How To Start Writing A Poem - Part 1

How hard can it be to write a poem? I mean, anybody can do it... right? From little five-year old Timmy in preschool to old Lady Du-Bois in the nursing home.

I've been writing poetry for six years, both in Spanish and English. Although at first I just wrote whatever popped into my head, I discovered that poetry had its rules, music, form... so many terms I began to learn and sometimes even mix together and forget. Although I have studied Creative Writing for two years, I am pretty much ignorant of many terms (although I do plan on going to graduate school in 1 or 2 years).

I am a beginner. I have not lived my whole life in poetry, but I'd like to begin and do it, in both a formal and fun way. That's why I began this blog.

Now, where to start? Maybe you'd like to read Poetry for Dummies, or maybe browse around Wikipedia about famous American Poets of the 19th century (Walt Whitman is my favorite poet, so I'm a little biased, hence the title of my blog).

But let's forget for a moment that there are famous poets. Forget anybody got published. Even forget about Whitman, Eliot, Dickinson, Ginsberg, Poe, and all others (sorry if I made you remember them). Forget about them.

Clear your head. What do you see? Grab a pen and some paper and start to write down what comes to your head. Maybe a memory that you have from a few days ago. Maybe something that makes you happy, or someone you just wanna strangle. This is called brainstorming. You don't need to follow any rules. You don't even need to show anybody what you got.

You can list things, emotions, images, anything that pops into your head. This is the beginning of all poems: feeling. I usually like to start with images because I am a very visual person. If you like sounds, write about them. Write anything.

Keep going...

Flow naturally...

And...

Now, stop!

Look at the paper and your ideas. Are there any connections? Does one image connect to another one? If so, you're halfway there.

This is how I write poetry. It may be different for you, but I like to just go with the flow. If I'm angry, I should write angrily. If I'm happy, I'll write happily. Never force yourself to write something you don't feel. This will make the poem a hypocrite. And we don't like hypocrites, do we?

This is just the beginning: Brainstorming. But for now, this is all we need to worry about. Clear your head and don't think of all those poets who changed lives, because they can overwhelm you. You are as important as they are. You have your voice too.

Like Whitman said: "I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." So let us sing our own voices, and change or perhaps maintain the world as we write.