Do you need something to write about? Write a poem:
1. about a place;
2. about an object;
3. about a person (character sketch, portrait);
4. about a painting or a photograph;
5. showing how to do something;
6. about a scene or an action (something you did, observed, or have imagined);
7. about taking a walk or riding a bus;
8. about love, without mentioning “love” or use any of the usual clichés;
9. about a job or about a specific kind of work;
10. about a childhood experience;
11. based on a vivid dream;
12. about something you fear—or fear writing about;
13. from the point of view of another person;
14. that reverses the outcome of something you experienced;
15. about a specific time of day or night (sunrise, lunchtime, afternoon, twilight, midnight);
16. about an animal or a plant;
17. retelling a myth or a fairy tale;
18. about some aspect of a book or film you’ve enjoyed.
Would you like some kind of structure? Write a poem:
b.
using regular stanzas (such as couplets, tercets, quatrains, etc.);
c.
in free verse (short-lined, long-lined, or using lines of varying
length);
d.
in prose, or mixing verse and prose;
e.
in the form of a letter or a journal entry;
f.
that tells a story, or presents an argument, or consists of a dialogue.
Following these suggestions may help you generate and develop material for your poems.
Getting something down on paper (notes, list, rough drafts) is important, but so is revision,
which is more than proofreading—it is literally “seeing again,” taking another look and
rethinking your word choices, images, rhythms, sequence of events, beginning and ending,
even the point you’re trying to make (if any). You really don’t have to know where the
poem is going when you start to write. Usually you’ll create a better poem if you make
discoveries in the course of writing and rewriting, if you try to surprise yourself. It helps
to be flexible, willing to change things, even if that means altering things that you remember
from your own experiences.
—John Drury