How do you write your poems? instinct or design?
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Fades
I would like to know how do you guys write poems? do you sometimes get a feeling and kinda run with it and see what turns out wen ur finished, or do u decide i'm goin to write a poem about (blank), and then script out how you want it to be?
pilger_j
Feelings, I think of a topic, a feeling, something that happened, something I want to happen, and I write. The rest is just from my heart.
wendijane
HI , IF SOMETHING MOVES/INSPIRES /WORRYS / ME THEN I WRITE .
Thesemar
When I write a poem, I usualy say what comes to mind, but put it into a rhyme pattern, usually aabb. Sometimes I'll try different stanza forms, like a pyramids (1st stanza one line, the 2nd two lines and so on, or visa versa). But mostly I write pure, into a rhyme.
enyaw
A lot of my poems (some really good ones, too) seem to run through my mind as I lay in bed trying desperately to go to sleep. They just seem to line up, already rhymed, verse after verse. And of course,no pen handy. So I think, " I'll write it down tomorrow". Only by then, it is too late. It's gone forever.
PS. There is the rare, (well, not really rare), times when they come to me while I'm in the...well, you know where.....and of course, lots of paper but, no pen..Will I ever learn? Probably not...
~enyaw~
Fades
Enyaw I like that cause that happens to me sometimes wen i try to sleep. What you're doin whenever you forget your poem is just saving it for yourself. Those poems aren't gone forever just reserved for a state of mind that can not remember at this moment but will when the time is right.
cali951
I more of a free verse writer. I write about whatever comes to my mind.However the poem comes out I feel as it was meant to be that. I also write as if I'm writing a story or someones else point of view.At times I use emotion and write from the heart
sassey-chick
i have a poem but i dunno if it sounds right i no it comes from ur heart nd it did wellz anywayz im gonna go bye
Simon Whild
I find it difficult to write poetry to order. My day to day work involves writing prose, so I find that a lot of poetic ideas are born from writing about apparently mundane things where a phrase or sentence will spark off a chain reaction that eventually ends up as a poem. In this sense, poetry is often a by-product of other writing. I always keep a notebook handy (I used to use a small hard bound notebook, but now rely on an electronic PDA) and jot every idea and phrase down. When I go back to it, I often find that my subconscious has been working this "idea seed" in the time since I came up with the idea and it will then sometimes develop into a proper poem.
Very often, I get poetic ideas when I'm in the car. Somehow the act of driving stimulates my "idea pump." If this happens, I use my PDA to dictate ideas for later use. Sometimes an idea will develop, and other times it won't. However, when an idea does start to work, it can take from a few minutes to several years before I'm happy with the result and I get that "it's finished" feeling. Once I get this feeling, I know that there's nothing more I can do and the poem is ready to go to town. If all I get after working on a "seed" is a fragment that doesn't really stand on its own, I file this away in a "Fragments" folder and very often I will write other things that will go with this fragment without being aware that the two snippets are related. There have been many occasions when several fragments, written over long periods, dovetail exactly and I have a more or less finished work sitting there just waiting to be pieced together.
I often go back to old poems and make alterations and revisions, and in this sense the poem is often an organic thing that can change and evolve over time. Obviously, if the poem has been published, then it's "chiselled in stone" and it's usually best to leave it be. However, very often reading an old poem can act as the springboard to a new totally different one.
Developing a poem usually involves an element of brainstorming where I'll jot down ideas around the idea in a Buzan box sort of way and often the words then start to flow. This usually results in a raw poem that I file away for a while to give me some artistic objectivity. When I later return to the raw poem, it is with the eyes of someone approaching the poem for the first time and I usually pretend it's someone else's work that I've been given to pull apart. At this point, I begin by scanning the metre of the poem and make correction there to allow form to follow function. This involves creating rhyme, alliteration, assonance etc. where appropriate.
It should never be forgotten that poetry is essentially a verbal medium rather than a written one (with the exception of "shape" poetry) and I find that reading a work in progress out aloud can highlight many of its shortcomings. Once a poem sounds good, I then leave it again for a while (from several minutes to several years -- there's no hard and fast rule) and try it again when I'm fresh. I keep doing this until the "finished" feeling starts to assure me that it's time to leave the work be and move on to fresh pastures.
orpheus
I was never a poet, just a scribbling bleater trying to make sense of the world. A poem is the product of a feeling, a thought that may well up from some place familiar but unexplored. A person in touch with their feelings may write poetry but a philosopher will write on the basis of rationalised sensations. Poets will always start with a feeling, and more is the pity when rationalising takes over and makes x and y axes of it all - rhyme and meter and all that.
It appears to me that all the poets here begin with a feeling and then some allow their heads to give form to whatever their hearts express. I approach it thus, and I believe many others appear to as well.
Write more poems, even if they feel second-rate - one can rationalise them into shape later.