10 Tips on How to Write a Poem

1. Know Your Vision. 

If you don’t know where you’re going, how can you get there?

You need to know what you are trying to accomplish before you begin any project. Writing a poem is no exception. What you visualise will materialise in season. 

Before you begin, ask yourself what you want your poem to “do.” Do you want your poem to describe an event in your life, protest a social injustice, or describe the beauty of nature? Once your know the goal of your poem, you can conform your writing to that goal. Take each main element in your poem and make it serve the main purpose of the poem.

2. Avoid Clichés

Stephen Minot defines cliché as: “A metaphor or simile that has become so familiar from overuse that the vehicle … no longer contributes any meaning whatever to the tenor. It provides neither the vividness of a fresh metaphor nor the strength of a single unmodified word….The word is also used to describe overused but nonmetaphorical expressions such as ‘tried and true’ and ‘each and every'” (Three Genres: The Writing of Poetry, Fiction and Drama, 405).

Cliché also describes other overused literary elements. “Familiar plot patterns and stock characters are clichés on a big scale” (Minot 148). Clichés can be overused themes, character types, or plots. For example, the “Lone Ranger” cowboy is a cliché because it has been used so many times that people no longer find it original.

A work full of clichés is like a plate of old food: unappetizing.

Clichés work against original communication. People value creative talent. They want to see work that rises above the norm. When they see a work without clichés, they know the writer has worked his or her tail off, doing whatever it takes to be original. When they see a work full to the brim with clichés, they feel that the writer is not showing them anything above the ordinary. (In case you hadn’t noticed, this paragraph is chock full of clichés… I’ll bet you were bored to tears.)

Clichés dull meaning. Because clichéd writing sounds so familiar, people can complete finish whole lines without even reading them. If they don’t bother to read your poem, they certainly won’t stop to think about it. If they do not stop to think about your poem, they will never encounter the deeper meanings that mark the work of an accomplished poet.

Examples of Clichés:

busy as a bee tired as a dog working my fingers to bone beet red

on the horns of a dilemma blind as a bat eats like a horse eats like a bird

How to Improve a Cliché

I will take the cliché “as busy as a bee” and show how you can express the same idea without cliché.

1. Determine what the clichéd phrase is trying to say.
   In this case, I can see that “busy as a bee” is a way to describe the state of being busy.
2. Think of an original way to describe what the cliché is trying to describe.
   For this cliché, I started by thinking about busyness. I asked myself the question, “What things are associated with being busy?” I came up with: college, my friend Jessica, corporation bosses, old ladies making quilts and canning goods, and a computer, fiddlers fiddling. From this list, I selected a thing that is not as often used in association with busyness: violins.
3. Create a phrase using the non-clichéd way of description.
   I took my object associated with busyness and turned it into a phrase: “I feel like a bow fiddling an Irish reel.” This phrase communicates the idea of “busyness” much better than the worn-out, familiar cliché. The reader’s mind can picture the insane fury of the bow on the violin, and know that the poet is talking about a very frenzied sort of busyness. In fact, those readers who know what an Irish reel sounds like may even get a laugh out of this fresh way to describe “busyness.”

Try it! Take a cliché and use these steps to improve it. You may even end up with a line you feel is good enough to put in a poem!

3. Avoid Sentimentality.

Sentimentality is “dominated by a blunt appeal to the emotions of pity and love …. Popular subjects are puppies, grandparents, and young lovers” (Minot 416). “When readers have the feeling that emotions like rage or indignation have been pushed artificially for their own sake, they will not take the poem seriously” (132).

Minot says that the problem with sentimentality is that it detracts from the literary quality of your work (416). If your poetry is mushy or teary-eyed, your readers may openly rebel against your effort to invoke emotional response in them. If that happens, they will stop thinking about the issues you want to raise, and will instead spend their energy trying to control their own gag reflex.

4. Use Images.

“BE A PAINTER IN WORDS,” says UWEC English professor emerita, poet, and songwriter Peg Lauber. She says poetry should stimulate six senses:

• sight
• hearing
• smell
• touch
• taste
• kinesiology (motion)

Examples.

