
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“Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me.”
Sigmund Freud
“I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.”
Bob Dylan
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In the Beginning: Poetic First Line Structures
“In the beginning was the Word.”
Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service, T.S. Eliot (1888–1965).
Today I’ll share a poetry form and its variations, some links for first line prompts, and ways to format the beginning of your poetry.
First Line as Title
This is what sparked this whole newsletter. I study poetry books as often as I can, and I ran across this information in my newest poetry reference book. Now, I’ve often used my first line as my title, for lack of any other title spark. When I write anything I try to create a hook to draw the reader in. It only makes sense to use that hook for a poetry title.
There are two ways to you can work this. First, just as I talked about above, the first line is also your title. Both are written down. Example:
Roses are Red
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet.
And so are you.
The second way is to utilize your title as your first line. It takes on two jobs and is only written down once. Example:
ROSES ARE RED
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet.
And so are you.
Drury shares some history on this second way, and states, “in the twentieth century, some poets started using titles as first lines of their poems.” He also states that “Marianne Moore was a pioneer of this” (Drury, 321).
First Line Prompt Links
http://www.thefirstline.com/ - This link is to a publication that posts a first line writing prompt. It only accepts short stories, but the first lines could be used for poetry, too.
http://www.writingexercises.co.uk/dialogue-generator.php - Targeted for short stories, most of the dialogue generator’s prompts I looked at are either questions or can easily be turned into questions that you could use for the poetry form below.
http://poetsonline.org/generator.html - A poetry line generator. The prompts that I saw couldn’t easily be made into questions; however they could help you come up with some ideas.
http://www.feath.com/idea/firstwords.htm - Another story generator, but could easily work with poetry, either as a prompt for an idea or as actual first words.
Hughesique
This form is my own invention. Langston Hughes utilized questions in his poetry with mastery. In his poems “Harlem,” “Merry-go-round,” and “Advertisement for the Waldorf-Astoria” he begins with a question. He also uses questions within the body of his poems “Cultural Exchange,” Dream Boogie,” and “50-50.” In his poems “Children’s Rhymes,” “Demand,” and “Cross” he ends with a question. This form follows this but as a technique used in the first line.
Brief history
I created it when I recently thought about opening lines of poetry and what I could cover in an article about them. There wasn’t a whole lot out there that focused on how to begin a poem, so I invented one.
Must haves
- Must begin your poem with a question.
- Must use the rest of the poem to show your answer to the question.
Could haves or What's The Poet's Choice In All This?
- Can rhyme or not.
- Can be any number of lines.
- Can have any meter, including no set meter.
Of note
Use this form to practice creating poems with depth. Don’t simply ask a question and then answer it. If you use the question “Why is the fence white?” don’t talk about paint or other materials unless you weave in the depth of racial issues or use it to make a point or satirize a point on purity.
Internal Hughesique and Terminating Hughesique
Please forgive me. I’m excited about my new poetry creation, so I’ve added these variations of the Hughesique, despite them having nothing directly to do with the beginning of a poem. The internal version has the question within the body of the poem, and with the terminating variant the question is at the end of the poem.
Must haves
- Must have a question within your poem (internal) or at the end (terminating).
Could haves or What's The Poet's Choice In All This?
- Can rhyme or not.
- Can be any number of lines.
- Can have any meter, including no set meter.
Of note
Again, use these variations to practice creating poems with depth. Don’t just set up a situation, pose a question, and then answer the question (internal) or throw in a question because of a lack of another way to end the poem (terminating).
SOURCE NOTES:
Drury, John. the po.e.try dic.tion.ar.y. 2nd edition. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 2006. Print.
Send in your own Hughesique or variation and I just might share it with our readers!
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Theme: Great beginnings. Some poetry I found that had titles or beginnings that drew me in...
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Comments on last month's newsletter:
By: Joy 
Comment: Great NL, Red,  I also loved the quote, "“You will not find poetry anywhere unless you bring some of it with you.” So true. And thanks for highlighting one of my oldies. 
By: Jeffrey B 
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Comment: A brand new contest! A place to compare the sides of ourselves and our lives that we're not comfortable with- a contest of confessions.
By: monty31802
Comment: You did it again Red. Been writing poetry for over 60 years and you can always teach me something. A farm in Vermont for me but bet our blackberries were just as good.
Thanks, Joy and you are quite welcome!
I love learning new things, and I'm happy to share that information with others. Must be the teacher in me. *grin* I've never had the pleasure of spending time in Vermont, but I bet they were delicious, Monty!
Thank you all so much for the feedback. Keep it coming!
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Poetry: April 16, 2014 Issue [#6271]
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