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Creative Poetry Writing

Poetry relies on the visual to convey a sense of mood and meaning. But when writing a poem, a great deal more depends on how you choose to decorate.

Setting the scene in a poem can be a tricky bugger to get right.

Finding the right mix of appropriate and illuminating detail, without swamping a poem with surplus, extravagant description, is like trying to balance a human pyramid on your shoulders: one slip and it can all topple into an obscure and meaningless jumble of parts. When setting the scene, stay sharp, and think hard about why you're including certain elements of a place and discarding others. Only this scrupulous selection of detail can keep a good poem from turning fuzzy.

MOOD SETTERS

When writing, don't be tempted to include every single detail you pick up on. If you've been working on a poem for a while, you've probably thought about it a great deal, mulling things over in your mind, working on new ways to describe the scene, the events, the characters. It's easy to build up a vast storehouse of descriptive phrases and symbolic meanings, most of which you're quite chuffed with. But when it comes to piecing it together into a poem, you need to get out your fluff filter. It's unlikely that everything you've thought of can go in, even if you're writing an epic, so it's up to you to pick the parts that do the most work.

It's important to try and build up detail in an efficient and effective way. OK, that sounds more like a statement from 52 Brilliant Ideas for Your Business Plan than a writing guide but don't ignore it because of fears it may impede your creative urge. With poetry, it's not so much about setting a visual scene as setting an atmospheric one. Of course you want to paint a picture, but aim to use your images sparsely, allowing them to accumulate, to build on one another until they create or embody the mood of the whole poem. Even if your single images don't say a great deal in themselves, if you control them, they'll work cumulatively, complementing one another to create a whole much greater than the sum of its parts.

USE THE FORCE

Another similar setback to writing powerful poetry is a lack of clarity. If it's in the right place, then a descriptive image doesn't have to be long and complex to pack a punch. Don't dress your images up with clumsy adjectives purely for the sake of appearances. A wrong choice may distance the reader from the image, forcing them to think too hard about what you're trying to say - what exactly are the contemplative leaves? Even a more pertinent image could steer a reader's interpretation too firmly, railroading them into a particular understanding: 'her unkind gaze'. It's hard to stay subtle, but remember that in most cases, when placed well, a concrete image is sufficient on its own.

SPEAKING METAPHORICALLY

Used with caution, metaphorical images - those that hint at something more than the image itself - can add a great deal to a poem, turning it from a literal description into a powerfully symbolic and personal piece of writing. But beware - metaphors used too often have another name, clichés, and it's best to stay well clear of anything you recognise from everyday usage. Instead, invent your own metaphors. Pick objects that you associate with emotions and experience and ask yourself why? What is it about an inanimate object that brings to mind an ethereal, emotional equivalent? When writing, you should find metaphors popping up almost naturally - your own mind's way of helping you comprehend the subject of a poem. Use your instinct, and pick the ones that really make you think, the ones so poignant and evocative that they literally make your heart pound.


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