If you've always dreamed of writing poetry, here's your chance. We'll feature simple poetry writing tips from the book : "How to Write Poetry" by Cynthia Namaste, and we'll practice along the way.
Tip #1 on Sensory Writing: Build imagery by thinking of a favorite place you want to describe using all your five senses. Then select the imagery you want from your list to set the mood for your poem.
Practice: I want to describe a favorite beach. Sensory Images
.
Sight Sound Taste Smell
clear blue quiet swish of salty taste tangy smell
sky the waves of sea water of the sea
swaying palm wind rustling the imagined taste fresh air
trees leaves of boiled crab drifting smell
aquamarine screeching of thirst quenching of lemon
sea seagulls taste of ice cold massage
cam cooling faraway sound of water oil
waters foghorn aroma of
fluffy cloud rattling of a motor barbecue
formations boat on a spit
Touch: gritty feel of sand under my feet, exhilarating feel of
wind on my face, refreshing splash of water on my
legs, smooth feel of sand under water
The sand beneath the water
Tickles like sugar
melting on my tongue.
What if they are crystals,
Wishing to grow out of the water?
The low murmur of the waves,
The swishing of wind among the palms
Reach the drums inside my head and set them pulsing
Through the fluff of floating castles.
The clouds came down, or I went up?
By what vanquishing?
The splash of sea tastes like the shell
Of a clam cooked in salted butter
And spread on a slice of pan de sal.
Standing here on this blue space of shiny stars,
As the sun dips slowly into sleep,
I take the joy of morning and press it to my heart
Until the dawn returns to taste the sand.
Mood: calm, relaxed, peaceful, carefree
Free Verse Practice Poem:
This is paragraph text. Double click here to edit and add your own text.
Tip #2: A traditional three-line poem uses the first two lines to describe imagery and a final one to give meaning to it all. The haiku is a three-line poem of five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables again.
Mood: contemplative, meditative, nostalgic
Three-line Haiku Practice Poems:
As the years deepen
Thunder yields and
clouds grow thin
Rainbows rise within
Around the headstone Underneath the
spreading oak
Marigolds bloom.
Driftwood in the sand
Cast in silent tortured
shapes
By an unseen hand
Like lines on the leaves
Of the forests in
heaven
Paths we are given
Tip #3 on Personification: Giving human qualities to
inanimate objects
Mood: mysterious, fantasy-like, searching, quest
Personification Practice Poem:
The dark sculptured door waits in silence
And it beguiles me.
The chiseled garden speaks of
adventures on exoplanets,
murder mysteries on trains,
the madness of monkeys.
But the fragrance of sandalwood beckons
Through the wormhole.
Dancing doors surround me, simple, colorful,
plain ones and happy ones,
Promising delectations and delights
fruition and felicity, bliss,
amusement at least, assurance.
It is not sensible to surrender.
Call to me, Sculptor of the Garden,
Show me where the key to silence lies.
Tip #4 All Things in Time: If sitting at your desk or your computer doesn't get you into a creative groove, go do something else first. If meditation helps, spend some quiet time in that special spot where you watch your breath and empty your mind. Then come back and try again. Don't forget to make your image inventory too (See Tip #1 above) so that you can choose what images to use to fit your chosen mood. A lot will depend on your own mood as well and whether you want to focus on that. Do not be afraid of dark moods if you think they can express what you really feel.
Mood: dark, dangerous, fearful, helpless
All Things in Time Practice Poem:
A story forbidden
From the tales
Grandmothers tell
Of war
Men and beasts
A house of acquiescence
Swords brandished, branding,
Silence
For comfort, the word is comfort
When war clouds
Obscure the blood
Grandmothers wash themselves
Of war
A memory of swords
Slashing, severing the dark
From light and the laughter
Of young girls
A story, old, forgotten
Not by grandmothers
Who tell the tales
Of war
Tip #5: Specific Detail: Choose a scene and focus on observing the details and listening to the sounds. It can be a real scene, one in your mind, or the photo of a place. Determine the mood of the poem you will write. Start your image list with descriptions of specific objects or sounds that can support your mood.
Mood: waiting, anticipating, worrying, fretting, finding
Specific Detail Practice Poem:
GWhat are the truths of children?
Sweet, believing, holding on,
Clinging to the now of everyday,
Loving.
Listen to the ocean roar, afraid
Grasp a brother's shirt, be safe
Go to hug him in the crash
Of waves
Are you shaking, little one?
Do you doubt that I will save you?
Keep you there in my embrace
Your face
Against my heart
Your hair beneath my chin
Your breath a quiet murmur,
Softly
It is only wind against the rock
Angry water on the sand
Nothing to worry you
Nothing.
Tip # 6 Writing from Remembrance: Reflect on a memory involving your hands. Think of an action you performed that brought your inner being into the world, like covering a child with a blanket, or touching your grandmother's face. Start writing in paragraph form to describe the incident using images to enhance the mood. Then transcribe your description into a poem.
Mood: my father's hands
Image Paragraph:
I don't remember his touching me, or holding, or hugging me. He was hardly ever there, in fact, almost always at work. He would wake up around 4 am, walk past my room to have a coffee, be gone for golf before any of us were up. I was probably at school when he came home to change for work. At night, we all sat quietly at the dinner table, trying not to bother him. The only time he spoke was to scold my brother for something he did or didn't do. He generally ignored me and my sister. I remember his hands, clean and strong and responsible. The little finger on both his hands were crooked.
