How To Write A Good Poem
Here are the keys to finding your voice, original source, and self-expression:
The key to writing good poetry is expressing the truth. More importantly, it is your unique experience, your perspective, your insight. Self-expression allows each person to express themselves honestly.
Truth, as it relates to ideas, is birthed from experiences, intellect, perspective, and observations. For this reason, it is critical that all of us practice self-expression in our daily lives. From the very act, we get something very unique.
Creativity is just expressing yourself. I like to think of Innovation as accurately organizing those thoughts into something useful. Steve Jobs said, "Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things."
Learning To Write A Poem From Scratch Starts With You
Albert Einstein said, "To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks a real advance in science."
Give yourself the space to create and the time to analyze your thoughts. This time you give yourself could be the next great cure to a disease, the next technology device, or the solution to some of the world's most complex social issues.
Importance of Self Expression is The Opposite of Oppression: Most often, you will find that when people are scared of expressing themselves, it stems from fear. Fear of being condemned, anxiety from thinking that their idea won't be accepted, or fear of a consequence.
Be courageous: we live in a world that sometimes punishes pure self-expression. We live in an America that promotes uniformity in thought and actions; thus we have a society that refuses to acknowledge its true beauty, which is diversity, and one that absolutely will not admit its scars.
An expression is the opposite of oppression. As an individual, you must express yourself, your love, your beauty, your intellect, and words. The world is waiting for you!
The importance of self-expression and expressing yourself through poetry.
How to Write a Good Poem: Find Your Structure
Poetry for beginners
The structure is not critical, but it helps learn how to write poetry for beginners. Here are several types of poetry:
- SONNET - The sonnet, from the Italian sonetto meaning "little song,"
- The sonnet consists of fourteen lines divided into two stanzas of eight and six lines each. There is no definitive structure or rhyme scheme of the sonnet because, over time, different writers have given it their poetic spin.
- VILLANELLE - 19 line poem divided into five tercets (three-line stanzas) and a closing quatrain (four-line stanza), the villanelle is further constrained by a regular rhyming scheme and two refrains that are echoed in each stanza.
- ELEGY - The word elegy describes the form of a poem, but rather it's content, for instance. Elegies are poems written to express grief or sorrow someone's death. A mourning poem!
- HAIKU - The Japanese haiku is a rigidly-structured poetic form, consisting of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Originally, haikus were the opening stanza of a style of a long-form poem called the renga. Haiku is now known for its three-line lyrics popular today.
- GNOMIC - Gnomic poetry that provides severe and meaningful advice.
Poetry for Beginners: Learn How To Write A Poem From Some of Hip Hops Best
- BALLAD - The ballad uses rhythm and rhyme similar to a song or some eloquent jazz-rap poets. Ballad is structured with rhymed quatrains (four-line stanzas). Many of the greatest poets of modern-day hip hop used a ballad style structure. Examples include Tupac, Q-Tip, Gil Scott-Heron, Drake, Guru, The Roots and more.
- EPIC - Epic is a narrative poem that spins a tale, story, a long story or a person's experience with struggle, and opposition and ultimately victory. Much like the elegy, epics derive from ancient Greece, where epikós meant "speech," "tale," or "song," and applied not only to the subject matter but to a specific type of meter, the Epic meter. My poem "Mama You Never Told Me," might fit this category. A story about the corporate ship!
More Good Poem Ideas: Poetry Writing Ideas
- LIMERICK - Limerick has five lines with the rhyming pattern AABBA, great for children's books. Named after the Irish town of Limerick.
- SESTINA - The sestina from the Italian word for "six," the number at the center of the poem's structure. Consists of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy, or a short stanza, to close. Each stanza repeats the end words of the lines of the first stanza but in a different order. Then, the envoy uses those six words again, three in the middle of the lines and three in the end.
- PALINODE - A poem in which the poet retracts a view or sentiment expressed in a former poem.
- ACROSTIC - Acrostics are words, names, or messages spelled out by particular letters in a series of lines. Think of ACRONYM. The term acrostic comes from the Greek roots akro- meaning "outermost, tip," and stích, "line" or "verse." Most acrostics are formed by the first letter of each line, read vertically down the poem's edge.
- CONCRETE poetry - Concrete poetry is a poetic form in which the structure of the poem does originate in rhythm or theme but in its visual shape. A concrete poem is an integration of the written word and visual art, where shape and typeface contribute to a poem's meaning and effect — for example, a brain-shaped poem about mindset.
How to Create A Poem
How To Start Writing Poetry WIth a Purpose
Learning how to write a poem and "finding your purpose" is not always an easy task. So start by writing with what is true to you. Many people live their entire lives not knowing what their purpose is. Some know it but never feel they achieve it. The rare few live out each day in the fullness of their purpose, a purpose-driven life.
What is the purpose? In simple words, the meaning is defined as the reason for which something exists. Writing a great poem brings life to your mind's eye.
I exist to paint.
To live life abundantly, to share my voice with the world.
I want to express myself with the power of words.
Moving my body in athletic ways is what I love to do.
I exist to lift people from the chains of mental slavery.
Have you been ready to run to your purpose, your dreams, but you wonder how, why, and if it makes any sense in this world where money, mortgage, rent, car, bills, and responsibility triumphs overall?
Sometimes I think about smashing into my purpose. I want to run to it, bathe in it, but most often I want to float in my mission. I believe purpose is that thing that makes the world go round. It's what brings harmony when insanity seems to be all that we see.
How To Write Poetry with Purpose
The dreams that we have are what make people feel alive, like a clear blue sky. They say dreams are the result of someone living in their purpose, and living in your purpose is a continual process. It just doesn't happen; it doesn't appear. Sometimes we don't even know it.
How to Write Poetry about Yourself
Writing poems about yourself can be a difficult task if you never take time to reflect, ask yourself difficult questions, question yourself about the decisions you make and the actions you take on a daily basis.
To write thoughtful poems about yourself you will need to take time for reflection, contemplation and hopefully some mindful contemplation.
But we know that we want tomorrow to be better than today. We desire to uplift the world with our energy and passion. So if you're confused about your purpose, know that today is part of it.
The successes of today, the struggle of today, the ups, downs, and unexpectedness of life is giving you the insight, the character, and skillset to live out your purpose.
Write with purpose and others will connect! One of the best ways to write with purpose and passion is by writing poetry about your life, your experiences and your perspective. Go hard!
Example of How To Write a Poem
An Example of How To Write a Poem. Below is a poem I wrote titled "Unhome" This poem eventually turned into a song that I produced on my "Red Blooded American" Album. Here is an example of poetry brought to life.
After watching the video below and learning about 7 rules of writing poems you can also visit this site.
7 Rules on How To Write A Poem
This is my Rule of 7: Steps To Writing Poetry
Simple How To Write Poetry Method
Steps to Writing a Poem
1. Choose a topic you care about...Become a storyteller
2. Write a vertical row of numbers from 1 to 21
3. In the first line write your title
4. In the next 6 lines write down how you feel about the subject
5. In lines, 7 through 20 write down the problem followed by the answer
6. On the last line write the title of the poem
7. Read It Out Loud - Now go through and edit your lines 2 - 20 thinking about synonyms, rhyming and vocal clarity in mind. To make your spoken word longer you can repeat this process. Read it out loud again and try to perform it!
Repeat, repeat, repeat! Stay consistent...
Learn how to write spoken word here.
Another great resource is the Poetry Foundation.