book review Archives

Writing Poetry: Why I Love It and How I Became Obsessed

April 27, 2022December 26, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet2 Comments

In this post, I’ll discuss why I choose to obsess over poetry. How I was first exposed to it and why my passion for reading and writing has led me to where I’m at today with my writing routine. I also provide multiple lists of recommended reading, book reviews, and other blog posts I’ve written about poetry.

beverage in cup next to open book of poetry — Photo by Ena Marinkovic on Pexels.com

The Root of My Obsession with Poetry

In 2011, I was exposed to poetry in a creative writing course in college. I read Wittgenstein and Maggie Nelson, which finally cracked open the world of poetry and creative writing in a way I could grasp. Since then, I’ve fallen down into a rabbit hole I don’t think I’ll ever want to get out of.

Poetry: It’s Not as Fancy as You Think and It’s for Everyone

I used to think that poetry was some high-brow artistic form of writing. I thought that I’d never be able to understand, let alone write poetry, even though I was already an avid writer and reader.

Maybe it’s because poetry is intimidating at first due to its literary history and importance to countless civilizations, both ancient and new. Perhaps it’s because of its history of religious poetry, passing down legends and mythologies, or its significant use in addressing societal and cultural shifts. This fear of poetry is pretty common for people interested in it but hesitant to jump in.

Poems That I Recommended Reading

A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne

The Odyssey, translated by Robert Fagles

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg

white paper with black text formatted as a poem — Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

The Need to Read Poetry and Everything Else

I read tons of books on writing poetry. I’m keen to find reliable resources with pro tips that I can use to push my poetry in new directions. But reading poetry more than writing seems to positively affect my work. I’d highly recommend balancing time between reading and writing poetry to advance your writing.

Reading Suggestions: Excellent Books on Poetry by Robert Pinsky

My Book Reviews of Singing School and Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry by Robert Pinsky

Also, check out my list of Recommended Poetry Books and How to Read a Poem

Interested in Writing Poetry? Jump into the Rabbit Hole and Have Fun!

What can I say about poetry, about writing? Read, write, write some more, and get your hands on as much great poetry as possible. If you love it, let it become your obsession. Take joy in poetry and memorize poems you love; this has helped me compose and acknowledge the value of being able to read poetry effectively at events.

Looking for guidance and tips? Read my post How to Memorize a Poem!

Are You a Poet? Or Are You New to Writing Poetry? Let’s Chat

Do you write poetry? When did you start, and why do you continue to write? Connect with me today and leave a comment below! I’d love to know your influences and what your writing routine is.

Enjoyed this post? Here’s 3 easy ways to come up with ideas for poems!

October Update: The Shining, Halloween, and My Novel

October 20, 2019April 3, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

October has flown by and with less than two weeks left there isn’t much left to do but wait for November.

The famous line from the movie, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” was nowhere in the book. A creative add-on by Kubrick.

The Shining

Yesterday, I finished reading Stephen King’s classic THE SHINING. At about four-hundred-something pages this novel took me on the ups and downs of the Torrance family at The Overlook Hotel. What I loved about the book that was different from the movie (directed by Stanley Kubrick) was the building of tension between the characters through their POV’s. Seeing The Overlook from the perspectives of all the important characters added to the sheer terror of their situation while emphasizing how malicious the hotel really is. Plus the character of Danny Torrance is captivating, a clever little boy born with second-sight who has to fight evil forces to try and keep his mom and dad alive. This was a quick read for me and now I am planning on devouring DOCTOR SLEEP before the movie comes out at the end of the month, or at least before I see it.

