Well, this is quite the most interesting little thing AD has added yet. Very curious about this, I am. Well, I'll start off I suppose with what I discovered today about how I write.
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Poets...
When you're writing a poem, do you think about it, the message, what words you plan to use next, which image you portrayed before, now, and then in the future stanzas? As you write it/type it, are you with full concentration on your poem? I find out of experience that when I think too hard and too much about a poem, it may come out well written, but the flow of it isn't really perfected. A lot of times, especially now that we're posting our poetry up, authors feel obliged to make at least one poem a day to post up and share with everybody so sometimes, and now I notice, a lot of times, the authors are straining their words and the flow, rhythym and melody of the poetry is trashed. Needless to say, the idea might be good but a poem isn't a poem without flow, whether it has rhyme or not.
Some people find me a complete nutter when I say this, but anybody can write. (Please, do not throw a tomato at me.) There is a certain mind-frame, zone, perspective or whichever you'd like to call it that a poet can go into where the poem is created within milliseconds. For me, my best poems (and I can tell they're my best out of sheer recognition, the reviews I receive [and I mean by quality not quantity] and how people react to it who aren't writers) are the poems that make themselves. I can't tell you how many writer's I've heard after this statement proclaim, 'Oooh yes, I know what you mean. It's so indescribable.' Not everybody knows it, discovers it and uses it properly. Some people have found it but they much rather think about what they're writing. Did you know sometimes I come up in an instant a rhythmic pattern in my head with a few words that melodise together and then within milliseconds the first stanza is created and after that my subconcious has already made the rest of the poem? Yes, this is how 95% of my poetry is spat out. I am not saying that I'm special and have found the proper way and that 100% of my poems are spectacular. Probably 25% I feel good about my writings.
So the trick to writing a good poem: Don't think about it. Half the time I don't know what my topic is, what my point is, or what I'm trying to say... it just comes out as it does and the poem creates itself. I find myself rhyming in my head in the market, in dance class, talking on the phone, ... I am constantly thinking no matter what I do and with that a rhyme corrupts. I highly reccommend you **do not think** when you write. There are many times I want to write about one thing but when I'm writing, or trying to write about it and I let myself just delve into the poem, another completely different topic comes up. Eventually when the time is right and your whole being feels that the poem with the topic you originally wanted will be created. Let time solve its rhythym and melody.
Some of you may be snarling and thinking, 'What does a sixteen-year-old girl know about writing properly? She just is barely ending her high school days!' Wrong. You could have never have gotten an English class and still feel this openness of the mind you get when you write proper poetry. Tell me which poetic stanza *you* think is stressed and which is let go of:
POEM A
Hurdled waters fondled
the caressed bridge of faith.
I captured radiance with my smile
as I felt your embrace.
POEM B
Hurdled the waters that did fondle
a bridge that was caressed with true faith.
Thy smile captured radiance
as thou presented a glowing embrace.
It might be a little difficult to discover, and I won't tell you which one was strained. It has nothing to do with the language I chose to use, but it's the feel. Poetry is really all about feel.
I think I'd rather sit down and read a poetry collection that is bombarded with poems that the poet let flow out and maybe I don't think is too appealing than a poetry collection that a poet put together with force and it may rhyme well, but its flow is lacking. The flow is before melody and rhyme!!
Poets List:
1 Unconcious Flow
2 Melody
2.5 Feel/Sense
3 Rhyme
4 Satisfaction at End
RE: Unconcious Flow: We just talked about it above.
RE: Melody/Feel: This does not coincide with rhyme, but it does coincide with feeling. A melody is a flow, but it has a certain beat to it. You will FEEL this and SENSE it as you read it in your head.
RE: Rhyme: If you have a rhyme, try to stay consistent. If you don't stay consistent, the complexity rises as you change the rhythmic pattern and make sure the transition is smooth and goes unnoticed! This also raises the complexity of the flow.
RE: Satisfaction at End: If you're not satisfied and feel there is more to say... SAY IT. A poem, to my knowledge, was never defined as four stanzas more or less. Go with it. If it turns to be epic, go for it. If it needs to be two stanzas, okay. Make sure you feel like it's ALL OUT.
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I hope this has helped you out!!
Warm Love
*Brittany Renee*
