Right. How do you write a poem? I mean, without feeling all self-conscious about it and worrying about what poems are supposed to sound like and getting your head stuck in some other century and ending up with at best a bad parody and at worst a limp imitation1. Come on come on come on, deadlines to meet, I haven’t got all day.
- I originally wrote “limp invitation”. Feel free to psychoanalyse that once you’ve addressed the main body of the post (I’d like to address HER main body, wha). [↩]
I read that as “imp limitation”. Help.
Oh and I’m no help on the poem front. I’m good with tacky limericks, but that’s about it.
The only reason I want to get the poem out of the way is so I can get back to working on my imp limitation strategy. Buggers, they are.
Poetry is the last bastion of the arts that I just don’t get. I’ve even managed to appreciate some classical and opera but apart from maybe something modern and relevant like Jeremiah Zephaniah I don’t really get poetry and couldn’t tell the difference between a masterpiece and a rhyming couplet on the wall in the jacks.
Hey dere Professor B. I can appreciate it plenty, I just have this mental block when it comes to writing it. I think we’re taught from an early age that poetry is A Big Deal and Profound and Deep and so on, and it warps our ability to just enjoy it in the same way we enjoy prose. F’rinstance, there isn’t necessarily any difference between a masterpiece and a jacks couplet, but you sure as hell wouldn’t know that from secondary school English.
Writing Poetry.
Can be so awfully hard.
Try a haiku, Colm.
You might have an i
dea there Lottie m’dear
…
fuck it, not bothered
For someone with a degree in English, I have never cared for poetry. In fact, I always went out of my way to ensure I wouldn’t have to study a single poem
Write me some prose and get the juices flowing.
Oh man, I’m writing the hell out of some prose the last couple of weeks. Writing it to within an inch of its life. It’s brilliant.
Send me some?
*GASP*
AM I IN IT?!!!
*composes self*
Why my good man, would you be so kind as to email your work so far? I enjoy your scripts.
Who says poetry can’t just be some structured prose? You’re good at that so stick it into some odd format and run with it. Free verse baby, all the way.
yes, I agree with Lottie, write a Haiku.
I already did, kind of.
LN, I just bought a load of postcards so I’ll send you a short short story. I think I have your address somewhere but email it to me again just to be sure. Ruth, same goes for you. Short stories for everyone!
I would highly Recommend the 19th century and Consider myself not “stuck” but Enlightened.
The Poem
The Poem it must a willy-wag
Repeating Sounds that vowel-nag
To thus Remind of Bygone Days
And Honor those gone to their Grays.
It must be Fancy, must be Meet;
Must rhyme and have a kind of beet:
For vegetables make Metaphor
Whilst modern Poesy makes Us snore.
Percy Bisque Silly
Copyright Worldwide Forever
Patent Pending
Naturally I meant no offence. It is a fine century. But you’ve hit the nail on the head: it must, must be Meet. And alas, no Meetermaid I.
One of my colleagues in work is the great Niall McMonagle, the fella who compiles poetry anthologies for schools. Over lunch one day he was nattering about the importance of teaching poetry and he referred to it as “the purest form of language.” Such a simple observation, but one that made me understand poetry in a new way. So now I view it as a way of distilling your thoughts into the most coherent, concise way possible. Rhythm and meter are really just a bonus, if they happen.
Having said all that, I haven’t a fucking clue how to write a poem. Take your notions and express them in the briefest, most elegant way you can, I guess.
Write five syllables
Then start a new line
Repeat as you see
fit until you get
bored and stop the mess
Check your email m’dear
If your writing a certain style of poem, like a sonnet or a villanelle, then your going to have to worry about the style, if not just write a damn poem. Poem are just personal prose.
i want a pome! or a short story! or a postcard!
a bit of whatever’s going, please.
Address me. I’m gonna turn this into a proper project. More details soon.
I recently wrote a poem for a poetry competition by taking an old blog post and hitting ‘return’ at the end of every sentence. Worked for me.