Writing from Remembrance Practice Poem:
Maybe if I held his hand
in mine, he would turn
to me. Would he touch my face
then?
If I pressed against his starched shirt,
smell the steam, feel the straight seam
on his trousers, and wished hard
for a pat on my head, would his hand
come to rest, and
would my hair rise up to meet it?
It is the dress I wear perhaps
not to his liking. My mother
takes me in her arms and whispers
not now.
Later perhaps when he is not tired
he may look into my eyes and see
himself.
I wear my hair short and simple now
because of children to be borne
and a man that needs my hands.
My father looks into my baby's eyes
and sees himself.
Tip # 7 Poetry Starters: During your day, keep a notebook handy or use the Notes section of your phone, to write down phrases that come to you that may be the beginning of a poem. Remember that most of the lessons that apply to writing are life lessons. Ponder your life lessons (like letting go, or forgiving, or loving yourself), and let that wisdom direct your approach to your craft.
Mood: based on reality, acceptance, making do, settling for
Poetry Starters Practice Poem:
When I was a girl
I thought I was a queen, My throne sat
Near my grandmother's knees, and she told me
I would never be ugly,
Or sad or bad or anything not lovely.
I would sing like a songbird,
Laugh like ripples down a pebbly stream,
Fly like an imposing eagle
Over undulating hills that I possessed.
The throne tipped in my tenth year
Made my knees all bloody.
My lovely face broke out
In pimply bumps that made me ugly.
I stopped singing and laughing
And flying. I sank to the bottom of a pool
And almost died.
I lost the land she said I owned,
Broke down and wept for years,
Until the end came, and I was grown.
Tip # 8 Juxtaposition: The art of placing words or images close together for contrast or comparison. It adds a level of tension to poems. Intentional contrasts of present and past tense are a potent way of using juxtaposition. For example, writing about the past in the present tense brings it to life and creates a sense of immediacy.
"In the time we never had "Seems there was never
there is time enough time
for endless evenings just the two of us--
of coffee and poetry." I cherish the bits that were."
Mood: unrequited love, age differences, hurdles, anxieties, blank walls
Juxtaposition Practice Poem:
The waiter standing by the bar said the fellow
wasn't thinking of anyone at all.
I stare at him above a sea of colored heads,
his dark one cast in shadow,
a profile I have sensed before in sheltered moments,
in daytime dreams of dark corridors winding
through mountain temples.
I passed a note to him, asked for a name,
something familiar perhaps, a remembered sound
spoken in a silent hallway.
I see his smile, a salute of recognition
an anxious wait for his approach, a longing
that I recognize, stirring a tense anticipation.
He sat beside me restlessly, then asked me for
a dance, that surprised me, apprised me
of a slight intention.
We danced for unforgotten times
held in his awareness and in mine.
An impassioned ache
Shatters the calm of all my days--
A monk in past existences, now still chained
to another.
Tip # 9 Collocations of Imagery: One way to improve a poem is to add in a second or third set of imagery, such as music terms or the feel of things, so that the story or message is carried by more than one set of words.
Mood: brooding, failing, flailing, restless, rummaging, morose, moody
Collocations Practice Poem:
A plague has shrouded the markets
and replaced the flutter of hummingbirds
with flares and waves of miasma
You would be sickened
unless you reached for hours of idleness
spent in forests wild with song
or felt the cool waters from a spring
An ancestor has passed
a child fallen through the creases
I saw a countenance like yours
dripping tubes of airless effluent,
tears in her eyes.
The white robes can only linger
for moments rushing rending
remarking on the weather and the rain.
I am watching from the dome of my tent
through a peephole that I cut
and covered with celluloid wrap
I remember a more gracious time
of wily thoughts and wanderings
through rushes of candy and wine
There may not be another noon day
for fancy feasts and flinging arrows
at the shapeless framers of this ruin
TIp #10 Punctuation and Grammar: Sometimes it can take two or three editing sessions to fully smooth out the grammar of a piece. To illustrate this technique, below is the edited form of the poem above.
A plague has shrouded the markets
and replaced the flutter of hummingbirds
with flares and waves of miasma. (period here)
You would be sickened, (comma here)
unless you reached for hours of idleness
spent in forests wild with song, (comma here)
or felt the cool waters from a spring. (period here)
An ancestor has passed-- (dash here)
a child fallen through the creases. (period here)
I saw a countenance like yours, (comma here)
dripping tubes of airless effluent, (comma here)
tears in her eyes. (period here)
The white robes can only linger
for moments, rushing, rending, (three commas here)
remarking on the weather and the rain. (period here)
I am watching from the dome of my tent
through a peephole that I cut
and covered with celluloid wrap. (period here)
I remember a more gracious time
of wily thoughts and wanderings
through rushes of candy and wine. (period here)
There may not be another noon day
for fancy feasts and flinging arrows at
the shapeless framers of this ruin. (period here)
"Let things go and know it is all about process. I find the more poems I have published, the fewer deleted lines or old versions I need to keep on my computer. I learn to let go. Trust your intuition in finding your own rhythms with keeping and releasing words or images. The last step is to choose a new or familiar location to share your work with a larger audience."
- Cynthia Namaste -
