Poetry as a Lifestyle

Poetry is literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language such as sound symbolism and metre.

For you to become a good writer of poetry you have to read widely and write as much as you can. The following are some of the tips of poetry writing

Let your subject find you.

You don’t find your subject, it finds you.

Tap into your own feelings

The poems that I like most are where the engine is a very emotional one. I think that poetry is a rather emotional form and when it isn’t that, then I am not very interested in it.

Write about subjects that matter to you

Celebrate the ordinary and be choosing

If you get stuck while writing, go for a walk or wash your face

Let your work be open to interpretation

Read your poetry out loud

Know your goal Before you begin, ask yourself what you want your poem to do. Describe the beauty of nature or play with a language in a creative way

Avoid clichés

Clichés work against original communication. People value creative talent

Avoid sentimentality

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.

Use Images

Be a painter in word. Stimulate six senses i.e sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste, motion, Example: “I watched the last blink of the sun”

Use Metaphors and Similes

Example: The singer is an elusive salamander – metaphor. The singer is like an elusive salamander –  simile. The singer is as elusive as a salamander – simile

Use concrete words instead of elusive abstract words

Concrete words describe things that people experience with their senses. Abstract words refer to concepts or feelings such as liberty, happy, love etc

Subvert the ordinary.

A poets strength is the ability to see what other people see everyday in a new way. You don’t have to be a  special or literary genius to write good poems. All you have to do is write.