The Art of Poetry Writing

Poetry can be described in so many ways, but one general concept people have about poetry is, it stems from an emotion, an inspiration, or from a particular event in the poets life. Poetry is an art form that uses metaphors to express a certain thought or story.

While telling the tale as it is can be easier understood, poetry is not into expressing one definite meaning, but rather into making the reader think and determine for themselves what the writer may be trying to put forth. The artistic use of words to represent something is else is common in a lot of poetry writing styles and is viewed as the norm by most poetry writers. Poetry, however, is basically indefinable and this may be due to the multiple writing styles available to the art.

People who write poetry for the first time usually write from the top of their heads. This means, once inspiration hits them, they write down whatever they felt during that inspired moment in the simplest possible words that they could use. While this does not make for good poetry writing, this could be very well the base for a good poem.

Like all books and other reading material, poetry can only improve with rereading and some rewriting. Some of your emotions from that inspired moment may have been expressed accurately enough for you, however, to help it transcend into art, some careful scrutiny and deliberation may be needed to further complete your work of art.

While certain words may be accurate enough for the writer in terms of expressing the emotion they are trying to convey, this, however, does not ensure that the poem is good.

Here is where metaphors come into play. You can use certain comparisons to how you feel by pairing them off with things and happenings around you. For example, if you are feeling sad, you do not just write in your poem that you are feeling sad or there is sadness in you.

Try to find a phrase that can encompass what you feel without being too direct so as to leave the rest of the thinking to the imagination of your reader. A good comparison to the word sad would be dark or darkness. Another possible word you can use would be deep or depth.

These two word choices may not be totally negative or describe the word sad if taken all by itself, but combined with a few other words, you can artistically portray the feeling of sadness in your poem.

Not all poems are expressions of sadness and negativity, however, despite there being quite a number of them being created and having been created. This is not surprising since sorrow is a very strong emotion and writing can be quite an outlet for this feeling. Anger, as well, has found an outlet in putting pen to paper, along with confusion and even hate. More positive feelings are also common fodder for the poet, with the astounding number of love poetry that is available making this apparent. Other stronger emotions often used for poetry include happiness, and, well, the other predecessors and by-products of happiness.

Whatever the inspiration a person has for writing a poem or poems, poetry is indeed a literary art form that is, as indefinable as it is, something that a lot of us can do well, with a lot of feeling and some practice.

One of the rather useful tools to better yourself at poetry writing is your basic thesaurus. It offers you quite a few choices in terms of word selection to further express what you feel in your writing.

Chris Kennelly is a writer for directory submission services at Article Directory

How to write poetry

Poetry writing, publish poetry, poets, writing, haiku poems, free verse, lyrical poems, poetry types and styles If you want to write poetry, take a look around you. There are plenty of ideas all around you. I would suggest you go through the park for a stroll with pen and paper. Pay attention and try to write down things you have observed like; the trees, the leaves, the people walking around, the color of the sky, things that spark your imagination.

One of the best ways to get ideas to write poetry is by the observation of others. Write down some of the conversation you hear, what they are wearing, lovers holding hands or lovers in a quarrel. The ideas are to pay attention and take as much notes as you can. You will not be writing your poetry at this time.

You can browse through old pictures that can spark a blissful moment n your life or a not so blissful moment if your life. You can also go through magazine to come up with idea about the photos. Same thing can be said for listening to music. Certain type of music when you close your eyes can take you to a whole new place that can open the flood gate of your imagination and allowed the words to just flow on the paper.

Now that you have find ways to become creative to write poetry, one would have to decide what types of poetry I should write. If you are not sure of the style of poetry writing, http://www.ipublishabook.com/How-To-Write-Poetry.html will list them to give you a better understanding.

Haiku: Haiku comes in many different styles. A haiku can be three lines long with five syllables on the first line, seven syllables on the second line and five syllables on the third line. Haiku's are not the easiest poetry to write.

Narrative Poems: One of my favorite ways to write poetry is to write narrative poems. These stories should be short with a beginning, middle and conclusion. Lyric Poems: Lyric poems sound very similar to songs. The lyrics are put together in a rhyming patterns..

A Sonnet: Sonnets are lyrical songs. Sonnets are long and dramatic, tell a story. Free Verse: Free verses do not have to rhyme. They can be short or long with any style you want.