Halloween

This year I haven’t done any ‘Halloween’ themed posts. To be honest, it is because I haven’t had any time. A little over a week ago, I finally quit my internship as an Intern for SG BOOK SCOUTING. After a month of working (unpaid) some 25-30 hours a week, I was worn out, irritated, and found myself with little to no time for my own writing or reading. Initially, the internship was for three months but I barely made it over one month. I found myself doing anywhere from 2-8 hours of work a day as an intern. On Fridays I would be given an assignment due on Monday morning, usually, this was to read an entire book (around 50,000 words or more) and write an extensive review. This weekend assignment wasn’t too bad except that I usually do doubles on the weekends at my job working 9-12 hour shifts, leaving me with little time to do the assignment. Since quitting, I’m less stressed out and I have had time to catch up on my daily writing and read whatever I want. I have been incredibly happy, enjoying my freedom again and I have decided that for the future any internships I apply to will have to be paid. My time is too precious for me to work for free.

I’m not sure if I’m going to have any time to write a few Halloween themed posts before the end of the month but if I do, chances are they will be centered around movies (of course).

My Novel

The last time I took a look at my novel it was September 9th, according to my google docs. Now I’m going to take another crack at it. Whenever I approach my novel, again and again, I do a read through from start to finish. Doing my best not to edit or change anything. I want to read it just to read it. When I go back over it to start the second reading, I will edit part by part (so far it’s three parts). I want to get a good portion of this done before November because I think I’m going to try to write another book (totally unrelated to the one I’ve been working on) for NaNoWriMo this year. I have a few story ideas and weird plot lines shifting around in my head and I think what I’d work on would be realistic fiction. A change of pace, something different, from the weird supernatural stories that are always floating around in my head.

I will keep you all updated and expect a new post soon in MY FIRST NOVEL series.

Thank you for reading!

-Alina

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Review of HAUNTED NIGHTS (A Horror Writers Association Anthology)

November 2, 2018April 2, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

On Halloween, I finished Haunted Nights an anthology of short horror stories put together by the Horror Writers Association. It is full of all kinds of spooky stories that revolve around Halloween. There are sixteen short stories total, all of which range from an Irish Halloween with the good folk to grisly psychological thrillers of man and monsters.

Writer’s featured in this anthology include Seanan McGuire, Jonathan Maberry, Garth Nix, Jeffrey Ford, Kelley Armstrong, Brian Evenson, Eric J. Guignard, Pat Cadigan, and John R. Litte. My favorite stories in this anthology were “With Graveyard Weeds and Wolfsbane Seeds”, “A Small Taste of the Old Country”, “The Seventeen-Year Itch”, “Nos Galan Gaeaf”, “Sisters”, “The Turn”, “Jack” and “Lost in the Dark”.

A Brief Synopsis of My Favorites

“With Graveyard Weeds and Wolfsbane Seeds” by Seanan McGuire – a haunted house full of ghosts and a group of troublemaker teenagers bent on vandalism and fun, the night is Halloween and there will be plenty of fun and death for all.

“A Small Taste of the Old Country” by Jonathan Maberry – In Argentina after the end of World War Two, the dead return with vengeance on one fateful night with the aid of a man and some delicious food.

“The Seventeen-Year Itch” by Garth Nix – Locked up in an institution for the criminally insane an inmate with a secret will make Halloween a bloody special one.

“Nos Galan Gaeaf” by Kelley Armstrong – A town that still celebrates Halloween the old ways, two kids play with each others fates with hellish consequences.

“Sisters” by Brian Evenson – A family trying to blend in? A family of what? Curious about Halloween two mischievous sisters set out for some fun but return home with an extra treat.

“The Turn” by Paul Kane – Listen to your grandparents, is it just superstitions or something more? A man walks alone on Halloween night and encounters something terrifyingly familiar, man or monster?

“Jack” by Pat Cadigan – The dead, a cemetery, and good ol’ Jack, a trickster with something fresh up his sleeve.

“Lost in the Dark” by John Langan – Spinning horror films, documentaries and folklore all together in a modern tale. A writer researches the origins of a horror film with the help of a key interview leaving him disturbed and curious.

