Discussion: Advice for Aspiring Poets

I'd say "Sit down & write stuff."

But you're right, that presupposes some basic grasp of poetry. As well as the ability to somehow shape letters, use some language (written or spoken, preferably both), & create word-like patterns.

Write about anything. I grab stuff at random, because I don't expect to create deathless verse. I might knock off a few lines about Keats getting very stoned & seeing a UFO, or about koi trapped in a tiny pool, or about trudging across the landscape of Mars because the stupid vehicle broke an axle, or about why cats are superior beings. Whatever.

I guess the "aspiring" part feels weird. When do beginners graduate beyond that?

i use many styles and formations in my work from old-fashioned victorian to avant-garde. i experiment with rhyme, construction etc. until i find one that suits me best. broardening ones horizons on this front helps to develope a voice. with me it just depends how the fancy takes me.

Becoming a Poet

*Just do it*

Feel better?
Still confused?
'K then...here we go...

***

Read other poets of different variety. Don't try to emulate a formula for stardom, instead try to see what you think is great about a poem. Even if you don't like what it's saying you may still find yourself thinking -well, at least it had a nice flow.

So... How does it roll off your tongue? Do you get the imagery at all? How do the line-breaks feel to you, good, bad, what would you do? Do you like free or structured, rhymed or unrhymed, old or new poetry, is content or structure more important? Maybe you like a mixture of all of the above, but only certain writers, certain poems make it work for you?

Good, now you're starting to find your own voice. How? Because within those poems that you've come to cherish or appreciate you've found certain things that call to your poetic soul, things that say -this, this I get. This is good, this is grand. Once you know what you like and what you don't like experimentation with your own work becomes easy.
So...Start to write.

You'll notice as you write that you start to feel naturally what fits or doesn't fit in your writing. Maybe you'll write for a bit, look down on your writing and find a line or two that you feel you need to tweak just a little to get the whole thing to sound right in your head. Good, now you're on your way. Time to find more stuff to write about.

Different poets write about different things -emotions, stories, political satires, there is nothing holy or unholy that hasn't been written about in poetic form. So, what do you want to write? Your life, the nature of the world, every day things? It can be clear cut observation, philosophizing, day dreaming, anything you please, anything at all.

You may start to bring your note book with you wherever you go. Find something beautiful, something thought-provoking, something inspiring in the world that leads you to a theme, a sentence, a word that you want to build a poem around. Maybe you start out with a sentence and in the end don't even use that particular one in the finished poem because during your writing you found something better. Maybe that sentence will make up the end, the beginning, the middle, the title. Maybe your poem about hate grows to be a poem about how love forgives, maybe the other way around.

Let the subconscious part of your mind as well as your experience and logic guide you through your writing. Find something to say, then say it. Maybe you're just itching to write and start to write before even knowing what your subconscious wants to say -that works as well.

Don't be afraid of playing with forms even if you're doing a serious poem. Forms are just ways to do something, tools of the trade to tease your imagination. Maybe you start out with a haiku poem and end with a ballad, who knows. It's all up to you.

Know right away that not everyone will get your poetry. Some may find it boring, others immature, a third category will flat out hate it and/or think you have no talent. It's up to you as a poet to have enough confidence to say that -this, this is my work, this is what I want to say. I can't please everyone, maybe only one other person will get my style, but that's enough for me. Of course that's not saying your should never consider allowing critique of your work. -Even though many people simply will not get your writing (happens to all of us, just like you didn't like all the poetry you read, not even by the so called masters), they may still offer a different point of view on something, a fresh pair of eyes if you will. Maybe you've had some trouble with the wording or rhythm of some specific poem, you get critiqued on it and suddenly while reading this personal opinion you realize that -yes, that's what was missing, that's what I really wanted to say.

So, find your voice, write, find inspiration, write, find confidence in yourself while still being open to other people's opinions, write.
Submit somewhere if you want, share it with friends, on a forum board, anything you wish. You're a poet now, we live the life fantastic, welcome to our dream.

Love
/Tessa


*

I'd say please before you try to write read the best poetry of the last year and read at random through the oxford anthologies of american and english poetry, and don't let those irish or french guys pass by your notice either.

then give something a shot, and try not to take it too seriously while also not forgetting how high the mountain is that you're trying to add to! That is a tough one to balance...he who has read a lot will tremble while trying to write (to paraphrase Pope).

I'd also recommend Essay on Criticism by Pope. Great great great great didactic poem...it demonstrates great poetry while also talking about it, and it does it with a wit that will always be hilarious, a wit on the same level as Ovid's, Wilde's and Woody Allen's.

WS

Turn back now.

That light at the end of the poetry tunnel is the oncoming train of "I could have been writing screenplays, song lyrics or prose for money? And here I was 5-7-5-7-5-7ing my freaking way through life? What gives, St. Peter?"

