Tips For Writing Poetry Part 3

Here is Part 3...

StanzasThere are many ways you can set up a poem.  You have to pick the one that best suits your purposes.  It can be fun to think about how you will structure your poems.  Poems are made up of stanzas---the poetry equivalent of prose's paragraphs.  The size of the stanza is up to you.  Some stanzas will have four lines..  Some five or some six. Some can be fewer than four lines. Others can be more than six.  Again, it's all about what purpose you have for the poem. 

Once you decide how many lines per stanza your poem will have, you can now decide if the poem will be free verse (non-rhyming ) or if it will be rhyming.  If it will rhyming, you can determine which lines will rhyme.  If you have 4 lines in a stanza, you can either have the first and third lines rhyme only, or have the second and fourth lines rhyme only, or you can even combine both have the first and third lines rhyme AND the second and fourth lines rhyme.  There is really no limit on how you can rhyme the lines.  You can even consider having the first and fourth lines rhyme and the second and third lines rhyme as well.  Experiment...and see what works for you.  TitlesSometimes titles can be easy to come up with.  Sometimes not so much!  So how does one come up with a title for his or her poem?  First, read the poem and think about what the poem is saying.  Is there a single word or phrase that would sum up what the poem is about?  Second, do some brainstorming---write down possible title ideas.  If you want, let some of your friends and family members read your poem and ask them for their ideas of possible titles for your poem.  Look at the poem as a baby you have given birth to or as something you have built, and it is up to you to name it. 

Materials

So after reading all this material, you have decided that you want to write poetry!  Congrats!  So what should you write your poetry on?  There are a number of ways you can go with that!  First, if you want to do it the thrifty way,then go shop the back-to-school sales when they occur.  Target usually will sale packs of 10 wireless notebooks for very cheap!  So buy those and you will have plenty of notebooks you can write your poetry in. You even start a journal with one of those notebooks!

Second, if you want something a little bit more high quality, you can go purchase a journal.  You can find journals at a variety of places!  One place I have gone to go buy a journal at is at my local Christian bookstore.  Most Christian bookstores will have a section for stationary and the like. One online source for Christian journals is: Christian Book.com.  They have a wide selection of journals at cheap prices.  You can also find a variety of regular journals at amazon.com . 

I originally purchased my journal at my Christian bookstore several years ago for the original purpose of making it a prayer journal to God.  I wrote out two prayers in there which were over a year apart. After the 2nd prayer I wrote in there, I realize I much rather talk to God than write to God my prayers.  So after praying to God,  I decided that I wanted to use the journal as my poetry journal.  My goal was when it got filled up, I would try to publish it as a book.  In December 2009, I prayed to God that He would let me write poetry again. So on Dec. 28, 2009, I started writing my first poem  (Before then, last time I wrote a poem was YEARS ago).  Once I transfer the recent poems I have written to the journal, then it will be filled and perhaps then some....

Do you have any questions?  If so, feel free to leave it in the comment box below!