Writing poetry and publish poetry can be fun. The styles http://www.ipublishabook.com/How-To-Write-Poetry.html has listed are only some basic forms of poetry. Decide what subject that interests you. Write a first draft and then go away from the poetry for a while and come back with clear eyes so it can have the proper feel and love. Have fun writing poetry.

My name is Mel and here at http://www.ipublishabook.com you will get a chance to read some of my writings. I always wanted to write and publish books but never realize the challenge I would face trying to get a publisher to look at my manuscript. I went the route you always hear a writer should not go, and that was to self-publish.I enjoy writing poetry.

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www.ipublishabook.com

Five Reasons to Write Poetry

“You need nothing more to write poems than bits of string and thread and some dust from under the bed”

Marvin Bell

“Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition.”
Eli Khamarov

“Appreciating poetry is probably like appreciating anything else. It means having the generosity to let a thing be what it is, the patience to know it, a sense of the mystery in all living things, and a joy in new experience.”
M.C. Richards

You have a flash of insight, a metaphor for understanding electricity as water, a parallel to existence or just an inside reflection on what is wrong/right with the world. I’ve sat at this lake before the waterfall waiting for hours for more to follow, but that’s it and I start thinking about something else or worse, nothing at all, and then I forget what helped put the world in perspective.

Like journal writing, poetry can help record those thoughts and special insights in helping forge your feelings into a perspective so that you can start coming to terms with it, rather than having it subvert back to the inertia that carried the feeling or idea to consciousness to begin with. This can help you come to terms with the idea/feeling itself, to move forward with your growth as living human being. How? you ask?

1. It builds your brain.

The power of the metaphor, simile, parallel… figurative language is not only a good way to put things into perspective, but metaphors are easier to remember than a complex set of interactions. This is a way to grasp deeper meaning from perhaps a very mundane, or complex identity. It builds an understandable identity with which to contrast that is easier to grapple and engage in, in the process building pathways in your brain that would have been stopped cold otherwise.Â

And poetry exercises this muscle by encouraging figurative language providing a sounding ground for your ideas, feelings, reminiscences by putting them into a concrete perspective.

2. It’s therapeutic.

A dialog of one is still a dialog, and like journal writing provides an amiable outlet to vent our feelings. Not only that but we end up with something that is tangible and durable product of the struggle while coming to terms with it.Â

It is something we can show off, or keep around for a rainy day to either entertain ourselves, work on, or reminisce what you were thinking that day when you wrote it. It’s a little snapshot of your soul and what you were thinking when writing it.Â

This can grow into something new as you revise and/or write more as a poem can be never really finished. Thus it has the possibility of being exhaustless, while providing a forum for expression & understanding.

3. That tool you’ve developed is versatile.

Once you get the hang of writing poetry, there’s almost nothing you can’t do with it. It is an alternative form of communication. If you don’t believe me just look at all the greeting cards out there with this wit or wisdom scrolled up in Gothic lettering on every subject. It is a font of the English language, it’s just up to you what you want to put it up to.Â

I’ve written poems to magazines urging articles, I’ve used them to barter services and better grades in classes, I’ve written them to girlfriends. I’ve gotten people to laugh. They can be as complex or simple as you want to make them into, and I’ve found any place that required a logical argument, could always be appended with a poem in favor/or against something as well to clarify the position/picture, because after all, it’s just communication if on a more deeper level.

4. It encourages deeper intrapersonal relationships.

As you write, not only do ideas bloom, but you do also. Your vocabulary gets broader, your understanding about relationships between ideas grows and how this affects you and the world comes closer together. My biggest problem in dealing with people was not knowing whom I was, somewhere between egoless and consumer. Writing poetry enables the I in Identity, from which you can clearly communicate the you to the you in someone else.

People aren’t always going to be able to understand you, but writing poetry gives you an opportunity for personal space in which to critically think while expressing yourself to others in a coherent picture. Doesn’t mean you’ll come off all-knowing and wise, but that you’ll be given an opportunity to effectively communicate at your own pace which can come at a premium in this busy world.

5. You are opening yourself up to a wealth of human knowledge

By writing, you are doing the legwork in understanding other poets. There are as many ways to read poetry as there are people, but when you start thinking in a language are you more easily able to understand another in that language. There are thousands of poets and each of them write to different aim. Figurative language, prosody, sonics, description, narrative are all a language unto themselves and some will come easier for you to write than others, as well as understand. Poetry is a forum for exchange, not a universal language.

