Question:
How do I start writing poetry?
anonymous
2013-01-12 16:55:01 UTC
This year I got interested in poems, I want to learn how to write them and understand them. Any advice? Poems rock my socks!
Five answers:
~~*Milieu*~~
2013-01-12 19:21:49 UTC
Poetry does not have to rhyme, but rhythm is important.



You must read as much as you can and as many different styles as you can, classic and contemporary; free verse and structured forms. Two good anthologies: Staying Alive, Real poems for Unreal Times edited by Neil Astley and Garrison Keillor's Good Poems. Two books on writing that will help guide you are Mary Oliver's A Poetry Handbook and The Poetry Home Repair Kit from Ted Kooser.



There are many good sites on line where you can read poetry daily or browse the archives:



Academy of Americans Poets

Poetry Daily

Verse Daily

The Writer's Almanac

Ploughshares

Rattle

Poetry 180

Poetry Foundation



And if you're looking for more poets, here's a very short list. Have fun!



William Stafford

Li-Young Lee

Gary Snyder

Dorianne Laux

Lucille Clifton

Mahmoud Darwish

Seamus Heaney

Anna Akhmatova

Stanley Kunitz

Yusef Komunyakaa

Kay Ryan

Jane Kenyon

Yehuda Amichai

Tony Hoagland

William Matthews

Emily Dickinson

Grace Paley

Wislawa Szymborska

Donald Hall

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Bob Hicok

Floyd Skloot

Mary Oliver

Ruth Stone

Jane Mead

Countee Cullen

WCW

Robert Frost

Brendan Galvin

Linda McCarriston

AE Stallings

Dylan Thomas

Richard Wilbur

Naomi Shihab Nye

Ted Kooser

Galway Kinnell

Rita Dove

Mary Jo Bang

Gjertrud Schnackenberg

Rhina Espaillat

Allen Ginsberg

Charles Simic

Czeslaw Milosz

Joy Harjo

Eavan Boland

Elizabeth Bishop

Les Murray

Federico GarcĂ­a Lorca

Pablo Neruda

Robert Wrigley

John Ashbery

Dean Young

Major Jackson

Terrance Hayes

Patricia Smith
Elvis Fix
2013-01-13 01:17:15 UTC
Start by reading, reading, reading. If you read enough and find some things that you like in them, then you can start using those things yourself. As T.S. Eliot said: "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different." So, imitate first (I highly recommend you look into Eliot, one of the best poets ever, especially "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" "The Waste Land" "The Hollow Men" "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" as some of his best work though it may be tough). You could always look into literary theory but reading is the best. Take Faulkner's advice: "Read, read, read, read everything, trash, classics, everything. And then write. If it is good keep it, if not, throw it out the window."



Keep an open mind, don't just consider literature. Think about math, about the anatomy of frogs, the Keynesian model of short-run aggregate supply. Think in images. A poem conveys an image, a moment in time. Look to your life and picture it not in words but in a whole string of images that make sense only in images and then add the best words you can to them. Understanding a poem comes from understanding this. Poems are about life, so live and create. Passion, feel, let things hit you in the face and then strike them down on paper. You really have to suffer to write great poetry, suffer in the creative spirit. Suffering will let you understand the influences that have led to the composition of the greatest poems of all time. Be serious, let art come through you, don't hold it back with shallow emotions.



If you want a place where people can review your poetry, go on to poetrycritical.net and make a free account. Its a place where people can comment and rate your poetry and help you out. You can check out some pretty good poetry that is not mainstream on there as well. P.S. if you do use this site, you should take a look at my poem "Berceuse." I will try to look at yours as well if you post any. Hope this helps.
5 ft 7 Texas Heaven
2013-01-13 01:36:34 UTC
While I rarely follow rules, of meter and rhyme, I do agree one should learn/know them, even in free verse a piece can flow smoothly, making a point.



Know what your interests are, your experiences, what inspires you otherwise, what genre you find entices you., etc.



Understanding is or can be subjective and interprative. What in your new interest draws you into a poem? Is there a "hook" you might recognize, a tag lne? A progression to a resolution, a cliff hanger causing you to wonder? Are ther ideas in your mind you want to express, but haven't yet figured out how to, poetically?



I think you should just begin, write, note every thought, find (though don't steal) insiration from every source you can. There are no new thoughts anyway, just new ways to present them. Look at as many as you can here in YAP, as well as classics, understand that newbies want the same as those of us most passionate about poetry,,,to always learn, always grow, always inprove.
anonymous
2013-01-13 00:56:56 UTC
It's easy. Find a phrase, rhyme, keep rhyming. Talk about something you like or a girl. Write her a poem and she'll love you.
anonymous
2013-01-13 00:56:33 UTC
First you write some letters down

then you rhyme them like a clown.



I guess there's more that one could say

If one has the time today


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