Where do you start?

poetinahat said:

When you're writing a poem, what's the first thing you start with?

Do you have a concept you want to pursue - an inspiring character, a story to be told, a message, a feeling? yes.

Is it a title that needs writing about? yes.

Do you have a pithy phrase that needs to have a poem written around it? yes.

Do you start with a form that you want to work with, then fill it in? Yes.

Do you just start writing and see what comes out? (Hi, Kevin) Yes.

Do you pick up a piece you admire and aim to write something like it? rarely.

Or is there something else? That pretty much covers it.

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Since I've started writing again, I listen for poetry. I look for scenes, and I check out new forms. Sometimes, I just pick some words and write. Sometimes words flow out and I shape them.

Sometimes, I dream them.

Sometimes, I hear them between the notes or speaking behind notes in a piece of music.

I have no one way in which I write a poem. I have my mind tilted in that direction and poetry spills out. With some shaping, I can sometimes get a poem out of it.

Sometimes, I begin writing to make myself think, but rarely leave it as I find it.

That about covers it. I wish it were more interesting, but it isn't. Ultimately it is milking a moment of inspiration.

Clear as coal?

poetinahat said:

When you're writing a poem, what's the first thing you start with?

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Though I'm still rather new to poetry, I find that I tend to respond best to a prompt of some kind - a new form to try, a theme, something like that. From there, the concept will usually present itself. I think what I'm responding to most in poetry these days is the compact, distilled nature of it. I don't have the energy to tackle extended writing projects, so being able to exercise my writing muscles on a more limited basis (lengthwise, anyway) is really helping me.

I don't know that I will ever sit down and spontaneously try to create a poem, but for as long as it works for me, I'll enjoy it.

poetinahat said:

Do you just start writing and see what comes out? (Hi, Kevin)

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Hi, Louis, too.

I start with a random sentence that pops into my head and then I just run with the idea.

Depends. Sometimes its an word, or a line. Other times it's a situation that I was in (Minor Arpeggios, Ten Seconds Ago, Opaque Water)
Then other times it's a big idea that develops, like Roll On which I'm still workin' on a little


It's all relative man

Uhm, all of the above. It depends, I don't like being stuck in rules -my own or others'. Sometimes it's a word or a sentence that inspires me or gets stuck in my head until I do something with it. Sometimes it's an emotion or a situation, a thought etc. Sometimes I read something (lika a story) and get inspired that way. Sometimes there's a form I want to try or a competition prompting me or some other thing that I can't recall right now. I'm a writer -I can't not write. Whenever I feel the urge I do it and when I don't feel like it, but have to, then I do it anyway in whatever manner I feel appropriate.

It really varies. Usually an image/feeling pops into my head, so I start writing it down and eventually find meaning in it (with a few tweaks for solidification). Some of those images end up going nowhere and sit lonely in my scrap file up here at work until I someday find what they are really trying to say. Sometimes a line will come to me, and I will follow to see what I can discover from exploring that line. I have written to form before (recently, my sestina), but I do not do that often.

I love mythology and other stories, so it is fun when those kinds of images come to me. I enjoy playing with them and finding ways for them to apply beyond themselves. I don't personally like writing poems that are just feelings alone without a story or strong image behind them, though, as I get to many flashbacks to my old high school stuff. Some poetry is better left buried. Hehe.




-Michelle

I'm a pretty undisciplined writer. I don't usually 'set out' to write poetry, unless I'm reading poetry, and discover an intriguing form and want to give it a try. Poems usually come to me in the morning. My mornings start slow, with a lot of reading and pondering. Sometimes, suddenly, a haiku or line of poetry will just come to me, and I'll write it down. If it's just a single line, I'll explore the thought or feeling and what prompted it, (it often comes from my reading), and then the rest of the poem will usually just come to me as well. It's almost like a kind of music that I hear in my head. Later on, I might come back to it and edit it, but usually it doesn't change much.

Interesting thread, Rob! How do you write poetry?

Starting is the hardest part for me. I react best to prompts or themes or fixed forms. I frequently rewrite lyrics and ditties and even add stanzas to others' work (in my head anyway). But taking a concept of my own and wording it can be excruciating, and sometimes I can ponder an idea for weeks before one line or phrase pops in my head, usually inspired in odd places, which is the prompt I need to sketch the initial work. And sometimes even then it's not enough. I've kept random lines for years at times before finally working them into a complete piece.
One thing I've tried recently, and felt successful enough to keep trying it, is to brainstorm my idea. I take a concept and write down every word that comes to mind about it, just randomly. Then I ponder my results and begin by fitting some or all of those words into the poem. This worked quite well for me with a couple of poems.

poetinahat said:

I may not be a writer myself, apparently. I enjoy writing, but I have to work at it. I don't have this undeniable compulsion that so many people here describe.

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pffft..you're a writer. everyone has different motivations.

sometimes I have a story I want to tell that just won't go into prose - my example here is Sailor's Daughter, which ended up being part of Blue Rock, or Ryan, which is probably up here somewhere.

a lot of times I start out with a line (kiss me/don't kiss me; I met a young child beside a dead pony; the promise of a colored kiss) or with a strange word pairing (cyclone grace; sanctimoniously secular) or with a synesthetic idea (hot yellow touch, taste of moonlight) - in fact I just found this in a journal that came from the presence of one of my friends...

she is the brown
of a worn chair,
dusty and adored,
fuzzy around the edges,
haloed by sunlight.



