Having only written a handful of poems in my life, I wouldn't call myself an expert in the language of poetry. However, I was fortunate enough to have read Wesley McNair’s “Advice for Beginning Poets” from his book, Mapping the Heart: Reflections on Place and Poetry. After weeding through the essay, I found that there was a cornucopia of different recommendations that I could apply to my own pieces of work. Here are the four most helpful points that I personally found to be beneficial to my writing:
“Write out of love”
This was the first thing McNair states in his essay, and I believe it’s because of how fundamental love is to poetry. If poetry is written without love, there is no connection to the words. It would just be a juxtaposition of lines and spaces on a page with no semblance to how the reader can interpret the work.
“Don’t start writing a poem too early”
When I start writing poetry, I automatically want to jot down the the first few words that pop into my head. It becomes almost like word vomit instead of a scenic landscape of memory that I was going for. To even just take fifteen minutes and do a free association exercise would benefit me a lot more than just writing the first few lines that come to mind.
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| This girl could benefit from planning her sentences ahead. |
“A poem must mean at least two things at once.”
Often times, when I write my poetry, I just have one topic in mind and just focus all my creative energy on expressing my perception without taking into consideration the other perspectives I could be taking into account. If I paid attention to potential meaning in my poem, the final product would be more thought provoking and endearing instead of uninteresting.
“Write your poem”
This one may sound like a no brainer, but what McNair is getting at here is that you can’t simply just think about writing a poem, you have to write it almost immediately. This is a problem I deal with on a regular basis. I procrastinate and then my creative ambition is forgotten. The feeling you felt when walking through a meadow on a chilly autumn morning can be altered if it isn't memorized on a sheet of paper afterwards.
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| This artist was able to capture the feeling of a chilly autumn morning effectively. |
While my poetry still has a way to go, “Advice for Beginning Poets” certainly gives me the tools I need to be successful with my poetry for the future. (Pictures were brought to you by Carli Morgan of thekathleenshow.com and litka.devaintart.com)
Loove this :)! My favorite part is probably just the reminder to go for it and write the poem. Being creative is something that you need to make time for, otherwise you risk losing that part of yourself.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this entry. The point that stood out to me the most was "Write out of love". To me, this captures the same idea as what we talked about in class; to take a risk. Often, we're comforted by using the abstract: we don't have to directly show/tell our reader what is going on. But I think that by taking the risk, your poem is automatically more authentic (for lack of a better word).
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely sure I agree with the second point. I don't think there's a "too early" point when it comes to poetry. So long as you have time afterwards to edit, hell, even rewrite entirely, there's no such thing. I wrote a poem last year and didn't edit it at all. Just wrote it as it came to me, and then edited it afterwards. I showed people both poems. People seemed to like the draft more it seemed. Everyone has their own way of going about things. Besides, if we follow too strict of rules, we won't be taking any risks, will we?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dustin on his point.
ReplyDeleteI also would like to point out that the second point and the last point sort of contradict each other: you can't write it too early, but you have to write it as soon as possible?
That doesn't make much sense to me.
Plus, while Dustin is accurate in his comment, I find with some poems (more-so songs, because I've written more songs than poems) that I write, I need to let the idea soak in my brain for a few days or even weeks before I can come up with anything worthwhile.
Really, it's really all about personal preference and methodologies, really.
Really.
p.s.
...really.