Writing poetry strengthens your reasoning and in so doing, yourcomprehension in just what that author means when he claims, all was mimsy in the borogroves. Best of all, it’s a free exchange of ideas.. there are thousands of websites and forums on the web and each have groups of people to interact and engage, both dead and alive, across the centuries from ancient Rome to the current Poet Laureate of the United States.

Vic Vosen is a writer, reader, and slam participant currently bonded in slavery as a mudlogger to the petroleoum industry from his education costs. He posts on Usenet forums, a blog, and various poetry web forums in his exploration and development of metaphor and sound.

Making a poem

Writing poetry is as easy as singing, well, actually bathroom singing. Anyone can do it and those that know the lessons and rules can excel. Poetry writing has to its vantage, the lenity of using the rules of language. Grammar and spelling for instance can be used or even misused, as against what the high school English teacher proclaimed (Grammar is the heart beat of language, miss one, end up dead!)

Poetry writing surges a sense of peace and fulfillment. It is of course “a spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions recollected in tranquility” as William Wordsworth aptly said. Though there lives a poet in every human, many don’t attempt the effort for the fear of being mocked at or not knowing how to express oneself.

With the very rudimentary tips you will regret having wasted so much time not writing poems. In most cases you might find yourself saying “Yeah I know that”. Still I am jotting them down because the simplest are the ones that elude at ease. Not all or even none of these guidelines might be applicable to all the poems, for poetry writing is all about being an outlaw of language rules.

I hope you find these tips useful and good luck for exploring the new dimension.

RULES – STRICTLY MEANT TO BE BROKEN

Poem is what you think it is

Write whatever you think is poem to you. Not Shelly, not Wordsworth, not Milton. You and you alone can conceive your poem. Poem can be anything. The following was the first poem I wrote (it took me courage to quote it here)

Cat on the wall

Bird on the tree

Flower on the bloom

Me on the bus.

To me its one of my best written poems, hey note the rhyme. Sense or no-sense, poetry is all about a thought related by words.

Self-realization through poetry

Poetry is not explaining what you know or what you want others to know. It is more of an inward journey. When you write a poem, it leads to self-realization of what you know and what you don’t. Now I am not talking anything spiritual. Writing about a cat will make you realize how much you love/hate/feel neutral about cats. It is more of a self expression to your self.

Say anything, mean anything

Don’t bother too much with what the reader might interpret. They are of course going to take a different sense to what you write. That is in fact one of the blessings of poetry. Don’t go on explaining details, if you do, then you will end up writing prose not a poem. Let there be abrupt endings, unfinished sentences, unquoted meanings, but always organize your thoughts for yourself, not the reader.

Create a style

This is not mandatory, however it helps. Not that your poetry need to be confined to one type, for instance nature poets doesn’t mean you have to write all the while about trees and birds. But if you enjoy writing about nature, do it more often. Poetry is all about self-satisfaction.

Give yourself credit Mr.Poet

Give a break, and give yourself some credit. Review every poem you write. Find out your favorite sentence or sense and treat yourself with your favorite dessert for it (don’t forge to keep track of calories along the side of the poem). Enjoy the poem, some may be masterpiece, some might be bauble. Call yourself a poet and glow in your own limelight.

Watch out

Grammar and spelling may be taken for granted. However “ALWAYS” edit your poem. Singin’ for singing is poetic, but signin’ for singing is non-sense. Watch out for careless mistakes, both grammatical and spelling.

Don’t expect instant recognition

Your immediate family and friends are all the fans you will have in the first sway. That is not your goal, if you want to reach far, you must stay put and write and write until you are recognized. It might even take a lifetime, but it is bound to happen, if and only if, you stick on and write more.

Stand your point

If you are one that enjoys refutation, then do it with sufficient pride and points. Standing your point is very important in such aspect and more important are cogent words and precise message relation. It is challenging and interesting to write such argumentative poems. Pay close attention.

Use the language weapon

Similes, metaphors, rimes, and many such language aids are readily available to make the poem more likable and enjoyable. Use them as much and as often as you can. Irony, humor, melodrama, pity can all garnish the poem if used wisely. Don’t over do them, or don’t try hard to explain why your humor poem is humorous.

Write about everything

One of the best ways to realize your thoughts on something is to write about it. Certain topics may be delicate and you might not want to write them because of the nature of the issue. Still WRITE IT. If as a teen you want to overcome your curiosity on sex, write about it, nothings going worse. You will be surprised about the knowledge and maturity you have over the topic and so will you shed your fear of understanding.

