Why fool around with poetry when you have no intention of ever writing poems?  Because reading poetry and trying your hand at writing poems will make you a better writer. You’ll learn the power of few words, the weight of just one word. You’ll learn to cut to the chase. You’ll create images and maybe metaphors. I’m talking about contemporary poetry here, not rhymed or poems with obvious meter.

If you’re writing fiction and get stuck, try writing a poem about the scene you’re having trouble with. Often you can find the emotional heart of a scene this way.  Try it with memoir too.

Read the poem “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins  (in fact read all his poems – he’s an elegant writer and very witty.) Read Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese”, “The Summer Day” and “The Journey” (for openers)  Read Raymond Carver, who makes it look easy but it isn’t.  Read Ted Kooser and Lucille Clifton and Jane Kenyon and all the poetry books listed on the sidebar.

In high school a lot of us studied poetry geared to a test: What is the meaning of this poem? What do the metaphors stand for? This may be why some of you out there don’t read poetry, or like it. If a poem moves you it doesn’t matter what it means – it can mean something different for everyone who reads it.  And a good poem can be read over and over and we learn something new each time we read it. But we don’t have to take a test. 

Should you fall in love with poetry and get serious about writing it, that’s when you’ll study the craft. You’ll learn to write sonnets and villanelles.  You’ll pay attention to meter. You’ll try rhymes, and you’ll read poetry written from the beginning of time.  .

Here’s an exercise we did in class yesterday. I’ve posted it before (Check out “Fooling Around With Poems” under Categories if you’re interested in poetry.)  Yesterday in this exercise students wrote about a stethoscope, house, couch, palm pilot, easel, table, fridge, computer, and furniture.

Write:

Choose a material object you own and write a poem about it. Begin each line with the name of the object you’ve chosen and write something factual about it. Don’t write about feelings. The accumulation of specific detail is what will give it power. This exercise was inspired by Raymond Carver’s poem “The Car”, which is the least “poetic” poem you’ll ever read. The first forty lines all begin with the words “The car..” and go on to describe one aspect of it (no back seat, torn front seat, blown head-gasket etc.)

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Courage & Craft: Writing Your Life Into Story, by Barbara Abercrombie

Available from Amazon or your favorite bookstore.