Many people ask me why and how I write poems. Why I write is easier to respond to: I do because it's a different way to express my feelings. How? I'll delve into that.

 

A poem is like a pearl, and I'm the oyster. The idea comes to me, and I grasp it and hold it in my heart. Then, I start working on it like the oyster does with a grain of sand. And so, I work and work and work around it. I'm covering and expanding this idea with my feelings, with more words built upon my original word, until I form a pearl, a bright musical pearl, a precious rhythmical pearl, my finished poem.

 

However, we must agree that poetry is an art. It demands creativity. The poet expresses their feelings to connect, provoke, and inspire. Anybody can learn to become a poet, although some people have these attributes in major or lesser quantity and profundity.

 

So, to become a great poet, you must first read and understand great poems. Understand the poet's soul. Can you identify the poem and the author from the following verses in the frame?

 

The poem's title is hidden in the lines you've written. It will pop up as a bunny from the magician's hat.

 

A poem must have profundity. You can learn this in your first stroke or after years of practicing. As with everything, we must struggle to become what we want.

 

You must have a story to tell, and you show the story through verses. It's crucial that you, the poet, understand this point clearly. Your writing must be descriptive, touching, evoking, and provoking through imagery using rhythm, rhymes, metaphors, and description.

 

The poem must have rhythm. You can achieve rhythm through rhymes, but not always. The order of words can accomplish that rhythm, but so can the choice of words. Try and re-try. Is it what you want to express? Rhythm also means space and balance. Every line in every verse must have space and balance among the words.

 

Free verses or structured? Feel free to explore.

 

To whom does the poet talk to? A friend, a lover, a relative, people, who?

 

Show how you feel. Open yourself to your poem as if diving naked into a river whose waters may be frozen or warm. Whatever they are, you must swim. You must survive.

 

Do not force a poem. If it is in you, it is in you and thus will be on the page. If you force it, it might be on the page before it is mature enough, and then it won't be what you want but an arhythmical scramble of words.

 

Use symbolism and imagery. The more vivid this symbolism and imagery is, the better.

 

Don't be afraid to explore. Everything is valid.

 

And finally, if you feel that you are not up to the task, I tell you that you might be wrong because, as the old saying goes:

 

"We all have it

That of the wise man

That of the poet

That of the madman

We all have it."

 

Happy writing.