Know It From a Poet
Poetry is where mind meets heart. It’s quite tricky to write good poetry, and the poetry job market sure is looking quite grim compared to more popular things like fiction and songwriting. Think about it—can you even name a poet that didn’t die 50 years ago?
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Some might argue it’s because poetry is a weaker genre, but I’d argue it’s because most people just don’t know how to write a good poem. What even makes a good poem? It’s easy to tell when a story is good: it has a structured beginning, middle, and end with a great plot that keeps you engaged and wanting more. But what are the ingredients that go into making a good pot of poetry? This is Know It From a Poet, where you can get the earliest, most latest poetry tips.
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Poetry isn’t fiction or nonfiction: it’s more in the same boat as songwriting. Writing a good poem is a lot like writing a good song: good poems can be “catchy” and have a “progression.” We’ll discuss this concept in future issues, but for now let’s focus on what specific things we can do to improve our poetry.
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There are traps that you don’t want to fall into when writing a poem. Poetry is one of, if not the most, expressive forms of writing. Some philosophers even believe that poetry is a form of purest expression. Because of this, we want to make sure that our poems actually express something clearly—or if not clearly, for a good reason. Let’s take a look at this poem:
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Flow ‘er
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The flower blooms
Into my heart
I kiss it farewell
Seeds falling
Time ticking
The leaf falling into my heart
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This is just a soup of words, there’s nothing really being expressed here. We may get a certain feeling from this poem, but no message is directly expressed from the contents. You may happen to weep at this poem I created in 10 seconds, but that would be more akin to someone crying at a slab of paint someone randomly put on a canvas: it’s an accidental emotion that’s received, not an intentional one. We want to be deliberate with our poetry and make sure that what we write justifies a reader feeling a certain way.
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We also need to be cautious of being too verbose whenever we write poetry. It would be an ignominy for your work to not be internalized adequately due to the utilization of a conglomerate of overly verbose diction, ironically cascading to sciolism. Unless we’re writing a cipher, we want our work to be understood by others. There’s nothing inherently wrong with using “big words”—you only encounter problems when obscure words are used when simpler ones could better express yourself. Here’s an example:
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In her eyes was an ocean
With soft blue sloshing back and forth
You could get lost in her eyes by accident
Becoming captivated by the stories behind them
But perhaps the most grand stories
Were the ones that her eyes didn’t tell
Because though they were pulchritudinous
They kept secrets
And for good reason
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The poem flows pretty well until you’re hit with “pulchritudinous.” What an ugly word for “beautiful”! There’s not a good reason to use that word instead of “majestical,” “gorgeous,” or perhaps even “magical.” Let’s try feeding into “magical” a bit:
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…Because though they were magical
Just like a magician, they kept secrets
And for good reason,
They could not tell them
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Much better, isn’t it?
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There’s a lot more to say about how to construct a good poem, but with these 2 pieces of advice—having a clear main message and sensible word choice—you’re on track to not blow it like a bad poet.
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Cheers,
-The Rare Poet :)
PS---Name reveal soon?