I wanna write poetry...

[QuiteRole]

Like about human emotions, life, girls etc. etc.(sounds corny) But I don't want to just do it, but actually be good too. Be abstract but actually have meaning behind my poetry. Anyways..

Before I begin all this I would need knowledge and intelligence and also a good vocabulary. What books, poems etc. should I read? Who should I read?

Where Should I Start?

 

[1487610420]

You CAN start by questioning how much do you really want to do it vs just saying/thinking you want to, while creating excuses and barriers to justify not doing it.

 

[Jaguar]

Go buy the book Creating Poetry by John Drury.
It's the best I've seen, so far.

 

[SilkRoad]

Read the greats. It's essential. Among others I'd recommend:

T S ELiot
W B Yeats
Pablo Neruda
Shakespeare (sonnets)
Elizabeth Bishop
Adrienne Rich
Sylvia Plath
Ted Hughes
Paul Celan
Derek Walcott
John Keats
Seamus Heaney
Derek Mahon
P K Page
e e cummings
Walt Whitman
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Rainer Maria Rilke
Anne Sexton
Baudelaire
Czeslaw Milosz
Wole Soyinka
Mahmoud Darwish
Rumi
Adam Zagajewski
Carolyn Forche

 

[Spiritual Science]

Read what inspires you and read what you like. Use those as your influences. Don't let anyone tell you who you should read, although the greats are a good place to start. There are certain techniques you should be familiar with, but don't let them limit you. It's like playing a musical instrument. There are fundamentals, but not only fundamentals. There is originality too.

 

[skylights]

I have worked as a writing tutor and our advice to people was the best way to become a good writer, is to write.

It doesn't matter if it's good or you like it to begin with. Just get something on the paper, and then you can begin tweaking it more and more to your liking.

A secret about poetry, is that the juxtaposition of the words and ideas themselves, as you put them down on paper, will create meaning that you didn't expect. That's what's so magical about poetry (about all the arts, really). The art itself will teach you, even as you are producing it.

 

[Mole]

Start by reading the Arts and Entertainment forum, Wikileaks and Poetry thread.