“There’s a sensation of accomplishment upon completing one piece that is multiplied when the creator scans across several poems that are close to completion. This is due in part to the fact that the poems, no matter how different, will be in conversation with one another.” – dimitrireyespoet.com
1. Look for Themes in Your Work
You can benefit most from this tip if you have already wrote several poems. An invigorating part about the poet’s writing process is standing back and looking at what the poet has created. There’s a sensation of accomplishment upon completing one piece that is multiplied when the creator scans across several poems that are close to completion. This is due in part to the fact that the poems, no matter how different, will be in conversation with one another.
It’s a good idea for you, as the creator, to look for those similar themes in your work. These can be a plethora of different subjects, and here are just a few: motherhood, fatherhood, masculinity, femininity, grief, illness, death, racial identity, happiness, chocolate, funk, soul, concrete, wheelbarrows, linnet birds, biker boots, tickets, glass, lighthouses, Sidney Poitier, mustaches, musk, bones, blow dryers, traffic cones, sea salt.
(Notice I didn’t say “love.” This entertains my belief that every poem is a love poem, whether if it’s of the odal spirit or otherwise. Love in itself is powerful beyond attraction, and when we think of love as something to be cherished, no matter the sentiment of the poem, there should be a deep passion.)
When the writer becomes conscious of the overarching themes in their work, it becomes easier to talk about their work and therefore continue producing material that is vibrant and controlled. This is also the easiest manner in which one finds their “voice.”
2. The "Look" of Your Poem is as Important as the Poem
This is referred to as the aesthetic quality of your work. When one is in the editing stages of a poem, the way the poem looks on the page is as important as syntax, enjambs, word choice, and narrative. The way the poem rests on the page can change the overall tone of a piece. For example, if the line legnths are long, consistent in length, and in one stanza, there is an increased sense of tension. To release that tension, separating each line into a monastic could not only give your lines some breathing room, but will make the work feel airy in the process.
On top of that, the aesthetics of a poem can help guide your reader through the poem as well. Here are two examples of how space on the page can dictate the way the reader reads the poem. When clicking on the links and listening to the audio, notice where the poets take their pauses.
3. Read Your Poem to Yourself
We get tunnel vision as writers and can already psychologically (or spiritually) “feel” our end product. When we are operating with our feelers, we might be saying (or thinking!) what we want, but it might not be what’s on the paper. That’s why it’s always a good idea to read your work to yourself out loud.
Reading out loud is essential because the mind better ingests information if it’s using more than one of it’s senses. If you are reading your poem quietly to yourself, you are bound to catch mistakes by using your eyes. But what about if your eyes were allowed to work with your mouth and ears to help you edit? You’ll have 3x the chance of coming across errors because each sensory device is helping the other! You see the words, you read them out loud, and you hear how they sound. This technique will have you picking up awkward language and moments of poignant clarity in no time!
4. Follow Your Thoughts
When we are writing our first draft, we tend to want everything to be perfect and what ends up happening is that we may begin to edit while we are creating. As tempted as you are to do so, challenge yourself to do nothing but create– “you can always edit later” is something I have to constantly tell myself.
But when your first draft is completed and you’re ready to enter the editing stage, one way you can choose to do this is by following a thought that you began somewhere throughout the poem. Whatever is calling out to you, whether that’d be a theme, subject, an event, or a whole line, see if there is anything missing in your poetic narrative that needs to be explored deeper. If you choose to explore the precursor to that moment, or perhaps a future that reveals a different perspective of a situation, it will reveal a piece of your poem that otherwise would’ve been more opaque.
5. Study, Study, Study Your Contemporaries
Through the average poetry enthusiast will give me a lashing or two for this, it is very important to read what is getting put out there today! There are so many ways poetry is being reinvented, repackaged, and shaken up. By knowing what’s out there, you’re setting yourself up with the most knowledge.
And don’t worry if you are a writer who is comfortable with a good ol’ sonnet or villanelle; there are many many poets who are still writing into those forms with a contemporary lens. I’d suggest you try to read as much as possible and take a hint from tip number 1: look for the themes in your work that exist in other people’s work, too. See what you both are covering and see how your narratives differ. A bunch of poets writing about similar subjects helps us get a better sense of what’s really going on. We are the voice!
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