Poetry FAQ: A Young Poet's Guide To Poetry and Poetry Writing

Advice For Young Poets

Many thanks to the following poets for taking the time to contribute these tips. If you're an experienced poet willing to share some advice, please let me know (please include your Web site URL if you have one).

"Go to open mike poetry readings in your community for great feedback."

- Devorah Stone

"Have a wide range of poetry in your knowledge bank. Try picking up some anthologies of regional poetry (One of my favorites is An Irish Anthology of Literature, published in 1940) or poetry by movement. We have so much to learn from those who've mastered language before us and so much potential to do the same when we understand poetry."

- Sara Spock

"Don't censor yourself; and don't be afraid to think bad things.
Explore sound and the lyricalness of language.
Make up words.
Lie about everything.

By hand, write down the poems of master poets whose work you love, then devour them so as to suck up and internalize their poetic potential.

Don't listen to me."

- Truman Coyote

"Experiment with words: Let nouns become verbs and let verbs act for uncharacteristic subjects.

- he puppydogged his way into my heart

- winter raindrops shiver down the pane"

- Albedo of Zero

"1. Read poetry. This may sound like a no-brainer, but young poets who remain ignorant of what came before them are doomed to inhabit a very narrow sphere of influence and will be woefully limited in their perceptions of the possibilities of poetry. Some good resources for reading quality work online:

http://bartleby.com
(Use the dropdown menu under "verse" and go nuts)

http://www.litkicks.com
(Great resource for experimental poetry from the beats, existentialists and other post-moderns)

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps
(Excellent list of poets and works)

http://www.poets.org
(Don't let the name fool you; they're not all American)

2. Venture outside your own heart and head. personal poetry can be therapeutic, but it can be a dead end for the reader. this is not to say that you can't (or shouldn't) connect the natural or supernatural world to your own experience, but strive for something more than a description of how you feel.

3. Develop an intimate understanding of the use, power and function of metaphor.

4. Develop an intimate understanding of the use, power and function of metaphor.

5. Develop an intimate understanding of the use, power and function of metaphor.

6. Write every day. To use the analogy of the painter: it's not necessary to create a painting every day, but you should be sketching at every chance."

- William Haskins

"What I wish I had known as a young poet was that poetry is about the making your reader feel, not about telling him your feelings. Instead of saying you really love that girl, show us a scene of what she is or does that makes you love her. Every poem should contain a concrete image that induces the reader to engage with your poem and avoids lecturing to him. Abstract words lock the door to your poem, imagery invites the reader inside."

- Gary Charles Wilkens