Friday, June 03, 2005

How to write a poem

Is it a poem
You want to write?

Take an emotion
It can be anything,
Sun shining,
Girl smiling,
Soul searching,
Literally anything.

First thing to do is to
Decide on number of lines
Is it on poetry magazine?
Then it can be 40 lines.
Is it on weekly magazines?
Then make it about 20 lines.
Is it on your newspaper?
Squeeze it to 8 lines.
Is it on your blog?
Bloddy hell, make it a million lines and more.

Now that you are set,
Search the thesaurus
for those rhyming words
Words that are not common
yet not too difficult
Words that tell the reader
that you know more than him.
For example see the second stanza
Change emotion to feeling
So it rhymes with the rest.

The craft of poetry is not complete
Unless the sentences are different.
Never say the sun is marvellous
Say marvellous is the sun
And you want to be a modernist?
Break the sentences as I have done.
You have a question?
What about the emotion?
Why bother, when the poem is complete?

7 comments:

tris said...

excellent - can compltely relate tot he newspaper size, Hindu has mercilessly butchered my pieces in the past though I have never been capable of poetry

Anonymous said...

flows through, Chenthil.

Brilliantly written. I have seen this technique used before. This one is worth a mention.

BTW, ithukku enna inspiration ??

Chenthil said...

Thanks Tilo. I have noticed off late The Hindu articles seem to have been reduced in size, more space for photos. May be it is my perception, but feel a distinct difference after the make over.

Guru, it was a stream of thought piece. I was frustrated on not being able to adhere to form and keep the content alive at the same time. So was thinking about it while riding my bike and jotted it down as soon as I reached office. Now you know how accidents happen :-)

ammani said...

Written with great anger and reads excellent. Did you have to do drafts? It reads like it was written in one go. Likeitwaswritteninonebreathe and then...phew! Fantastic.

Chenthil said...

You are correct Ammani, it was written in one go. I was afraid drafts and reworks will kill the anger. Hence decided to write it as I thought.

Woodooz said...

Hey Chenthil, Nice one. I thought thesaurus is used for finding out synonyms. For rhythmic words, I normally use poetry.com

monu said...

i dont look at rhyming words..but just split my sentences..and lo behold! i have a poem.....
:)
the post was so relatable