Poetry is like music. When you read it, empty your mind, forget about every thing and enjoy it. When you write it, tell a story, paint a picture and excite the reader’s emotions. Let the reader feel something, let it be like a song that brings the listener to tears or makes the listener laugh. A good poem has an idea that provokes the reader’s thoughts and feelings. It may tell a story, reveal a past experience or describe an awakening to life and it’s meaning.
Here is a poem that has a great idea, a poem that excites the reader and shows images that you can’t help but see, smell and feel.
Harlem
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Written by Langston Hughes
Six American Poets
An Anthology edited by Joel Conarroe 1991
Random House New York
This is a poem that grabs your attention with its profound idea and powerful imagery.
Think about how it makes you feel and think, especially about dreams that you may have, that you have not yet taken the action and the
commitment to accomplish.
Here are some tips that will help you to write your best poem, a poem that will make others tick.
Commit to writing poetry every day, any time, any place. At the library, under a tree, on the beach, at a coffee shop or on the train as you travel to work and back.
Write early in the mornings or late at night, whatever works best commit to doing it.
Read the work of notable poets. See how they use words to paint imagery and ideas to move the reader to feel, to think and to act.
Keep a journal of your experiences to use as ideas for your poems.
Join a poetry reading group to share your poems. Be open to suggestions and positive feedback about your work which will help you to improve your poems.
Take a poetry writing class at a community college, attend a poetry writing work shop or attend a writers’ conference with a section on writing poetry.
Think about how you can use words to express thoughts and ideas in a way, that no one else has ever used them before. Be unique in your composition.
Observe, contemplate and be curious about every thing that’s going on around you. Get inspiration from the people, places and things you encounter to use as ideas in your poems. Your poetry will become alive as you share the realities of your life experiences in a poetic way.
Revising your work is important. When you do, ask your self these questions:
Is the title interesting? Read the poem aloud- does it make sense?
Does it have structure, meter, imagery and an idea?
Will it excite the reader or give them something to think about?
If it does all these things, then you have written your best poem.
