How To Write Poetry

Poetry is something I struggled with in the past too.

For me, I used to force myself to make my works really deep like the pieces I’ve read in school. But every time I did, it would turn out trash and never look back. It was until junior year I realized how poetry really works.

It happened when I was about to take a “short” nap after school. I was ready to get lost in a playlist until a new song popped up. Like any new song, I skip it. But this time I didn’t. The lyrics made me stop. It was the song “The Good in Goodbye” by Maddison Beer and it immediately compelled me to grab my laptop and start writing these lines that turned into stanzas without a care. Within 20 minutes, my poem was complete and I didn’t look back until a year later when competition season arose. And it was recognized on a National level.

It was my wake up call that poetry doesn’t have to be complicated as we make it out to be. It’s simply another form of story telling with more creative freedom. It’s the way for the soul to speak freely without the limitations our minds places.

If you ask me, I think there is no perfect formula for poetry. Heck I don’t think poetry should have a formula. Yes there are rhyming formulas and patterns that are found in a lot of poems, however it encourages novice poets to plug words into the formula and forget to write with feeling.

I’ve done it before. I’ve written poems with that rhyming formula and it never got recognized.

(Now I’m not saying your poems shouldn’t rhyme. My main emphasis is that your priority isn’t rhyming. It should be making your poem emotional and authentic it can be.)

In fact I’ve always let my “inner English teacher” critique my rough draft before it was done. It was me never giving myself a chance to be raw and honest. I was always questioning myself if my rough drafts were good enough for public viewing or worthy for people to take a few minutes to read it.

So my secret to poetry? Write like nobody’s watching. Because no one is! If you’re like me, your probably on your bed right now or at your desk all by yourself writing. The only person that is going to see your worst ideas is you. (Unless you share them to your best friend). So lock up that “inner English teacher” that’s always correcting your grammar, your word choice, and your ideas during the rough draft stage! Their time will come when you reach your editing and revision stage.