Three Lessons for Developing Your Poetry

Very often, a writer can take for granted what is right in front of them as a means of developing their creativity. This overlooking of material can be caused by ones usual routine. We often get comfortable in our familiar environments and subsequently become complacent. The idea of these exercises is to bring the writer out of their familiar zones and help develop description as well as foster creativity and imagination.

Lesson 1: Sketching With Words

Art classes have been using models and still life for centuries as a means of doing quick and focused studies. This exercise is done so artists can take that habit of close observation and apply it to real life situations, to quickly capture a movement, an emotion or event so it can later be used in a more substantial piece of work.

For the poetry lesson:

• Set up a still life using flowers, a bowl of fruit, random objects or even a pile of stuffed animals, whatever you want to use is fine.

• Jot down as much description and detail as possible; colors, textures and how the objects interact with one another.

• Describe the feel of the objects. Are they soft, rough or smooth? Are they cold, warm to the touch or damp?

• Describe their scent. If it is fruit than cut one open and describe the sensation or if it is flowers capture the smell of the bouquet.

• Describe how it makes you feel, your emotions. Does it evoke any memories or future desires?

• Jot down metaphors and similes or anything you could relate the still life to.

• Be as descriptive as possible (Write everything that flows through your mind).

Do as much writing as possible in about a 10 to 15 minute period and then use the sketch to construct a poem. Have fun and see where the exercise will take you.

Lesson 2: Condensed Language Exercise

For most of us who write, poetry is something more than just a form of expression; it is something we feel compelled to do as though we have no real choice in the matter. It is much like eating or breathing. What this lesson does is focus that breathing much the same way as an athlete would train themselves or an expecting mother. The idea being: get more oxygen out of a single breath. The Haiku and the Suite are to such poems that employ this type of condensed language.

For the poetry lesson:

• Jot down notes on an everyday occurrence. This could be something that happened on the way home from work, something a child or relative did or something that happened at the grocery story.

• Once you have written all you can think of about the event begin to whittle it down. Condense it to only the most descriptive words.

• Like a haiku or a suite, try and get the poem down to about three to five lines. The poem does not have to conform to a specific meter or syllable count, but if you want to push yourself then that is encouraged also.

• The object is simply to create a short poem that is very focused or condensed. It should be able to convey its message and image with as few words as possible.

• After doing several of these it is often fun to try and combine them to form a larger poem full of very rich and condensed imagery.

This exercise will help you to create more focused stanzas within longer works. Again, have fun and see where the exercise will take you.

Lesson 3: Random Word or Phrase Poem

Sometimes a great poem can be inspired by something completely random. Flarf poetry is a great example of how random material can be used to write a poem. Often learning something new or revisiting something you have not heard or seen in a while can spark the imagination.

For the poetry lesson:

• Open a dictionary to a random page or a magazine or even use a search engine online and do a random search.

• Find a word or a phrase that seems interesting.

• Try to write a poem that revolves around the new word or phrase.

This exercise will take you out of your usual topic and is good to do if you are experiencing writers block or have found your writing to have fallen into a rut. Have fun with it as there are no limits.