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#21
05-09-2006, 04:44 PM
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Re: how to get started writing poetry
[ QUOTE ]
can't go wrong with a limerick There once was a man named Tony Who felt his poems were quite phony He went to OOT And cried out "help me!" then he went and had sex with a pony i couldnt think of a good last line, but what a masterpiece! [/ QUOTE ] But OOT doesn't rhyme with "Help me"... 
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#22
05-09-2006, 05:10 PM
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Re: how to get started writing poetry
Lots of good advice in this thread...none of it mine...
Screw all what I first posted--its just blather... I've got some better, practical advice for you-- Check out the poetry works of Raymond Carver, James Wright, Charles Bukowski, James Dickey, William Stafford, Richard Hugo, Tony Hoagland, Henry Rollins and Phil Stephens. Then just sack up and write like these guys--no frills or effete craft, just honesty and smarts. Let 'er rip. gl for real, --GA
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#23
05-09-2006, 05:18 PM
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Re: how to get started writing poetry
Try using the rush write technique. You think of a topic, set a timer, and put pen to paper for like ten minutes. The rule is, the pen keeps writing, even if you cant stop writing- even if all you can write is "i can't think of what else to say" that's what you write. there aren't any other rules. even if you get off topic or write bad stuff, it doesn't matter. This is going to be the source of your material. when you're done you can go back and pick out some words or phrases for your poem. It's a great way to get rid of the blank page fear.
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#24
05-09-2006, 05:24 PM
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Re: how to get started writing poetry
A couple things.
One, if you want to write poetry to conceal things, you won't write very good poetry. Art is all about transcending the banal, even if it's very simple. It's exactly your honesty and feelings that will make your poetry worth reading. You may be at cross-purposes with yourself, then. Why do you want to show it to friends? Is it for approval? If so -- of yourself, or of your poems? Or, somehow, yourself through your poems? If it's the last, you may do just as well or better simply by talking to your friends. You may also want to hope you have very uncritical friends or ones with poor taste. If you want people to admire your poetry for its art and/or admire you for being able to create that art, then you are brought back to ultimately how good the poems are, which is very separate from how much your friends like you or know no better than to like something you've created which may well be crap, but crap from a friend they care about and can relate to. So, as the circle of people you want to appeal to narrows from the whole world, to your friends, to yourself, you need less and less thought and polish in your work, and a lot less talent. Writing is one of the best ways to learn how you think and who you are, and you never need show a word of it to anyone to get enormous value from it. So don't associate writing's reception with what you really want and need from it. Just be sure you are very clear on what you want and need from it, if possible. Or you might set yourself up for disappointment. On another note, as to writing poetry in general, it helps to understand that language has rhythms, and so do stories. Poetry came from song, and should be musical. A single wrong note in poetry can really stand out in exactly the same way it can when one plays music, because we are dealing with the same thing. If you can find the rhythm to your thoughts and feelings, you can create a rush of emotion, a witty rejoinder, or an expansive breath of realization, and let those rhythms draw out the obvious and the subterranean rhythms of your own heart and soul. Language and music can work together to channel who you are, with you being sometimes none the wiser until you've seen the result. Poetry and art can be wonderful discoveries. But they still benefit from discipline. What is called free-verse or free-form poetry is often nothing more than cludging prose chopped randomly into indifferent lines. Enjoy all your writing, but remember the music in your poetry, or it won't be poetic at all.
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#28
05-09-2006, 07:06 PM
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Re: how to get started writing poetry
[ QUOTE ]
ok, so I want to write some poems. I've been going through some wierd [censored] in my life, and I usually get myself through [censored] by writing about it. I write either streaming thoughts about how I feel or sometimes semi-fictional short stories to help me look at my problem from an outsiders perspective. The thing is, I've always kept all my writing private, as it reveals a lot of details about what I think. I want to share work with friends, and I think poetry might be a form where I can sufficiently express my emotions without revealing details. I've been reading a lot and trying to figure out what style I want to use. naratives tend to just flow for me, but I cannot get a poem down on paper that doesn't seem stupid after I read it. if anyone here has written poetry, I'd appreicate some pointers on how to get started. [/ QUOTE ] get an apple computer and find a starbucks
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#29
05-10-2006, 04:50 AM
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Re: how to get started writing poetry
Just do it. I don't know if you're familiar with Charles Bukowski, but he pretty much just decided to it and excelled at it. If anyone reading this isn't into poetry at all (like I pretty much am) read some Bukowski and I all but guarantee it will change your opinion of poetry.
Edit: and don't rhyme.
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#30
05-10-2006, 05:35 PM
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Re: how to get started writing poetry
mikech, brit, blarg, georgia, and everyone else
thanks for the replies. I don't even remember making this op, I think I was pretty gone when I typed it. Here is something I just slammed out which is either a poem of some sort of a cluster of sentences arranged to sort of look like a poem (i'm not sure I know the difference) be brutal. I never got the chance and I'll never get the chance to see if we could be together. Regection, dissapointment, heartbreak pale in comparison to having and losing a glimmer of hope of finding the one you were destined to be with. Politics, black skirts, green eyes blur together like the lost days of a new season not yet begun. One hundred fifty six miles stand between us like a barren wasteland, filled not with remains of lost love but of love that never had the chance to be.
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