It would seem the most famous poets had educational advantages (ee cummings, Harvard) or good lineage (Tennyson, Wordsworth) before they became famous. And then, of course, there's that "you have to be dead to be a significant poet" thing. I'd like to live to see the fruits of my labours borne.

Turn back now! Get over to the Freelance forum -- fast!

There's poetry, then there's poetry and then, there's poetry....let me count the ways...........

Poetry is a way of thinking, seeing, feeling...........and yes, unfortunately, a discipline. (Sorry for letting my prejudice show)

Some people REALLY emphasize the discipline part of poetry....some run from the discipline part.

Regardless of what kind of poetry you write, and most poets write with some degree of achievement of something in mind, just writing one word can be poetic. One word that resounds within your soul...........like shouting out Excalibur! or Forward! or Woe!....and with the one resounding word that captivates you, follow it and see where it leads. Poetry IS and we are only scribes and vessels that gleen the words from Life itself and pour them out for others to see and hear.

But for those of us who are not well versed in the classics or technically precise, isn't there something to be said for the gut? I write about those things that smack me in the face and punch me in the stomach. Something in nature, the old man on the corner, the jerk who just dumped me, all come to light in my writing. That is why I am in awe when you guys do the different poetry games on this thread. I couldn't make up a poem to save my life if it wasn't something I saw or experienced or had personal information about, especially on the fly. If you said, "Janey, write a poem about the black-breasted Sumatran parakeet, now," I'd be stammering at my keyboard. I can write stories about all sorts of far-out situations, but for me, poetry is different. I don't know if that means I'm not a poet, but it's what I experience.

Learn to say old things in a new way while making it reader friendly.

or say new things in an old way.

That is why I love this forum poetinahat. Ryhme and meter and the like were always lost on me, but I love to learn and have learned a lot. When I write poetry, I literally visualize the words falling out of my head onto the paper. They have to fall quickly or I will lose them in the chaos of whatever is going on around me. For me, it isn't that the forms or classics are unnecessary, it just feels like if I stop to think of them, I will forget what I want to say. Like your haiku chain, I have difficulty trying to write something good--okay, acceptable--while making sure the form is correct. But man, would I love to be structured! Thank you for the link, I will check it out.

the thing about gut writing is it's an ART FORM, not a journal entry. many forget that.

What worked for me may not work for you. I learned all I could about haiku. I read anthologies, how to's, histories, essays and single author collections.

I started with modern english haiku. Since I am a modern english speaking person, it made sense. Then, I read newer (post 1970) translations of classic haiku.

Haiku can show you how

-to observe the world and describe it so that that some resonance with a deeper meaning (that has not been explicitly stated) can be experienced.

-to be concise.

-to "load" a phrase, line with color, allusion, aroma, flavor, time/place, texture, pace, sound, connotation (or all of the above) as gracefully as it can bear the weight.

They seemed small. A good haiku appered far more obtainable than a (where would I stop? How would I know when I was done?) a page length (or longer?) poem. Heck, it was only 6-8 words! I reasoned that if I could figure out the small form, I could fashion one brief line at a time and make each one shine.

With any type of poem, you have to dig in and love to read. (I don't mean internet poetry, but respected publications that enforce editorial control) You need to marinate in it. If you "love" poetry, it would naturally follow that you love to read it. Poems, criticism of poems (not online, but by actual published analysts) and instructional material on poetry.

You have to write as well. A lot. Even poorly. Its all rather time consuming-
if you are going to do the poetry thing well.

I'd turn to the popular contemporary anthologies first. (haiku or otherwise)These poems speak more like people you know than "poets". They are conversational. Don't waste your time on poems you don't like. Hundreds of thousands of poems are written each day. A new one will be along.

You can use modern poetry anthologies to find out who you like. then you can attempt to emulate their style. Try to deconstruct one of their poems and rewrite it with your words. You can discover the mechanisms this way.

Find out which poets influenced your favorite poets and read them too. Find out who influnced those poets. Then your historical references will mirror your interests. You'll be able to see patterns in their use of language and device.

When you write, eschew ancient, creaky language like "thine, thee, o'er, didst, naught" etc.

Write that way and you'll sound like a dusty corpse exhumed from a mausoleum to give a long dry lecture.

avoid references to mythological gods in your poems. Its an instant turn off. (Except for Medusa. She's tough, a go getter, a feminist icon and a skilled pole dancer rolled into one lethal package. Hot!)

There's a lot of great how to books and exercises that make fooling around with language fun, and if it isn't fun, why write it?

If someone came up to me and asked, "How do you write poetry?" I would tell them very simply, "I don't know."

I believe that poetry should write itself.

I began with poetry on a more oral level. I didn't initially write poems, I spoke them, they all came from the heart and flowed simply out of me. I don't want to say that I have a devine power but although the words and the ideas are mine, the poems are not as poetry just is.

how does it write itself? because in many ways it lives, it is an art form like any other.