How to Exercise Your Poetic Muscles

Just as a weight lifter exercises his muscles daily, so too must a writer.  John Hewitt lists several ways to get the creative juices flowing.  Here are ten of them:

1.  Make a list of poems with memorable lines.  Re-read them and determine why they stand out.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife

Their sober wishes never learned to stray

Along the cool sequestered veil of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their ways.

(Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray)

Note:  Far From the Madding Crowd is also a novel by Thomas Hardy.

2.  Every poet has written a bad poem, if not several.  Write the worst poem possible filled with cliches, pretentious words and a "beat the reader over the head" theme.  Write several if you have to.  Get it out of your system.  Now you are mind is free to write your "masterpiece".

You stood in the classroom

lean and lanky

and told us your genius poem

"Roses are red

Violets are blue"

I like tractors.

(The Coffee Shop Times, Starr)

3.  "Listen to criticism and try to learn from it, but don't live or die by it."  Everyone is a critic.  Sometimes people have constructive criticism.  Others are simply nitpicking.  Try to distinguish one type from the other.  Learn from the constructive advice and then move on.  Read the following blog: http://positivewriter.com/how-to-give-constructive-writing-criticism-that-actually-helps/.

4.  The bigger the theme, the more important the details are.  Use vivid language.  Employ all five senses.

http://www.weblogtheworld.com/countries/northern-america/america/america_ca/city-losangeles/four-ted-2013-speakers-who-appeal-to-our-sensory-selves/

5.  Write a poem that is the opposite of what you believe.  Suspend your belief system, just for one day.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5464/Question%20Type_0.jpg

6.  Listen to talk radio.  Great characters emerge from such sessions.

http://alltalkradio.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/On-The-Air-All-Talk-Radio.jpg

7.  Every line of your poem should be important.  If your poem has three great lines, it should be three lines long.

Whitecaps on the bay

A broken sign board banging

In the April wind.

(Richard Wright)

8.  When your write a great poem, immediately write another one.  Go with the momentum.

http://alltalkradio.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/On-The-Air-All-Talk-Radio.jpg

9.  Write in different places to gather inspiration ex. park, street corner, alley.

http://www.wiseinkblog.com/writing-2/13-inspirational-places-to-write-that-isnt-a-cafe/

10.  Publish a poetry journal or website.  Get the word out about your writing.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/108313630/large-poetry-journal-diary-notebook

*To read all of John Hewitts' suggestions, visit http://www.poewar.com/poetry-writing-tips/.

*For a list of creative writing prompts for poetry, visit http://www.creative-writing-now.com/creative-writing-prompts.html.

The Rules of Writing Poetry

"Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." (Leonardo da Vinci)

You're ready to write your first poem.  What points should you keep in mind as you compose each line, each stanza?  Firstly, Kara Zeihl recommends that you set a goal for your poem (http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/poetry-writing-tips-how-to-write-a-poem/#1).  Is your purpose to describe an event or to protest an injustice or to tell a tale?  Robert Lee Brewer offers five examples that might inspire you to write a poem:  

• capture a moment
• steal a conversation
• describe something or someone
• respond to something
• use someone else's line

For more information, visit http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/advice/5-ways-how-to-write-a-poem.

Choose a theme for your poem.  Remember that a theme isn't just an idea, it's an idea plus an opinion. For example, the Vietnam War is an idea.  The senselessness of the Vietnam War is a theme.  

Kara Zeihl reminds you to avoid cliches, overused metaphors, similes or expressions.  Use images to stimulate the reader's senses.  Metaphors and similes are part of the poet's repertoire.  Use concrete rather than abstract words as much as possible.  The reader is more apt to have a sensory response to words that he or she can imagine like bird or sky or stream rather than peacefulness, happiness and serenity.  

Kara Zeihl suggests that you subvert the ordinary.  To subvert literally means to turn something upside down.  See everyday events in a new way.  Come at it from a different perspective.  "The best poems get written not by going in the front door of the subject, but round the back or down the chimney or through the window."

