Poet puts in year’s worth of work

A LOCAL poet has seen 2023 out by beating a personal challenge for the second time, writing one or more poems for every day in the calendar year.

Craig Coulson first completed his goal of writing a poem a day back in 2017 and said he’s felt his writing ability improve in much the same way the second time around.

“The first time it improved my writing immeasurably and allowed me to write in various styles,” he said. “It opened my eyes to the fact you don’t have to use a format approved by others as poetry.

“The thing that surprised me this year is I write a lot more personally about things that affect me.

“Outside of that introspectiveness, the Odd Spot in The Age was a good source of inspiration. I also wrote about politics, public holidays, things like that.”

Coulson’s poems ranged from five-line limerick to pieces of 35 lines.

He was inspired to complete his challenge the first time in order to go beyond the scope of annual 30 Poems in 30 Days initiatives.

A writer of about six decades, Coulson has been professionally creating since about 2005.

He was one of the earliest contributors of the Words Out Loud spoken word initiative, and is a regular contributor to Ballarat Spoken Word.

Coulson said BSW’s February meetup at Bridge Mall will be where people can next hear some of the pieces from his year-long project.

“I write for publishing but mainly for performance,” he said.

“I’ve read half a dozen already at Ballarat Spoken Word where the audience picked a date for me to read the poems. I should imagine about 50 of the poems could be published.”