Reasons to Write Poetry

Most of this is a review of how I came to write my own poetry. Most attempts at writing poems are trial and error but anything that produces inspiration is usually the premise for a poem. What I consider most is the idea of the poem, a central theme from which to grow. If it's going to be a bleak experience, at least, I try to insert the illusion of sarcasm from the start. Another aspect of writing poems is something called "mood" which can be seen in most poems as alternating stanzas where arguments occur between one character and the next. However, one can confuse mood with style but style is like an add on to poetry, needed in some respects but if the feeling of the poem is strong enough, it may be over-emphasizing the point.

Poems that I loved to write, came to me as a great idea because I could get to the end of them. One of the worst things that stop poetry from being created is endings. We start one with a great idea and have no idea how to end it, so it becomes endless pages of useless scribble. My most humble solution is to just stick to it. The ending will come, if it needs changes, then you hope it gets noticed and the editor will deal with it. It's not a play, it's a poem.

Also, you don't have to be over-inventive to be creative with poems. Some people are afraid that the poem will come off as controversial for its simplicity or be just plain bad, whereas some of the best poems are made from a true and simple feeling.

On the other hand, don't be afraid to over-express. Sometimes we take a metaphor past one page and think that its too much. A good extended metaphor doesn't need an end until you decide it needs it.

Here's the basics, though. Metaphors, well, try and use one if it's for practice poetry. It's just something that means another thing without using like or as. For example " my patience is a tiny man with feathers." Patience is naturally not a person but here it's using something visual to interpret the lack of patience this person has. The feathers is adding to the aspect of the metaphor in that his patience is tickling and small. However, there's many translations to metaphors and that's the point. No one really knows what the feathers are there for but they may change to "shackles" or "thongs" for different reasons to express different meanings. This is one area where creativity can expand and the metaphor can get life.

Apart from that, poetry is written in two or three ways. The first is a feeling, usually anger or a sensation of happiness, which can be easily expressed in words. It's sometimes liberating (the written word doesn't always relieve the pressure). The other has already been mention, which is from an idea. The third way is your own unique way to write. Some people say just write. Other's find an inspiration from orderly things and the way to start poems is to write first about the organization of the poem (outlining). Most poems have a lesson or a theme that they play on until the end, the point is to end it and, mostly, to have fun. Good luck to all and I hope this helps