Crafting Poetry

By: HOLLY JAHANGIRI


If you write poetry only for your own personal pleasure--as a way of recording your inner emotions, as therapy, as journaling technique--then please read no further. There is nothing at all wrong with that, and no one can tell you the "right" way to do it. You might, however, want to invest in a good lock for your diary.

If you have a fragile soul or a delicate ego, and you're going to bleed tears at the mere thought of your poems suffering rejection, please don't read this. Even great poets suffer rejection; most have enough rejection slips to wallpaper a small house. They toil in relative obscurity, recognizing that their passion is also hard work. Great poets don't let a little rejection stand in their way.

If you are serious about the art and craft of writing poetry, and hope some day to see your poems in print, then read on. You can, of course, circumvent the whole process and write me off as a crackpot - just go post your poems at Poetry.com and believe those nice folks when they tell you that you are one of the most promising poets to emerge in this decade. Shell out fifty bucks for the beautifully-bound coffee-table anthology and bask in your own glory. Pat yourself on the back, for you have arrived.

Still with me here? Good. Before you begin to write, let me strongly recommend that you not only devour a smorgasbord of great poetry, but that you have handy a good, unabridged rhyming dictionary such as The Complete Rhyming Dictionary: Including the Poet's Craftbook, Clement Wood (Editor), Revised by Ronald J. Bogus (Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1992; ISBN: 0440212057). This book is not just a rhyming dictionary; it contains valuable and digestible tips for crafting poems that have wide appeal and are a pleasure to read.

Is Poetry a Dead Language? Basic Do's and Don'ts for Today's Poet

Write in your own natural voice, using fresh language that speaks--or sings--to today's readers. Avoid archaic, outdated, or overly academic words. Run from weird, "poetical" contractions and mechanisms, such as "ne'er" or "ere" or "'gainst" - that is the mark of an amateur, desperately forcing language to conform to an unnatural meter or rhyme scheme. If you attempt to imitate Shakespeare (or anyone else, for that matter), you will sound ridiculous and your poems will appear contrived.

Remember that you are writing for others. If your poetry is full of poignant, sentimental thoughts, does it have universal appeal? Can your readers relate? Poetry that is too deeply personal, too full of "I" and replete with introspection, is generally not marketable poetry. If you are struggling with this, try eliminating the pronoun "I." Try stepping out of yourself; tell the tale as if lived by another, and see what happens. Imagine yourself as the uninvolved reader--what would it take to yank on your heartstrings or ignite your imagination to engage you fully in the poem?

Use words that appeal to and arouse strong emotions. Use words that invoke visual images. Compare the impact of "the night air, filled with the seduction of white ginger" to "the night air, filled with the scent of flowers". Avoid abstractions, such as "truth," "beauty," "freedom," "love," and so on. Be specific. Play with metaphor and simile, always being careful to avoid using allusions that have been done to death by others. How original is your poem if you write that something is as "red as a rose," or "white as snow"? How much emotion will that arouse? Pleasure, in reading poetry, comes from the unexpected. Let's see, "orange as the juicy center of a nectarine" or "black as slush" or "gray as snizzle" might work.

Play with words, but don't mangle or invert them to force-fit a rhyme scheme or metric pattern. Phrases such as "hit he him" are just glaringly distracting and unnecessary. Rework the whole idea, if necessary--choose new words, or choose a whole new rhyme scheme or metric pattern. Sometimes you've just got to let go. When you do, set it aside for a bit and trust that the words will flow again.

In Form, There is Freedom

Learn the basic fixed forms of poetry: the Sonnet, the Sestina, the Triolet, the Rondel, the Ballade, the Limerick, the Chain-Rhyme, the Haiku, the Tanka, and so on. Learning to write within the structural framework of the fixed forms gives you discipline and practice, and prepares you to invent your own rules and framework. I will be the first to admit that I don't fully understand the concepts of "blank verse" and "free verse," and cannot recall reading any that I enjoyed. Although that is a matter of personal taste, I still urge you to study formal verse and master several forms before flying without a net.

Poetry: Therapy or Art?

Ever read a poem that left you speechless? I mean, how can you comment on the utter turmoil of a human soul? When someone is laying their raw emotions out on the dock to dry, do you step over their supine form and say, "Gee, the meter's a little off, and 'angst' doesn't rhyme with 'dagger,' what the hell were you thinking?!" 'Cause you probably don't really want to know, and there are better ways to ask for a lesson in free verse. This is what I call...

Bleeding on the Page
by Holly Jahangiri

Teardrops of blue-black ink fall to the page.
Souls bleed in fourteen lines of tortured verse,
That limps along, five-footed, filled with rage.
What angst! How could it possibly get worse?
But worse it gets - for he's compelled to share,
As literature, the sorrow and the pain.
This solitary madness must ensnare
And captivate, and drive us all insane.
Oh, certainly to this we can relate -
Soul-sucking torment's siren call.
Let's just give in to cruel whims of fate,
Then, pen a poem! Entertain us all!
The poet shares the anguish in his heart;
Some turn away, but others call it art.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Holly Jahangiri is the author of the blog "It's All a Matter of Perspective". She is a professional writer, with 4 books to her name: Trockle, Dealing With the Demon and nine other stories , Mood Swings (A Collection of Poems), and her most recently released book - A Puppy, Not a Guppy.


I find Holly to be a head strong woman, who says what's in her mind candidly but is also a caring and loving friend. She's one of the bloggers that I respect a lot. Thanks, Holly for this guest post. Mabuhay ka!