Have an audience

Letting others read your poem takes a lot of courage, especially for beginners. But that’s exactly what you have to do. You will be mocked, laughed, or even stoned. Never let that stop you. Some will find your poem invigorating. Welcome criticisms and use it to your favor. Be patient and enthusiastic, you are ought to find it contagious.

Those empty moments

Certain moments, you sit to write a poem, only to feel every word, every idea, every thought to be taken out of your brains. Can’t find the right word, can’t find the right concept, well close your note (and eyes, might help) and think. Then write. Never say “no more to write”.

Write responsibly

Though you may be writing for fun or as a pass time, always remember that a responsibility comes with a writer. Your thoughts may be influential to a sect of audience you may never heard of, so always hold up the moral obligation as a sensible writer.

Learn from others

Find time to read others poems. It may not be those of literature gurus, contemporary poems might by far be enjoyable and they might even give you an insight to different style and form of poetry writing. Analyze it and take the positives of it.

Write baubles

Write as many bad poems as you can. Make sure they end in your own trash. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite them millions of times, if need be, but never let a poem that doesn’t satisfy you leave your desk. It’s the one control you must have.

Remember your masterpieces

May be not all you pen are your favorite poems. Likewise, may be not all lines of a poem are of your poetic genius. Pick out the best of the rest, in your opinion and have it by heart. You could use them in causal conversations as well. You are sure to be welcomed and in turn you will feel encouraged. They will always come handy for an impressive conversation. BEWARE- don’t be that boring geek that always talks poetic.

Words Words Words

Vocabulary is not essentially the must to write a good poem. But mastering words sure does helps in a way. Using appropriate words is always welcomed. High sounding and bombastic is not what I mean, but simple and elegant words that can convey the right meaning without having to explain in detail are often an asset. It is also a good practice to refer to dictionary for right words and their grammatical meanings.

Read your poem aloud

This might sound bizarre. But it helps too. You will not only enjoy the poem more, but also your confidence will increase on it. You might have the feel of how others read it in their mind and also you will spot the misplaced and misaligned sentences.

Publish, don’t hesitate

Never be hesitant on whether your poetry will be accepted or not. That’s not your concern. Send it across to as many editors as possible, as many publishers you can think of. Some may be accepted, many may be discarded. That is not the end of your poetry. With the online media embracing everything under and beyond the sky, you can always find a place to fit in.

http://www.poeminmaking.com/

Word Choice in Poetry

Can poetry employ any sort of language? An odd question, but the beginning poet will often find his diction attacked as cliché or contrived. What can be said? Are there overall principles in important elements of literature?

Discussion

Diction or word choice is indeed a difficult area. We might look at the practice of successful poets, since what worked for them will presumably work for us, but the overwhelming problem is that fashions change. The concrete, vivid and unpretentious is often preferred today, but the eighteenth century excluded such words, producing manuals to good tasteas indeed did the sixteenth, though with different rules. Movements often start as a reaction to styles that have become flabby or overblown, but manifestos are not always followed through. Wordsworth, for example, championed everyday speech in his preface toLyrical Ballads, but wrote the poetry in an educated tongue.

You'll be concerned with current writing, but even less agreement prevails today on poetry's proper aspirations, styles or content. An innocuous word like upon will pass unnoticed by many editorial boards, but bring automatic rejection from others. Diction shows allegiances, and allegiances are what you must bear in mind when submitting work to magazines and competitions. Diction or word choice is a ground fought over by the contending schools of poetry, and there is no final arbiter.

Some larger observations are possible, however, and they come as much from critics and philosophers as practicing poets. Etymology is important, since the Saxon, Norman or Latin root gives words their characters and dispositions. Too idiomatic an expression calls up the mundane, and is inappropriate in many instances. The poetic diction of the eighteenth century, though much derided today, was an attempt to remove contemporary and irrelevant associations of words and so release the full emphasis of their primary meanings.

You will need to think things through, and not swallow all that pundits say. An abstract language is not necessarily a dead language. "Our literacy programme will make your Government more accountable, and so give back to the disadvantaged majority their ancient birthright of democracy", says the aspiring presidential candidate. "First remove screws E and G", says the workshop manual. Both are using language suited to their purposes, and your work must do the same. Distinctions between abstract and concrete tend to become hazy when etymologies are traced back, moreover, and many abstractions have their root in simple physical processes.

