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What Should I Write
About?
By Sebastien
Cole
What
Should I Write About?
Many beginners
mistakenly believe that poetry can only be about grand passions
such as love, hate or betrayal. While it is true that much great
poetry has been written on these themes, poetry can be about anything.
Although you may be eager to write about epic love affairs and
tragic partings, you must remember that these themes have been
used since poetry was first written. So much has already been
written about love and death, for example, that it is very difficult
to steer clear of cliché. Cliché is the enemy of the budding poet,
and is a very easy trap to fall into. Phrases like this must be
avoided at all costs:
Your eyes are
like stars, your hair is like spun gold, your love is like a rose,
I need you like flowers need the rain...
So it is perhaps
best to tackle smaller themes first. As I said, poetry can be
about anything. It can be about your pet rabbit Suki, your first kiss or the used tea bag you just threw
in the sink. As an example, here is a poem I wrote about chocolate:
From your frosty
home in the fridge You taunt me. You
call to me in a silken voice With luscious
lips.
You beckon me
like the sirens You call to me across
the milky sea Of the kitchen floor.
I hear you calling,
your voice like the waves. You pull me along the red thread of
my desire, Bring me low before you
With promises of pleasure and delight.
I am taken prisoner,
I am sucked into your dark night. Your embrace is passion, Is
melting and soft
And I am lost
in this kiss There are stars, there
are oceans of bliss You ask for nothing You take nothing away
You are there
when I need you You are solid, you are mine I can hold you, I can
kiss you
And like the
spider, my love, I can chew you up and swallow you whole if choose.
That
poem was simply about trying not to eat that second bar of chocolate
(although in writing it I convinced myself to go ahead and eat
it), so as you can see, poetry can be made of anything.
The best advice
is to write what you know, and to write honestly. Memory is an
endless source of poetry. Think of the important things that have
happened in your life. A good exercise is to look at old photo
albums or diaries. These usually bring up long forgotten
memories, and the more vivid the memory,
the better a source it is for a poem. Try and remember a day from
your childhood, any day, and write about it. First you could write
about it in prose, and then form your memories into a poem. You
will find that once you begin to write the memories come flooding
back. Perhaps there are specific incidents from your childhood
you can remember more clearly. These could be happy events, like
your 10th birthday, or perhaps more traumatic ones. There are
usually certain periods in a person's life that are more useful
sources of poetry than others. I find that the year I turned 13
is interesting as it marks the transition from childhood to early
adulthood, and was a particularly confusing time. Ask yourself
these questions, and the answers should give you some inspiration;
When was the
happiest moment of my life? When was the saddest moment of my
life? What was my first kiss like? What is my earliest memory?
How did it feel to be 8 years old? Who is the best friend I've
ever had? When have I had the most fun I've ever had? Have I ever
been in love? When have I been furthest from home? What does the
word 'home' mean to me?
Another good
exercise is to take an old photo album and flick through the pages.
Stop at any point and, without looking, let your finger land on
a photograph. Now try and write a poem about this photo. You don't
have to be in it, or specifically remember that day. If you weren't
there or don't remember it, just make it up. What is the atmosphere
of the photograph? How do you think the people in it feel? What
are they thinking? This is a good exercise because old photos
often provoke a sense of nostalgia, which already makes things
seem 'poetic.' Nostalgia also gives us a sense of time passing
and of the transience of life, which allows us to reach that sudden
moment of poetic sight that good poetry is made of.
http://www.poetrymasterclass.com
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