• “Sunlight varnishes magnolia branches crimson” (sight)
• “Vacuum cleaner’s whir and hum startles my ferret” (hearing)
• “Penguins lumber to their nests” (kinesiology)

Lauber advises her students to produce fresh, striking images (“imaginative”). Be a camera. Make the reader be there with the poet/speaker/narrator. (See also: “Show, Don’t (Just) Tell“)

5. Use Metaphor and Simile.

Use metaphor and simile to bring imagery and concrete words into your writing.

Metaphor

A metaphor is a statement that pretends one thing is really something else:

Example: “The lead singer is an elusive salamander.”

This phrase does not mean that the lead singer is literally a salamander. Rather, it takes an abstract characteristic of a salamander (elusiveness) and projects it onto the person. By using metaphor to describe the lead singer, the poet creates a much more vivid picture of him/her than if the poet had simply said “The lead singer’s voice is hard to pick out.”

Simile

A simile is a statement where you say one object is similar to another object. Similes use the words “like” or “as.”

Example: “He was curious as a caterpillar” or “He was curious, like a caterpillar”

This phrase takes one quality of a caterpillar and projects it onto a person. It is an easy way to attach concrete images to feelings and character traits that might usually be described with abstract words.

Note: A simile is not automatically any more or less “poetic” than a metaphor. You don’t suddenly produce better poems if you replace all your similes with metaphors, or vice versa. The point to remember is that comparison, inference, and suggestion are all important tools of poetry; similes and metaphors are tools that will help in those areas.

6. Use Concrete Words Instead of Abstract Words.

Concrete words describe things that people experience with their senses.

• orange
• warm
• cat

A person can see orange, feel warm, or hear a cat.

Poets use concrete words help the reader get a “picture” of what the poem is talking about. When the reader has a “picture” of what the poem is talking about, he/she can better understand what the poet is talking about.

Abstract words refer to concepts or feelings.

• liberty
• happy
• love

“Liberty” is a concept, “happy” is a feeling, and no one can agree on whether “love” is a feeling, a concept or an action.

A person can’t see, touch, or taste any of these things. As a result, when used in poetry, these words might simply fly over the reader’s head, without triggering any sensory response. Further, “liberty,” “happy,” and “love” can mean different things to different people. Therefore, if the poet uses such a word, the reader may take a different meaning from it than the poet intended.

Change Abstract Words Into Concrete Words

To avoid problems caused by using abstract words, use concrete words.

Example: “She felt happy.”

This line uses the abstract word “happy.” To improve this line, change the abstract word to a concrete image. One way to achieve this is to think of an object or a scene that evokes feelings of happiness to represent the happy feeling.

Improvement: “Her smile spread like red tint on ripening tomatoes.”

This line uses two concrete images: a smile and a ripening tomato. Describing the smile shows the reader something about happiness, rather than simply coming right out and naming the emotion. Also, the symbolism of the tomato further reinforces the happy feelings. Red is frequently associated with love; ripening is a positive natrual process; food is further associated with being satisfied.

7. Communicate Theme.

Poetry always has a theme. Theme is not just a topic, but an idea with an opinion.

Theme = Idea + Opinion

Topic: “The Vietnam War”

This is not a theme. It is only a subject. It is just an event. There are no ideas, opinions, or statements about life or of wisdom contained in this sentence

Theme: “History shows that despite our claims to be peace-loving, unfortunately each person secretly dreams of gaining glory through conflict.”

This is a theme. It is not just an event, but a statement about an event. It shows what the poet thinks about the event. The poet strives to show the reader his/her theme during the entire poem, making use of literary techniques.

8. Subvert the Ordinary.

Poets’ strength is the ability to see what other people see everyday in a new way. You don’t have to be special or a literary genius to write good poems–all you have to do is take an ordinary object, place, person, or idea, and come up with a new perception of it.

Example: People ride the bus everyday.

Poets’ Interpretation: A poet looks at the people on the bus and imagines scenes from their lives. A poet sees a sixty-year old woman and imagines a grandmother who runs marathons. A poet sees a two-year old boy and imagines him painting with ruby nail polish on the toilet seat, and his mother struggling to not respond in anger.

