Poetic Mind Tip #2: Read the Funnies

The funnies, as my spunky grandmother called newspaper comics, are to your poetic mind what a daily dose of vitamin D is for your body. 

Giggling/chuckling/guffawing/ laughing over Baby Blues or Zits stimulates belly, heart and imagination. Tracking the drama of Mark Trail's adventures sharpens concentration. Like poetry, humor relies on insight, juxtaposition, originality, timing, nuance and irony. See Dilbert, Pickles, Luann, Drabble, Foxtrot, Doonesbury and Frazz. Other strips (Wee Pals, Mutts, Non Sequitur) get you thinking about humanity.  Frank and Ernest utilizes the poet's key tool: word play. And check out Beakman Jax. While ostensibly answering children's science questions, Jax shines a light on life's paradoxes and absurdities. 

Two online sources for comics are The Washington Post and The Sacramento Bee. I read 'em in print with the Bee before tackling any other news.