Poetry can be an astonishingly powerful art. But here’s the disclaimer; only when it’s good. This article is a general way to form a poem from an idea. I didn’t write it to teach you about verse, rhythm, etc., but how to form a poem successfully and to create your desired tone. Also, it tells you what makes a poem stunning, not just good. Anyway, powerful poems are incredibly slippery-you may have a great idea for a poem, but it may loose it’s glamour a few lines in. But it’s not impossible to hang onto that great idea and create an amazing poem out of it. In fact there are only a few simple steps to the whole process of turning out a beautiful poem.
Now let’s start reasonably. First, a great poet gets in tune with their feelings. They get out in the open, and watch people, or look at the scenery. They let their feelings overwhelm them. But this is only setting the mood for a great poem. As simple as this step may seem, it’s extremely important. A writer can’t force themselves to write a poem in cold blood. The tone behind the words will come easily if the writer is deeply immersed within the emotion themselves.
Poets then try to describe their feelings as best they can. At this stage, rhyming, verse, rhythm, all the good stuff is not necessary. It just comes to putting whatever you are feeling to words. It’s good to be general at first; use an cliché; you feel love, sadness, anger, joy. Then be more specific. What kind of [insert feeling here]? Why do you feel it? What made you feel it? What is it doing to you? Where is it source? How is it effecting you? Don’t turn it into an essay, try different words and different combinations of those words.
Poets then get expressive and figurative with the emotion. Since it’s impossible to describe every singular emotion we get, poets describe it through imagery, simile, metaphor; all types of figurative language. Instead of a depressive feeling of hopelessness, the poet feels “a thousand black crows dispersing across their world”.
Now, the poem is born. Poetry is naturally abstract, but powerful poems in general, have a plotline to them, abstract or up front. To give your poem a sense of power, give it a crisis, an event, or a confrontation. Of anything! Not necessarily even people related. It could be as simple as swimming in the ocean at night and being afraid of the deep water beneath. The poet is being confronted, figuratively, by the deep water. They are afraid of what it could do to them, what might happen if they are swallowed up. What poets do after they have their plot is dress it up with figurative language until the plot is barely there. An example of this step, is, going back to the crow example, the narrator of the poem could be continuously confronted by crows, while the crows would be completely symbolic for the feeling they had described.
At this point, your poem is being born. To get your poem on a roll, you might want to create a powerful ending. Powerful endings take some time to make. Lots and lots of revision, editing, and scrutinizing is required. It may take you up to an hour! But once you are sure your ending is powerful (and you will get it if you are devoted), the whole poem becomes easier, leading up to this one verse. The poem becomes centered and unified around this last line, and because of this, it tends to make the ending phrase only more powerful.
~or~
You could create a powerful recurring theme. A powerful theme takes as much time as the powerful ending, but it gives lots of room for creativity. They can also add a new level of depth to the poem. What makes a powerful theme so commanding is when the author gives a new take on it every time. For example if the author began every verse with “I imagine myself leaving you and…”. A few different takes on a situation that included the author leaving somebody would make for a very commanding poem.
To make a powerful recurring theme, don’t think about the theme in relation to the poem. Instead, think about creating a powerful statement. Thinking about it as a quote might help also. Brainstorm, revise, edit, change until you are satisfied. Once you are, dive in!
But notice: a powerful theme coupled with a powerful ending makes a truly great poem.
I’ll just make one out of all my previous examples. (This is the ending coupled with the theme)
“I imagine myself leaving you,
and being swallowed up by this great, black water,
a million crows waiting patiently above me,
not caring if I’ll ever come out.”
This is only example, I’m sure you can tell. You’ll definitely do better than that. But the idea that is to show you that these different concepts found in poetry can be paired to make an outstanding poem.
As this comes to an end, remember that when writing a poem, always recenter yourself onto the original feeling. Nobody likes a bipolar poem. And secondly, remember a good poem is not born. It is made! (Please enjoy the cliché.)
