How to Add Rhythm to Your Amazing Life Story in Medium

Turn your story into a poem.

The author on his friend’s boat in 1962. Photo by H. Werner.

Ever wonder about what to write about and how to put it into words? Well, how about starting with your life or some aspect of your life? That’s what you know best. Then write your draft. And then, add some rhythm to your words by turning them into a poem.

I was reminiscing the other day about the beginnings of my career a long time ago and decided to make a poem out of the memories that began to flow. Here it is:

Sixty Years Ago

I went to work for Kaiser
60 years ago

I met my friend Herr Werner
60 years ago

He took me on his boat one day
60 years ago

Kennedy was president
60 years ago

It was IBM and JFK
60 years ago

We had punched cards and paper tape
60 years ago

I learned to code in SPS
60 years ago

I didn’t have a girlfriend then
60 years ago

I lived in San Francisco then
60 years ago

I bought myself a Skylark then
60 years ago

And daily drove across the bridge
60 years ago

We played a game called pinochle
60 years ago

I saw To Kill a Mockingbird
60 years ago

I asked Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
in 1962

I went on my first airplane flight
60 years ago

A lot of things were different then
In 1962

And now I write on Medium
in twenty twenty-two.

Notes:

1. IBM had a near monopoly on corporate America back in the 60s. Nearly every large or medium-sized company in the country bought or rented an IBM computer.
2. The IBM programing language we used was called Symbolic Programming System. It was soon replaced by Autocoder and by 1975 all our new programs were written in COBOL.
3. My first car was a 1962 Buick Skylark.
4. We flew on a private United charter from San Francisco to Baltimore. I was on my way to Fort Lee, VA, for two weeks of active duty as an army reservist.
5. In all but one stanza of this poem, the first line is written in iambic tetrameter. Read your sentences out loud. Do the words flow easily from one to the other? Remember, it’s not just what you write but how you write that counts!

The final step is up to you:

You can either,

1. Take your poem and turn it back into a prose but try to keep as much of the rhythm as you can.
2. Submit your poem for publication. Now you are a published poet!