Take the ordinary and turn it on its head. (The word “subvert” literally means “turn upside down”.)

9. Rhyme with Extreme Caution.

Rhyme and meter (the pattern of stressed and unstressed words) can be dangerous if used the wrong way. Remember sing-song nursery rhymes? If you choose a rhyme scheme that makes your poem sound sing-song, it will detract from the quality of your poem.

10. Revise, Revise, Revise

The first completed draft of your poem is only the beginning. Poets often go through several drafts of a poem before considering the work “done.”

To revise:

• Put your poem away for a few days, and then come back to it. When you re-read it, does anything seem confusing? Hard to follow? Do you see anything that needs improvement that you overlooked the first time? Often, when you are in the act of writing, you may leave out important details because you are so familiar with the topic. Re-reading a poem helps you to see it from the “outsider’s perspective” of a reader.
• Show your poem to others and ask for criticism. Don’t be content with a response like, “That’s a nice poem.” You won’t learn anything from that kind of response. Instead, find people who will tell you specific things you need to improve in your poem.

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How to Become a Successful Poet

How to Become a Successful Poet

Poems are little machines made of words. If you want to make them go, it'll take some work, but you can learn to be a master-tinkerer in the workshop of your poems. By learning as much as you can about the poetry written today and by writing constantly, aggressively, and passionately, you can become a successful poet.

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Part 1 of 2: Getting Started

1
 Study poetry from every era.

Try to learn about the different periods and movements in poetry, from the Romantic era to the Beats, as well as contemporary poetry being written by people who are still alive. If you're going to write poetry in the 21st century, you need to read other poets living in the 21st century.













2 
Write constantly.

A successful poet is one who is constantly engaged with poetry, reading, writing, and revising their work. Successful poets don't wait until "inspiration" strikes to write a poem, they get to work at their desk, computer, or journal, treating the writing of a poem as the work that it is. Like a successful businessman heads to the store and a successful doctor heads to the office each day, the successful poet heads to the poem.

Many successful poets write early in the morning, while other night-owls find it more effective to stay up late and madly dash out their wild verses. Whatever works for you is appropriate, but it's important to develop a writing routine and stick to it. You don't need to write every day, necessarily, but learn what routine will allow you to produce the most good poetry.

3 
Keep a poetry image journal.

Carry it everywhere you go, so that if you come up with a poem or idea, you can jot it down. You don't have to write a full poem every time you sit down to write, as many successful poets build their poems like sculptures, by collaging together little fragments of lines, images, and found language from their image journals. Keep an ear out for weird turns of phrase and nice bits of language that might sneak into your poems.

May poets keep a portfolio or journal of all the poems they're currently working on, to have them in a convenient place for gradually editing and finalising.

4 
Kill your darlings.

A successful poet revises their work. Aggressively. A poem isn't finished just because you typed it up and printed it out, or because it rhymes, or because you like it. An effective poem moves a reader outside of yourself, and communicates. An effective poem is challenging to write, and will only come with great effort and careful revision. Invest in a good craft book and read lots of poetry, finding out what you like and learning from the tricks of the masters. Let poems sit in the drawer for a few weeks, or even months before you return to them with fresh eyes and reevaluate them. In the meantime, keep writing new poems, and keep reading poems you like.

5
 Share your work with good poets and accept criticism gracefully.

Some people will like your poetry, others won't. Don't dwell on what the haters say, but take advice graciously and continue writing and revising your work constantly. Learn everything you can from people who know more than you.

Part 2 of 2: Learning the Trade

1 A successful poet needs to learn about traditional poetic forms and be comfortable writing within strict guidelines as well as free-verse. Can you write a couple lines in iambic tetrameter if the poem calls for it? What about a villanelle? Studying traditional forms will make you a better reader and a better writer.

2 
Consider studying poetry formally.

Many schools, community centers, and libraries offer after-school poetry workshops as an extra-curricular activity for reasonable prices, where you can read others' work, study poetry, and participate in a poetry workshop. If you are lucky enough you’ll find some free workshops, but whatever you do be hungry for success. In a workshop, you'll all share new work and critique everyone's work in a welcoming environment. It can be a great way to improve drastically, both by getting an experienced teacher and other poets' feedback.