I have to write. I have no choice.

poetinahat said:

But seldom do I feel like there's a story I want telling. I usually have no idea of the story until I'm at least halfway into the piece. I can tell from reading some others' works that they have a much better idea of what they want to say.

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Now see that's a situation I have more with my fiction. I'll have a few well thought out characters (some of which have inspired my poetry), a couple of places I'd like to use as a setting, even some concept ideas and small scene plots, but no real sequence-of-events-beginning-and-ending story to tell. Sometimes this happens in my poetry, but in a bit different sense, as with poetry I think there's some license for exploring an idea and letting the poem define it.

poet<<< are too a writer. I know you're just fishing. Since you spend time on this board and write up stuff and post etc, it's quite obvious that you have some sort of compulsion to write, even if you don't find it to be the 'be all end all' of your existence.

poetinahat said:

I usually have no idea of the story until I'm at least halfway into the piece. I can tell from reading some others' works that they have a much better idea of what they want to say.

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Who was it who said "I write to find out what I think"?

Historically, I've been the very same sort of writer, poet. In fact, last year I attempted that novel-in-a-month thing. I got up to 16,000 words (and November 26th) before I finally figured out what the story was about. Of course, once I figured that out, I managed to write over 20,000 words in the remaining 4 days of the Nano challenge.

My advice? Don't judge your process too harshly. It may not feel as efficient as people who methodically outline and develop their characters before they ever write a word of the story, but if it works, it works. Considering how many stifled, unfulfilled potential writers there are in the world, even the most inefficient process that produces actual words on the page is a step forward.

Besides, efficiency is for manufacturing. This is writing we're talking about here.

it depends.
Most recently in the AW Collection, the metaphor/theme comes first in relation to a person. Then I write and see where it goes. They are typically first draft/only draft poems. so the idea hits first and then I write it.
sometimes in other pieces I write to see what comes out from a catalyst as simple as a flash second image in my head.
sometimes I have a phrase rambling around in my head that is seeking attention and I have to write about it. Typically it is the last line of the poem, and I write towards it.
Sometimes I just write to see what comes out.
Outside of the occasional haiku I never write to form and never write to emulate something I have read. I find that it kills my inspiration and it turns into a chore far more than the pleasure I know writing poetry is for me.

I think of Trish -- and rest is easy. ;-)

jst5150 said:

I think of Trish -- and rest is easy. ;-)

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drachin8 said:

It really varies. Usually an image/feeling pops into my head, so I start writing it down and eventually find meaning in it (with a few tweaks for solidification). Some of those images end up going nowhere and sit lonely in my scrap file up here at work until I someday find what they are really trying to say. Sometimes a line will come to me, and I will follow to see what I can discover from exploring that line. I have written to form before (recently, my sestina), but I do not do that often.

I love mythology and other stories, so it is fun when those kinds of images come to me. I enjoy playing with them and finding ways for them to apply beyond themselves. I don't personally like writing poems that are just feelings alone without a story or strong image behind them, though, as I get to many flashbacks to my old high school stuff. Some poetry is better left buried. Hehe.




-Michelle

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I also love fairy tales/mythology.

poetinahat said:

When you're writing a poem, what's the first thing you start with?

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The title

poetinahat said:

Or is there something else?

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A word in the poetry game.

Sometimes I use the rhythm of another poem. (As in the poem: Imitation as a Form of Flattery)
I've started a new one using the pattern of the 'elephone' 'telephant' poem but it's stalled. Oddly enough, I have research to do before I can finish.

When the mood to write poetry strikes, I just dive in. I hate forms, even though they can produce wonderful poems. I just start writing, and when I feel like I'm done (which is rare, so let me rephrase that - when I feel like I'm as done as I'm going to be at the moment) I'll go back and work with it until I feel like it's as done as it's ever going to be. Sometimes I create my own rhyming style, sometimes I don't rhyme at all, whatever. To me, poetry is freedom.

I just sit down with a notebook and black pen, and see what comes out. If I set out to write something specific, I usuually end up scrapping it because it becomes too contrived.

That's why I like writing prompts, e.g. "write about a job" or "write about ghosts." That's when other stuff comes out that was unexpected.

A passerby tells her friend "All of a sudden, I'm looking at a stranger wearing my husband's clothes."

The sound a paper cup makes blowing across a parking lot when your car won't start.

Sunlight falls on the floor in a different spot come fall.

Your aging face in the mirror

cricket song

turning leaves changing the color of the river

it could (and has been) be almost anything. I have a little notebook with me all day at work. I might write down an idea: I see someone who looks just like me and I infiltrate his world.

or a word: translucence

a sound image: a motorcycle tears the air like a rusty saw

a feeling: eating salad for lunch makes my inner Kate Moss weep out loud

any image that presents itself-

a one toothed vampire is a can opener

eventually the collected words and phrases start making each others aquaintence, inviting each other over for BBQ's, cocktails, start shacking up together up, some even marry and settle down to raise poems together.

I also built my own "Word Pool" as Susie Wooldridge's book PoemCrazy suggests. I bought a roll of tickets from an office supply. You know "Admit One" I write words, colors, phrases, that interest me on them and cram them into a container. Once in a while I stir them up and pull out a handful. Like these-

Cloud scribe
Deepfield
***** willow
terrace
encryption
uniform dissonance
ballerina jewelry box
lilac indifference

I throw them out like supertitious divination tools and see where they lead me. Sometimes they group together in strange phrases-

deep cathedral reverb, lost canyon windchime etc.


Ha ha! the porn filter thinks Pussywillow is a "dirty word"!!???