Feb 2020
Dear....
You are doing fine. Trust yourself. Be patient.
Read, read and read. Understand what makes a good poem. Be bold and original. Use imagination, find your own voice, choose the themes that suit you, don't try to imitate others, feelings are important but they must be genuine and not 'manufactured'---false ones are easily detected, beautiful words don't make a good poem--a good poem must have value and strike the read with its freshness, uniqueness and singularity, it must have spontaneity, cohesiveness and clarity- vagueness and looseness won't stand up, a good poem is like an attractive and solid building, architecturally sound as it has strong and unshakeable foundations,
don't over-labour--it irritates the reader, find the best words, phrases and sentences to suit the theme(s), don't use a thesaurus ---it would **** your creativity and cause unhealthy addiction, rhyming does not make a good poem but has value in some types of poetry, blank verse is the new voice of poetry and is rich, gives flexibility and very readable in most cases, long poems are not easy to write and call for great skills, craftsmanship and maturity, a good short poem scores better than a tedious and sterile long poem.
Writing is a journey that has no ending--without humility, patience, hard work and perseverance, acuity of insight and perception, the outcome would be lacklustre and dismal.
It is not true that good poetry comes from inspiration-
the hard work is what would inspire.
The writer must suffer to be able to become a master.
I am no expert, I have to struggle like all others but every poem I have written that seems to me to be 'right' gives me a deep sense of exhilaration and I would not feel that my effort has been in vain. Good luck and best wishes.
You are doing fine. Trust yourself. Be patient.
Read, read and read. Understand what makes a good poem. Be bold and original. Use imagination, find your own voice, choose the themes that suit you, don't try to imitate others, feelings are important but they must be genuine and not 'manufactured'---false ones are easily detected, beautiful words don't make a good poem--a good poem must have value and strike the read with its freshness, uniqueness and singularity, it must have spontaneity, cohesiveness and clarity- vagueness and looseness won't stand up, a good poem is like an attractive and solid building, architecturally sound as it has strong and unshakeable foundations,
don't over-labour--it irritates the reader, find the best words, phrases and sentences to suit the theme(s), don't use a thesaurus ---it would **** your creativity and cause unhealthy addiction, rhyming does not make a good poem but has value in some types of poetry, blank verse is the new voice of poetry and is rich, gives flexibility and very readable in most cases, long poems are not easy to write and call for great skills, craftsmanship and maturity, a good short poem scores better than a tedious and sterile long poem.
Writing is a journey that has no ending--without humility, patience, hard work and perseverance, acuity of insight and perception, the outcome would be lacklustre and dismal.
It is not true that good poetry comes from inspiration-
the hard work is what would inspire.
The writer must suffer to be able to become a master.
I am no expert, I have to struggle like all others but every poem I have written that seems to me to be 'right' gives me a deep sense of exhilaration and I would not feel that my effort has been in vain. Good luck and best wishes.
