By Mingus Casey
Poetry is one of the many artistic uses of language.
A short story takes you somewhere, poetry often shows you a moment, describes a setting or environment, and is often emotionally loaded.
To write a poem, having an idea, or an image, or an event you wish to portray in words helps. You can then turn that idea into poetic form.
Brainstorming can help a lot to find related ideas and words and imagery that can be used with the original topic.
There is always a beginning to the poem, everything starts somewhere, and it helps if the beginning is exciting, like the hook of a movie, as compared to half way through the movie.
Surprise is a good thing to use at the beginning, this can capture a readers attention.
Surprise!
There is always an ending too, and often this is a resolution of some kind, if the poem is going somewhere, its great ot have a beginning and an end.
Having something that reads well, that isn't awkward, where the words flow like water downhill, is always a plus, if people stumble across it their concentration can be broken as they decipher your intent.
Imagery. Poetry can be like turning pictures into words, and what the reader does is turn your words into pictures again, it is often like the lens in a camera, the reader will only ever see what you show them. Being descriptive with your writing is important, describe what is happening rather than the mere event, ie “it was sunset” isn't quite as nice as “the dying suns rays scattered across the waves”.
Good descriptive language lends itself to more advanced imagery, the two go together to a degree.
There are more ways to sense in poetry than imagery alone though, sometimes the sound of a word, bang, crash, thud, slither, sparkle, scrape, scratch, when it sounds like what it means – onomatopoeia's - can add considerable impact to a poem, this is especially true once the poem is vocalized, and those words sound cool.
Other things that involve the vocalization and sound of, include alliteration, all about attempting to repeat the same sound several times over, and just making sure it has good rhythm is always important.
Reading aloud really helps you pick up on these things, whether it has alliteration, onomatopoeia's, and rhythm, you can see them sometimes on a page, but out loud is the way to tell. Metaphors and simile's seem to be essential to a good poem, like the payment of fees is essential to passing a course.
Poem's can be about a lot of different things, families, homelife, emotions, feelings, funny stuff, remembering a first..., things that make you happy or sad, pain and pleasure, nothing at all, scary horrible things, cool interesting topics, can be set in the future or past or meld time together to create a surreal and strange experience... The limit is not what is on paper, it is what is inside your mind, and every time you write and imagine things differently, you'll expand the limits.