Tap into your own feelings.  Write about subjects that matter to you.  If it matters to you, you're likely to be more passionate about it.  Let that passion show in your writing.

Use everything in your toolbox, says Alison Feeney-Hart http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29538180).  Remember the literary devices you learned about in school like personification and  alliteration?  Well, poetry has poetic devices:

• assonance ex. repeated vowel sounds in words near each other ex. "He's a bruisin' loser!"
• cacophony:  a series of harsh unpleasant sounds to convey disorder ex. "My stick fingers click with a snicker/And chuckling they knuckle the keys"
• repetition:  the re-use of words and phrases for effect ex. "Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them, Cannon in front of them, Volley'd and thunder'd"
• rhyme:  words that have different beginning sounds but endings that are alike ex. time, slime, chime (Note:  Remember rhymes should be natural, not forced.  Kara Ziehl suggests that you stick to free verse and save rhyming until you are a more experienced poet.  However, I enjoy the challenge of writing a poem that rhymes.)
• contrast:  closely arranged things with strikingly different characteristics ex. He was dark, sinister and cruel; she was radiant, pleasant and kind.
• oxymoron:  two words back to back which have opposite meanings ex. open secret, tragic comedy, foolish wisdom
• personification:  attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object ex. The days crept by slowly, sorrowfully.
• irony:  a contradictory statement to reveal a reality different to what appears to be true ex. Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven

For a more complete list, visit http://www.chaparralpoets.org/devices.pdf.

Ideas are great, but if you don't put aside the time to write, you'll never be a poet.  Find a regular time to write each day.  When I took my online poetry writing course, my daughter was very young.  I waited until she and my son were in bed at 9 pm before I started to write.  I would get in a solid two or three hours of writing.

Now it's time to grab a pen and paper and start composing the first line of your poem.

http://popcorntheblog.com/2012/05/03/emotional-outbursts-other-adventures-in-writing-poetry/

Ten Tips on How to Write an Effective Event Report

Blogger Samantha Gluck (http://www.freelancewritingdreams.com/secrets-to-writing-about-an-event-like-a-pro-journalist/) recommends that you attend the actual event that you are writing about to get a genuine feel for what happened.  Here are some steps to follow when reporting on an event.

1.  Choose your event ex. historical anniversary, sports game, concert, writer's convention, parade, charity fundraiser, first date, birth of child, act of kindness.

2.  Include the vital statistics on the event such as the number of attendees, the location, the date and time, the theme, the atmosphere.

3.  Describe what preparations have gone into making the event happen?  Observe special details like visuals, sounds, tastes, smells.  What makes this event special?  What conversations do you overhear?

4.  Take photographs of the event.  Take closeups of the MC and/or speaker and a wide shot of the crowd.  Try to capture the action of the event and the reaction of the crowd.  Make sure you take more than you need and you can pick and choose.

5.  Chat with the attendees about the event.  What were their impressions?  What surprised and/or disappointed them about the event?  Talk to any experts who attended.  Jot down quotes from both attendees and experts.  Make sure to get more quotes than needed.

6.  Compile your information three hours (enough time to allow the information to digest) to three days (no longer so you don't forget what happened).

7.  Write your report.  Remember that showing trumps telling.  Avoid cliches and tired phrases like "selling like hotcakes".

8.  Include a main paragraph summarizing the events of the day.

9.  Compare the event to similar events you have attended.  What are the similarities and differences?

10.  Speculate as to how the event will fare in the future.  Make a statement for or against holding the event again.

Note:  For a sample event report, visit http://www.wikihow.com/Write-an-Event-Report.

Crowd reacts to Apollo 11 liftoff on July 16, 1969 (President Johnson & Lady Bird front & centre) courtesy http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/07/05/article-2011459-0CE08BDF00000578-707_634x362.jpg.