Guest post written by Alex Phuong
Poetry is often perceived as one of the toughest forms of writing imaginable. After all, it can be challenging to form phrases that rhyme and sound very pleasing to readers and listeners. Nevertheless, writing poetry does not need to be that difficult because poems can literally be about anything. A common misconception about poems is that they need to rhyme. Some people also believe that poems need to sound elegant and eloquent. The fact of the matter is that poems can actually be any length, any style, and in any form just as long as they are written either on a page or through electronic methods (like on Microsoft Word). Therefore, writing poetry does not need to be that daunting.
Here are some tips and tricks to writing poetry…
1. Write poems using whatever comes to mind. A great fact about poetry is that poems can explore any topic just as long as they are written. A very unique style about writing poetry is done by using the stream of consciousness technique, a term that William James coined. Popularized by Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, this technique allows writers to create poems using any words, thoughts, or ideas that come to mind. Poems do not need to rhyme because free verse and contemporary poetry oftentimes do not even have a rhyme scheme.
2. Listening to songs can allow poets to understand how words rhyme in order to create original creations. Some of the greatest songs of all time exist because of how they blend music with language in order to form masterpieces. It would be helpful to listen to songs from famous musicals like Les Misérables and Wicked. Poets can also listen to songs from award-winning films, especially Disney films that won the Academy Award for “Best Original Song” like the title song from Beauty and the Beast (1991) or “A Whole New World from Aladdin (1992). That is because songs really are just examples of musical poetry.
3. And of course, reading poetry itself can help writers form their own original creations. Poems can be epic, like Homer’s Odyssey, or poems can be simple, like the poetry from Emily Dickinson. E.E. Cummings and Walt Whitman are also great poets to learn from because of their impact on American literature. It would also be helpful to read poems from European writers, such as William Blake, John Keats, and Lord Byron.
Poetry can be hard to write, but poems can be about anything, both literally and figuratively. They also do not need to be about love nor nature because such poems have already existed for centuries. Therefore, read, write, and enjoy composing poems because any poem can possess artistic merit simply because there is no such thing as a “perfect poem.”
Alex Andy Phuong graduated from California State University, Los Angeles with his Bachelor of Arts in English in 2015. He currently writes online articles and film reviews. He is very passionate about art, literature, cinema, and anything related to creative expression. His main goal in life is to help others selflessly, and he fully supports those who dare to dream.
