About Writing Poetry

About Writing Poetry

These are the fellow writers and poets with whom I have discussed poetry in the past several months. I recommend reading their blogs or follow their posts for interesting content.  +Adrianna Joleigh +Glendon Perkins +Cherie Ambrose +Steven Malone +Sandi Brower +Kay Leez +Justin Michael Schmidt +Jose Cervantes +Aura Burrows +Yolanda Isabel Regueira Marin    (If I have neglected to mention your name, please forgive me and let me know and I will correct the error!)

• I thought I'd share some of the advice I have shared or thoughts I have recorded concerning how I write my poems or what poetry writing is to me. In no way do I feel that I'm an expert, but I thought I'd share these with you all. Some of these points are from exchanges I've had with some of you about writing poems; you may recognize the comments.

• I found several poems from long ago and reworked them. That's how I got back into writing poems. I have so many bits of poems in folders that I take out and play with and try to finish them. 

• Some I write a poem in minutes. Some may take days or weeks. I wake up with phrase or small bits of poems from my dreams. 

• Sometimes words just pop out. It has been like this since last December. I wrote a poem for a friend that had died and before that one I wrote a poem about a year before that. Since then, I have written so many more. Once you get into the flow and get started they will come!

• In my opinion, finding the right words is important all writing, but especially poetry. I try to discover shades and nuances of meaning that suggest different images for the same idea. I try to reach that point in my writing. In the end, I go with what I "feel" will communicate my meaning. Sometimes I’ll begin writing, like a free-write or stream of conscious and sometimes it ends up being a poem.

• Poems sometimes leave me wanting more when I write them. 

• Poems can be fulfilling, but yet, at times, not so much. At times the feeling from reading a poem hums in the background, like white noise. Yes, when I read a poem, I feel odd too, like it's not the end of the story but part of it.

• Poems should draw you in, give you something unexpected and leave you wanting more. Often, I will write a poem in response to a poem or comments someone makes. I see that my writing at times prompts others to write something along the lines of what I post. They rarely tell me, but when I read it, I'm pretty sure they wrote along the lines of my poem. I think that what good writing does: it inspires.

• When I hear a phrase on TV or a song or novel I write it down and then create a poem from it.

• I just try to have fun sometimes when I write. I let the words flow!

• Try writing a little story to lead up to the poem. I don't always recommend it because it can take away from the poem or story or both, but I have done it several times. See "unsown" on my blog.

• I do this with my poetry as a rule: I have many bits or half finished or almost complete poems and I let them sit and when I feel it I go back and work on them or finish them. Then I let them sit. Then when I feel I am done with or have squeezed the life into them, I publish to my blogs.

• Play with the form or style. I do it with the same poem on the same page.

• I’ll say them out loud. I make copies of the poems and make them rhyme or I write them in complete sentences. In doing this, you might be able to go deeper, expressing more depth of emotion.

• I am sometimes asked for advice on writing poems in general or on specific poems. I advise the person to feel free to accept or reject the ideas! I just offer my opinion. I truly humbled by someone asking my advice.

• Yes, in the end, you need to go with your feelings.

© 2013 ajwrites57
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