At the college level, studying poetry is a fundamental part of any creative writing program, and most English departments offer a wide variety of poetry courses that a successful poet would be foolish not to pursue.

3 
Research venues that will publish your work.

It's a sad truth: more poetry is published every successive year, and less of it is read by the average reader. There are literally hundreds of high-quality literary magazines publishing poets like you, people who engage with poems, love reading them, and want their voice to be heard. Book prizes are also common, for a small reading fee. If you've got enough poems to put a book together, try entering your manuscript and seeing what happens.

4 
Figure out how you're going to make money.

Walt Whitman worked as an ambulance driver and a nurse while he wrote his classic American poems, while Frank O'Hara worked at an art museum and wrote poems on his lunch break. Many poets seek careers in academic fields, while others become musicians, truck drivers, or parents. Whatever you do, keep writing your poems, and take your art seriously.

5
 "Read your poems to a construction worker on his lunch break."

Amiri Baraka, mid-century American Poet and performer, famously offered the advice that poets should read their poems to construction workers on their lunch break, and that if they didn't get beaten over the head, they might actually have something. It's good advice. There's a lot of noise in the world, and your rhyming poem about a bird on your windowsill might have a hard time cutting through the noise. A successful poet finds some way to do just that.
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Tips

•   Always write with a free mind. Don't make haste to finish the poem, it takes some time for you to fully dwell on the poem. It requires the feeling!

•   Try to write poems requested by a reader. This gives much more experience than compared to the one written out of interest.

•   Try writing with different styles and moods to see which fits you best. Ask yourself, "how can I best portray my voice/message." Poetry is as much for other people as yourself.

Be you and you yourself...that will bring out the inner feelings of you and help to convey those feelings in rhythmic words because that's what poetry is all about!

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How to become a better poet?

How to become a better poet?

One of the common question people normally ask me is how to write amazing poems?

Well the answer is simple write constantly, aggressively, and passionately, so that you’ll become a successful poet.

Most good poetry comes from a place deep in the subconscious, judging your poems as you’re writing them can be problematic. If you’re worried that your poetry isn’t strong, that your metaphors are wobbly, that no one will be interested in your subject matter, then you’re clipping your poem’s wings at the same time that you’re asking it to take flight.

Here is one way of writing that works for some poets. Feel free to expand and alter this as you please to suit your own writing needs!

1. To write better poems, turn off the part of your brain that is conscious of what other readers might think of your poetry. Let your subconscious do the writing. Don’t go chasing after the words you want to write; instead, follow the words as they come from within you. Don’t censor, second-guess, or hesitate. Just open your mind and your heart so that it can make connections that you might not consciously see.

One way of “turning off your inner critic” is to set an intention before you sit down to write. Take a few deep breaths and gently tell yourself that you’re open to whatever it is that your mind is about to do. Consciously allow your subconscious to take over. Intend to follow where the muse leads—even if what you end up with is messy, garbled, clumsy, and unfocused. Embrace that lack of control as part of the process.

2. After you’ve done the brainstorming portion of your poem-writing, put it all down for a while. Don’t rush yourself into creating a masterpiece. Like good food, good writing takes time. When your poem sits quietly for a while, the various flavors of it will mingle and recombine in new ways. You open your poem up to new levels when you leave it alone for a while.

(However, if you’re worried that you’ll lose the “fire” behind your poem, start the revisions right away. You can always put down the revised poem for a while and come back to it later on.)

3. Finally, after you’ve taken the time you need to get a little perspective on your own writing, go back to your poem with your “editing hat” on. Because the creative act is generative and the act of editing is critical, it can help to break those two processes apart and tackle them one at a time. Edit carefully and without judging your own creativity. When critiquing your own writing, always strive to be the generous and sensitive editor that you would be for someone else.

Sometimes writing better poems isn’t a matter of learning more technique or doing more thinking. It’s a matter of NOT thinking. Dig deep to let your subconscious do some writing, and your poetry will grow.

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