I would recommend this anthology for horror lovers that want a little slice of this and that, a box of chocolates with unknown fillings full of surprise, each different from the last. A few of these stories do contain gore, disturbing imagery, violence, and peril so be warned.

Alina’s Rating: 4.5 coffins out of 5 coffins

Thank you for reading!

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Review: “E.E. Cummings: A Selection of Poems”

July 20, 2018April 1, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

I recently finished reading this book of poems, a selection of poems by E.E. Cummings, this collection featured fantastic poems that display Cummings love for the written word, skills in typography and his particular use of punctuation and enjambment.

Originally published in 1923 this selection contains poems that might be considered risky even in the ’20’s about sex and sexual urges. There are also poems that display Cummings ongoing “un-doing” of words, punctuation and the typographical form of a poem on the page. A consistent pattern that I noticed towards the end of this collection is his use of “un”.

In the poem, “pity the busy monster, manunkind” (pg.125), “un” is used to undo and possibly invert not only the meaning of words such as ‘mankind’, ‘wish’, and ‘self’ but to put these words and their meanings on their head (or in on themselves). Cummings weaves in words such as “disease”, “electrons”, “hypermagical”, and “ultraomnipotence”, his puts some words together while emulating (I think) a sing-song voice that reminds me of advertisements for cure-alls.

The poem, I think, talks about the ‘silliness’ of mankind and death which is always present. I wonder if this poem is specifically about death as an unavoidable reality regardless of how far mankind has “progressed” or if it is making fun of people that believe in the progress of mankind to overcome death? Is the “hypermagical ultraomnipotence” a reference to god? I am not sure.

I would love to read some criticism of this poem and others published around the same time to help me better understand where Cummings is going with his poetry. I honestly felt that although Cummings was tearing poetry apart, in terms of form and style and creating something all his own, his poems operate on the same mastery levels like the greatest poets who lived hundreds of years before Cummings time.

Cummings poems may look like simplistic easy-reads but there is really so much more packed into them than meets the eye. I love reading E.E. Cummings and have a couple other books of his poems that I love just as much as this one and highly recommend to readers,

“Etcetera: The Unpublished Poems” by E.E. Cummings

17370

“No Thanks” by E.E. Cummings

294354

photo sources: goodreads.com

A plus note about “E.E. Cummings: A Selection of Poems” is the introduction by Horace Gregory which adds some flavor and plenty of words from Cummings himself on his poetry and poetry in general. This introduction really adds to the experience of reading this book of poetry in its entirety. My edition is a 1965 reprint edition and can be found on Amazon.

Alina’s Rating: 5/5

Book Review: Making a Poem by Miller Williams

December 22, 2017April 2, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

I recently finished reading, Making a Poem: Some Thoughts About Poetry and the People Who Write It by Miller Williams who was a former inaugural poet for the Clinton administration.

This was an interesting read in that Williams looked at writing poetry from angles I had not previously considered such as The Writer and The Editor, The Scientist and The Humanist, and Translate. These are all chapters that begin in the middle to end of the book and discuss relationships between being a writer and the editor, with personal experience from Williams in both positions. The Scientist and The Humanist is a dialogue between Williams and another on the similarities between scientific thinking and the efforts of humanism and particularly how these are mimetic to writing poetry, or what poetry tries to achieve. And lastly, the subject Translate, which is on translating poetry into English or vice versa. Translation being a critical part of the literary world that can often have detrimental effects on the work itself: a beautiful line can be altered into a wobbly ugly thing if a translation fails.

These particular topics were intriguing to me, since I had some inkling of them but have never really read any serious discussion on them. Reading Williams perceptions and responses on these topics helped me gain more insight and information from a reliable source. Overall, I would recommend this book to those interested in reading about writing Poetry in a loose manner. It is not very rigid, and it is definitely not a “how-to” manual but nevertheless, it provides valuable insight into Poetry.

Thank you for reading my work! I hope you will return in the future!