The Art of Poetry

Being able to express yourself through words is such a beautiful form of communication. A story can come across as impactful and profound in just a few words. Complex emotions can be spilled out onto a page, creating beautiful imagery which ignites feelings in the readers’ hearts. This is what poetry is. Whether you write poetry for fun or you write for a living, it is essential to know the core elements of poetry.

Here is a guide to help create moving and connective poetry:

Know The Language 

Poetry is about communicating with the intended audience. There is something about being able to express a certain feeling in words. Not everyone can accurately articulate their feelings, and poetry is about finding that language. Poetry is about communicating with yourself and the audience. You have to dig deep down in yourself to find the right words or imagery to capture a certain feeling that resonates with the masses. Like how sign language is a language full of images and figures, poetry is a language of words that create images and figures.

Have an Idea

Many poems are written because of an emotion or image living inside of a poet. Poetry is emotion driven, oftentimes the best work just flows out of the poet. Unreleased emotions need to find somewhere to go, and many times they are released through words. Writing down how you feel or journaling is an effective way to reduce stress and improve your mood.  A meta-analysis of the effects of written emotional disclosure on the health outcomes of clinical populations by Pasquale G Frisina 1, Joan C Borod, Stephen J Lepore, details the effects writing can have on your mental health. The studies concluded that expressive writing significantly improved health (Frisina et al., 2004).

There are many different ways to write. For instance, a poem can be born because of an image in the poet’s mind. An example of an image driven poem is the ocean. The Ocean is boundless, it is said to represent life and death. If a poet wants to create a piece that represents life and death, they might use the ocean as a metaphor. When choosing an image to write about it is important to know what it means to you. How does the image make you feel? What does it symbolize? Answering these questions will help create a consistent poem with a clear message and story.

Slowly Drifting- Jade Downing

Experiment with Structure

There are many different forms of poetry, such as a Haiku, Limerick, Sonnet, Free Verse, etc. Using different poetic devices and structures stretches the poet’s creativity and creates a more interesting read.  There are also shape poems, which are words that are organized in a way that creates a shape. The content of a shape poem can correspond to the image it creates. A shape poem can take on the form of a dog and the poem can be one that is centered around a dog or the theme of a dog. 

In conclusion, There are many different layers to a poem and there are many different creative tools a poet can use to create interesting, captivating and connective pieces.

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References

Frisina, P. G., Borod, J. C., & Lepore, S. J. (2004). A meta-analysis of the effects of written emotional disclosure on the health outcomes of clinical populations. PubMed. Retrieved November 5, 2024, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15348980/