The Everything Writing Poetry Book (2 page)
Many people first experience literary art in the form of poetry; take Mother Goose, for example. Many students fashion poems for school projects and others do so to nurse their broken hearts. Usually these creations get stuffed into scrapbooks only to be forgotten. For some reason, people often ignore the desire to express themselves, and they leave poetry writing to pop stars and academics. But to create true poetry you must not be afraid to identify your inner voice, indulge it, and set it free.
This book will help you find your poetic voice. We'll give you some poetic tools and teach you to use them. First, you'll learn how to tap sources of inspiration, choose a writing instrument, and pick the perfect place to do your work. Next, we will cover the writing process itself: creating and selecting significant details, using sound and language, and working with meter. The remainder of the book will acquaint you with the poetic forms (such as the sonnet and the ode), discuss ideas for subject matter, cover revision strategies, and guide you through the publishing process.
Once you have read this book, writing poems should be easier for youânot easy, but easier. No matter how many books you read or how many ideas you are blessed with, writing poetry is rarely easy. You won't create poetry by thinking about it, reading about it, wishing you could write it, or talking about it with friendsâthough these activities may provide motivation. Instead, the poetry will come from deep within you, flow through you, and even surprise you.
Practiced poets will tell you that they rarely, if ever, write a polished poem in a single draft. They make thousands of mistakes and deletions and have drawers full of early drafts, dead-end inspirations, and desperate scribbles. These same poets will tell you that such writing is never futile, but rather an inevitable and valuable part of the process.
The goal of this book is to inspire you to write and to keep writing. Several examples of professional poems and many writing exercises included here will give you plenty of guidance. But you will also need to try new methods to create more inspiration. You'll write lists, descriptions, and journal entries to get you on the right track. Always remember that every poet works differently, and that all talent takes time to develop. Be patient with yourself, enjoy the process, and don't be afraid to share your poetry with the world. Good luck!
Chapter 1
Why Write Poetry?
T
here are endless reasons to write poetry. Perhaps you want to express an overwhelming emotionâjoy, love, or anger. Or maybe you wish to reshape a childhood memory. If something terrible has happened to you, writing may offer a way to cope with or understand the tragic event. Whatever your reasons, you might feel creating poetry is a compulsionâsomething you just need to do to relieve your feelings. In this chapter, you'll discover why poetry provides an artistic outlet unlike any other.
Self-Expression
One of the many reasons why people write is to tell others what is happening to them. This is a natural human impulse. Any caregiver knows that an infant will cry when she needs her diaper changed, her bottle refilled, or her blankets wrapped more snugly around her. Likewise, though adults cannot scream every time they need something, everyone encounters moments in their lives that prompt them to self-expression. These moments often come in the form of changes, discoveries, or decisions.
Change
Life is a continual process of change, so just about any moment can inspire you to write.
Throughout your life you will experience overwhelming changes, like marriages, births, and deaths, and seemingly insignificant ones, like new tastes in food and variations in your appearance. Each of these events affects how you perceive and interact with the world.
Create a timeline of major events in your life to get an idea of when great changes have taken place. Write brief descriptions next to each event, including the date and the location in which it happened. Then choose one or two of these and use them as starting points for poems. Consider your emotions during these times as well.
Changes, in turn, lead you to make discoveries and decisions. If a close friend moves away, you may discover how much you value having her in your life. If a family member becomes ill, you may make the decision to visit him in his time of need. A person's reactions to changes in life are often reflected in his poetry. If you lose your job, you may feel the need to express feelings of anger or disappointment in written form. Change is inevitable, but writing can help you cope. And if a decision must be made, organizing your thoughts on paper can help you take the correct action.
Discovery
Moments of discovery occur every day; sometimes these discoveries are life changing, and other times they are much more subtle. For example, in Walt Whitman's brief poem “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” the speaker is watching a spider spinning a web:
A noiseless patient spicier
,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated
,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding
,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself
,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them
.
And you O my soul where you stand
,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space
,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them
,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold
,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, 0 my soul
.
Though this does not seem to be a momentous event, the speaker discovers several things while watching the spider. He notices that the spider is creating a web where none existed before, and he also identifies with the spider on a personal level, likening the activity of his soul to the spinning of a web.
One of the most famous discoveries in literature is that made by Oedipus at the end of the play
Oedipus Rex
. He learns that he has murdered his father and married his mother, fulfilling a lifelong prophecy. In his agony, he pokes out his eyes! Instead of doing this when you make your own discoveries, try writing a poem.
Of course, not all discoveries are as simple or harmless as a spider's activity. Learning that a spouse has been unfaithful, for example, can cause a great deal of sadness, discomfort, and heartbreak. However, finding the courage to cope with such a situation may lead you to make yet another discovery or to make a very important decision. By exploring the feelings surrounding a discovery, whether in writing or through using another form of expression, you can make informed and appropriate decisions.
Decision
You have to make decisions every day of your life. For example, you may decide to delay a shopping trip to make needed repairs on your car. You might choose to accept an attractive job offer and therefore move your family to a new city. But the most common choices you make are small ones: what to eat for lunch, which television programs to watch, and how to style your hair.
Whether a decision is important or trivial, you will likely feel the need to express your reasons for making this decision to others, as well as gain their approval. While you will sometimes need the guidance of friends and family to make important decisions, working out your thoughts in poetry can help you become your own advisor. By assessing your own feelings and releasing them in poetic language, you may come closer to a solution or decision. And even if you don't find the right choice this way, you will at least have created a piece of personal art.
Shakespeare is well known for having his characters make important decisions in his plays. In
Othello
, the title character must decide whether to believe his junior officer lago's claims about his wife's infidelity or trust his wife's virtue. His decision eventually leads to many deaths, including his own.
Whatever the situationâa change, a discovery, or a decisionâyou might feel that the moment is an intensely personal one. Truthfully, it is the intensity of that moment, not the moment itself, that inspires you to write. As a beginning writer, you should become aware of that intensity, whether it occurs in the midst of an experience or some time afterward. That intense feeling is a signal that you're ready to express yourself. Grab a blank sheet of paper and begin.
Using Feelings
Singers and songwriters use feelings as a basis of their craft. Painters and sculptors try to depict their emotions on canvas and in clay. Television shows, movies, and books generally revolve around the conflict of human feelings. But what do feelings mean to a poet? Everything. A poet draws from her feelings in a less direct wayâusing raw emotion as fuel to produce poems.
Interestingly, the literary form that students least like to study is poetry. Beginning students of poetry usually have trouble understanding these creations of deep thought and feeling. In part, this reaction is due to the fact that poetry is a highly personal genre. Just as students are reluctant to study it, they're also afraid to reveal the pages of scribbled verse they may have stashed in their drawers or beneath their mattresses. Their feelings are safe in these private places, and protected from critical eyes. It is true that a portion of your work is meant to stay hidden. However, some of these emotionally charged drafts are the seeds of brilliant poetry, and they should be read by others.
Displacement
The act of writing poetry is an example of displacement, meaning that you express the emotions you have in your life through your writing when you create poetry. By displacing these emotions in poetry, you can channel anger, sadness, joy and other strong feelings in a productive manner.
