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I want to learn poetry, but I know nothing about how to write it.

Salomé

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it sucks having all this contentment- ive got nothing to write about!
I'm of the opinion that poetry, like many other forms of artistic expression, so-called "art for art's sake", is an exercise in self-therapy.
It's a way of analysing and healing psychic injury. When I was coming to know myself, I would write compulsively. I'd be awoken at 5am with ideas that were burning in my brain. Now I have no inclination to do so, whatsoever. (I'm healthier and more self-aware).
That "sun inside you, burning your gut", is the source of creative inspiration....and peptic ulcers. :)
And we write ourselves until our words write us.
Yes. Perfectly expressed.
 

ThatsWhatHeSaid

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E. E. Cummings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ee cummings in known for his lack of punctuation and capitalization. i used to get compared to him a lot by teacher-folk. i didnt even know who the hell he was until this artsy-fuck pretentious professor told me how she liked 'my style-very ee cummings'. i didnt have the heart to tell her i was, in fact, just lazy and hate typing, and really didnt give a fuck about the points i would get deducted! so i got a lazy typing pass all semester- whee (stupid teachy lady):yim_rolling_on_the_!

so, in summation i am respecting his memory 'n' shit.

:cheers:
 

Lady_X

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i don't think i've ever even read that one morgan...i love it...it's perfect.
 

ubee0173

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I'm of the opinion that poetry, like many other forms of artistic expression, so-called "art for art's sake", is an exercise in self-therapy.
It's a way of analysing and healing psychic injury. When I was coming to know myself, I would write compulsively. I'd be awoken at 5am with ideas that were burning in my brain. Now I have no inclination to do so, whatsoever. (I'm healthier and more self-aware).
That "sun inside you, burning your gut", is the source of creative inspiration....and peptic ulcers. :)
Yes. Perfectly expressed.

thats exactly what its like. and for whatever reason i still feel like if i start writing im going to feel like that again, even though i started writing because i felt that way, not vice-versa. like when you eat something and become violently ill, and you know it wasnt that specific food that made you sick but you still cant bring yourself to eat it again! and funny you mentionpeptic ulcers- when i was really seriously writing, i actually developed an ulcer. ick.
 

WoodsWoman

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Practice anything that takes rhythm. Good free style poetry has music in it - pulse and heart. Here is a piece I wrote last summer:

Washing Away

I'm sitting listening to the thunder
In this house that is slowly shedding ghosts
........and becoming mine.
No longer 'ours' but mine
Tears bring the exorcist
........but I am afraid
They will wash away the memories.

These memories can no longer hold me
Touch my hand and keep me warm
The 'wind beneath my wings' is gone.*

I remember mother telling me I wouldn't melt
When I was little I came to believe her
Now I think she's wrong.

The rain and tears are washing from me
........the things that make me strong.




By WoodsWoman 7/27/2009


* “The Wind Beneath My Wings” by Larry Henley
 

Mole

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Another approach is to take care of yourself. I mean really, really take care of yourself and then you will be brimming over, and perhaps brimming over with poetry.
 

ubee0173

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Another approach is to take care of yourself. I mean really, really take care of yourself and then you will be brimming over, and perhaps brimming over with poetry.

lucky!! i found the opposite to be true. probably NOT a good thing, since now that im all taking care of myself i have nothing to write about. i dont know- when everything is going well i prefer to experience the good things in the world, when i feel not great (okay, frighteningly awful- i just dont even like saying it!) i live a bit more inside my head and HAVE to write lest it become too overcrowded in there.
 

Fluffywolf

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The poems I've written just flowed out. Some emotion or deep thought I had that I wanted to put on paper in an abstract way and 'poof' there it is.

Poetry doesn't have dos or don'ts. Heck, they even don't need to be grammatically correct. As long as you feel it conveys the point you're trying to make and it has the flow you want it to have.

Poetry is for the self, it isn't for sharing. But poetry made for the self, can still be shared, ofcourse. But you shouldn't write it in order to share it. Catch my drift? :p
 

Mole

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lucky!! i found the opposite to be true. probably NOT a good thing, since now that im all taking care of myself i have nothing to write about. i dont know- when everything is going well i prefer to experience the good things in the world, when i feel not great (okay, frighteningly awful- i just dont even like saying it!) i live a bit more inside my head and HAVE to write lest it become too overcrowded in there.

It is an interesting contrast. It's more I write from a never ending spring and all I have to do is listen. But to write from "frighteningly awfuL" reminds me of Sylvia Plath who did write from that position.

And I often wonder whether it would have been better if Sylvia had not discovered her inner self under the encouragement of Ted Hughes. And Sylvia may have been alive today to enjoy her grandchildren.

It seems to me that poetry is like the internet - it is a gloss on everyday life. It can give depth to everyday life. It can cast understanding on everyday life. It can celebrate life or take it.

They say poetry does nothing, but it does it with a vengeance.
 

Mole

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I need to find a good introduction to poetry. I'm not really one for rhymes or having to follow strict rules. I just want to write about ideas that I have.

So is there a type of poetry that doesn't incorporate strict rules? It can have some. Basically, I just don't want anything too difficult that I'll just mess up.

There's expressing emotions and there is poetry.

The difference is that poetry is emotion recollected in tranquillity.
 
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