In the beginning was the word(s)

     Greetings everyone, and welcome to the Ferguson Library's new poetry blog. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to close the library's doors but has not squelched our desire to engage with the public. It may be a while before we can once again go back to the schools, to the malls, to a less worrisome reliance upon Netflix. In the meantime, this blog proposes to provide amusing little lessons on the craft of poetry, and invite the reader to take a crack at it.
     Why poetry? Well...

     -- It's one of the oldest, greatest arts.
     -- It's available to everyone -- most of it for free -- and anyone can practice it.
     -- This is a great time to woo your self-isolating crush with romantic verse.
     -- Unlike piano or Fortnite, poetry requires no pricey equipment.
     -- And if you can perform it over a sick beat while wearing a backwards baseball cap,
         maybe you'll get to marry Beyonce.

Okay, maybe not that last one. She's taken.

     This blog will take inspiration from a book by Stephen Fry called The Ode Less Travelled. Fry is an English actor/writer/director/comedian/scholar/podcaster/broadcaster/activist/wit who writes verse for the pure fun of it. And since he's a comic with an Cambridge (UK) education, he knows how to explain how poetry works while being a lot funnier than the average beleaguered high school teacher.   

Yo my name is Stephen and I'm here to say...

      So here's your chance to learn a little and play around with words a little as we await the return of something resembling normalcy. In our next post, the games will truly begin.