1. Before you write your poem, give it a tentative TITLE. Tentative because the inspiration may lead you elsewhere as you write.
2. A poem is like an ESSAY in verse. So, just as you list points in essays, list the main points of your poem before starting.
3. Decide if you want to have regular stanza formations (equal number of verses in a stanza), alternated or just free verse.
4. Make up your mind to RHYME or not.
5. If you want to rhyme, chose a rhyme scheme. You can create yours. I have several of mine. Be creative, but let there be a pattern.
6. MIND YOUR DICTION!!!!!!!!!!! This is key, don’t use every word you pick in a novel to write poem! The best of poems use SIMPLE words in CRAFTY ways. It’s not to use ‘OJUJU’ words that makes your poem cool. Until you become a master of words, stay off words you can’t manipulate…
7. Repetition is a poetic device…but it doesn’t mean you should tell us the same thing in 3 different stanzas.
8. Let there be a flow in your verses. Let them link. Don’t jump from beginning to end back to middle and beginning so much that we end up in a psychiatrist ward because we read your poem.
9. Poetic license doesn’t mean you should create non ‘relatable’ words and expect the reader to understand. If you do, add a phone number in your poem so that every reader can call to ask the meaning.
10. Spellings! Spell check yourself!
11. TENSE, Subject Verb Agreement, and parts of Speech must not be played around with. Do you mind people who tell you that you can do whatever you please as a poet?
12. A little restraint and adherence to rules made some poetic forms, and poets stand out. Observe rules where you can.
REVISE, REVISE AND REVISE…and let friends edit for you.
Kai, I don tire sef…
For more, visit my blogs on WORDPRESS also on BLOGGER and please like my Facebook Poetry page Words Rhymes and Rhythm
this had me laughing….thanks for the tips my oga at the top
Thank you Oga @topazo at the toppest
Good tips.A good poem should have meaning.
Exactly ma’am @khadijahmuhammad it should not just be
…and thank you for the heads up. Will keep them in my laft hand.
that is good @newreign…happy penning
nice tips about poems and poetry…… i cant stand sentences broken anyhow and be called poetry……
Me too ma’am @elovepoetryThat thing makes me want to puke blank verses….LOL
Thanks xikay, this is helpful. Well done. $ß.
You are welcome @sibbylwhyte…thanks
this is true…
Thanks for reading @laworemike
…TENTATIVE TITLE first…well, yes, but not in all cases.
If you’ve been writing poetry as you said sir, you’d find that having a title in mind can hamper the flow of the lines. It’d be like playing out a script, which is bad for poetry. Because poetry is a serious business, which sometimes come in fragments, how do you account for that?
Thanks for sharing though.
Mr @Chime221 Poetry comes in fragments that must be aligned, else you have a hundred poems jumbled under one title.
Maybe I have not been writing poems, but I tell you this: Just like you do with articles, you need a tentative title, because SOME poems come in bits…and you as the poet has to control them.
Your TENTATIVE title gives you a blueprint that guides you.
I did not know that poetry is SERIOUS BUSINESS that should be taken anyhow the FRAGMENTS come.
Get serious with poetry and stop writing FRAGMENTS as they come, control both the coming of those fragments and how you join them.
@Chime221 and @xikay, maybe not tentative titles, but tentative subject matter and focus. I think xikay is cautioning against having disjointed thoughts and a lack of coherence and cohesion. Imagine having a poem where the persona seems to be female in the first lines of one stanza, and then the persona becomes male in the same stanza. It makes you wonder sometimes if you are reading different poems in one.
God bless you @febidel, you got my point
In short, you are a quotable scholar in the field of literature. What will you do to ‘On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer’? The fact remains that you just need to know the type of poetry you are writing: lyrical, metaphysical, dramatic, and so on. Do not be surprised that a poem you see as nonsense can be awarded as the best in a competition. It all depends on Aesthetics experience and attitude and concept. If an established writer should do what you call rubish, we will try to link his style with the content rather than tell him to bury his ideas. In literature as well as Philosophy, there is no absolute knowledge or unquestionable rigid convention. Please be objective and make a suggestion rather than an attack.
Mr. @samuelkew, I do not know what you mean by “make a suggestion rather than an attack.”
I dont even know if that is directed at me or someone else on this thread.
….and that’s why I like ideas; it rules whereof one chooses what he’s wont to choose.
I like this content.
Thanks Sir @ostar
@xikay, I hope many… in fact, all poetry contributors on NS will pay attention to this article.
Well done.
Thank you Sir @TolaO
Friend, let it be a friendly discuss. What I mean is rather than say you are angry at some people’s work or condemn the works, you can correct errors, suggests better tips as you have done but in a less or no harsh to. I love you.
There was no point where I stated that I was angry Oga @samuelkew and these are tips. Did you notice the playful nature of the article?
You know you are trying to help, but some might get it wrong andfell ‘oh, he call some works fragment’, all the same, I love you Zeal, but much more, objectivity
Thank you Sir
Sire, it is a fun dragging a bit with you. Telling and showing. I surrender. I am happy here. You know I’m new here, but it’s great with us. Tips, great tips to make better writers. Thank you too.
I salute
This to an extent contradicts everything i was thought in school about poem. such as:
– A good poem writes itself and the work of the poet is just in the organizing.
– Poetry is an act of the muse goddess possessing the writer.
– poetry is just free flow of emotions and feeling without much effort from the writer.
those were what they told me in books and here are TIPS that spell concious effort in poetry writing. Is it still the war between formalists and socialists?
ok because of this i am going to write a poem now any call it “a group of quarrelling words” *winks*
Thank you for shooting yourself in the foot and buttressing my point Sir @coshincozor
the WORK of the poet is JUST in the ORGANIZING.
Good, ORGANIZE your words, then they will not QUARREL
Please, go ahead and write as many group of quarreling words you like but I leave you with these questions:
Why are we thought about form and style?
Why are we even thought about poetry at all…why not just appreciation?
Why do we have different forms of poetry?
Why are some poets better than some?
How many blank verses does Shakespeare have?
If poetry glows on its own, why do we have get better as we write more?
Please, dont give me that blank writing talk…poetry is DELIBERATE as much as it is spontaneous…your ability to organise your spontaneous inspirations is what makes your poem good
@xikay, shouldn’t that be ‘Taught’ not ‘Thought’?
@mildredhughes is that all you saw?
Eeeeeh! Oga KIS, pls don’t tireee for us ooo, with time, we would perfect our arts and not give you wahala again.
LOL….me sef na learner o Oga mi
Hmmm
You sabi, bros. Thanks for the other day…
The other day…Sir @banky…
I especially like the playful tone of this article. Thanks for the tips.
Thanks @febidel
Interesting article. Poetry might seem to offer a greater freedom of expression BUT in the end, knowledge of some of the techniques and styles that have evolved through the ages, can help to infuse our poems with the music and taste of lovely poetry.
I find it disheartening what is accepted and promoted in this present time as great poetry on the international stage. God help us.
Well done @xikay.
Thanks @chemokopi
From the Grandmaster himself!
Oga mi @raymond ..It’s been a while I got scared
@xikay, will this do?
http://www.naijastories.com/2013/07/the-shadow-chronicles-4/
It sure has been a while…
It’s been said.
Well done.
e se gan Oga @Seun-Odukoya
Hmmmm, I am just seeing this. This is very helpful! Thanks sir..