Remember that lexicons are governed by social usage. The Elizabethans embroidered words with religious, courtly and pastoral associations. These trappings were gradually dropped, and the eighteenth century imposed a more correct and classical diction. The Romantics introduce a new inner world with cold, pale, grey, home, child, morning, memory, ear, feel, hold, sleep, turn, weep, etc. Later come moon, stir, water, body, shadow, house.The mid-nineteenth century popularized dead, red, rain, stone. Nineteen thirties poetry was packed with references to industrial buildings and social change. Current poetry is very idiomatic, if not deliberately uncouth .

Suggestions

1. Vocabularies not only reflect interests and fashions, but must be broadly effective in a contemporary setting. That is the argument against poeticisms and out-of date words like thee, 'tis, maiden.

2. Words never possess wholly transparent meanings, but in the more affective poetry their latent associations, multiple meanings, textural suggestions and rhythmic power are naturally given freer rein.

3. The touchstone is always the intended audience. "Word too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet," said Johnson, and that observation remains true, as much for traditionalists writing inside a poetic tradition as for others trying to kindle poetry out of naked experience.

4. Place your poems alongside others in magazines or anthologies in which you'd like to be included. If they don't fit, one reason may be your word choice.

5. Perform your poems in workshops and readings. Pay attention to the reception and to comments afterwards.

6. If in doubt, err on the side of everyday usage, even if it means spoiling the odd line.

from poetrymagic.co.uk

Why Writers Write

Writing is not just another hobby, it is an emotion. The words are not just fitted together in sentences and paragraphs hoping to pass on a message, but it is form of expression of our greatest fears, hopes and dreams.

As a teenager I had my share of problems just like any other, but I was different... special. My mind was not at ease telling my parents or friends about a situation that had occurred or even might occur. I didn't feel that a journal was just as my feelings were hard to explain in ordinary English. I had to find a way to express my love and hate about certain subjects, no matter how large or small.

I grabbed a pencil and paper and started writing. Using images, sounds and smells was easier than I had thought. My mind then became at ease with myself and I could live another day without wondering who or what I was going to tell my thoughts to. As the weeks and months ran on I became even more comfortable with writing my thoughts and feelings on paper, I didn't feel discomfort any longer.

Ever since I have written. It doesn't matter what others say or think about my writings, because I know what these poems meant and the history behind each one. Knowing that every single poem has a story and emotion greater than the comprehension of others give me satisfaction when receiving flame mails stating that I suck potatoes or bananas are more interesting than my poetry.

Writers write not because of what others think. We write because it makes us feel great about putting something on paper that will stay apart of us forever. No matter how much someone says our writing stinks, there will be ten others who appreciate the time, effort and emotion put into each one, and we will know that our writing was meant for us and only us.

Poetry Styles

The style of writing poetry differs from person to person; long or short meters, three or four lines to a stanza. But the great thing is, no matter how a poem is written it still holds great emotion. Some techniques used in poetry are onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, rhyming, simile and metaphor.

Onomatopoeia is one of the easiest to learn and use (but not spell). The definition of onomatopoeia is a word imitating a sound. For example; 'buzz', 'moo' and 'beep'. This can be used in a variety of ways giving the reader a 'hands on' feel.

One technique that you might be familiar with is alliteration. This procedure is used by starting three or more words with the same sound. An example of this would be 'The crazy crackling crops.' The three words don't have to have the exact same beginning to have this effect.

The next style is assonance. It is defined as a repetition of vowel sounds within syllables with changing consonants. This is also used in many different circumstances. One would be 'tilting at windmills.' Notice the vowels within each syllable sound the same.

Rhyming is probably the most well-known technique used. However unlike popular belief, it does not need to be within a poem to make it a poem. It is what it is.. a technique.

As for similes, they are often used within poetry. They are an expression that compares one thing to another. A paradigm of this would be 'The milk tasted like pickles.' This method is used in all forms of poetry and generally has the words 'like' or 'as.'

The last but not least style is metaphor. A metaphor is a word or phrase used one way to mean another. Metaphors are sometimes hard to spot and take some thinking to figure out, but they give writers more power to express their thoughts about a certain situation. One famous case where a metaphor is used is within 'The Raven' by Edgar Allen Poe. In fact, not only is it found within the story, the story itself is a metaphor of memory and the constant reminder of the narrator's loss.

These techniques are seen throughout history within both famous and amateur poems alike. To have a full grasp of poetry onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, rhyming, simile and metaphor should be household words.

To view a more comprehensive definition list of go here: Poetry Dictionary