Where To Get Inspiration When Writing Poetry

As a young teen, “Please don’t let Mr. Gibbs call on me to read my poem today,” was almost my daily silent prayer in our creative writing class. At the time I liked reading poetry, but writing and reading poetry out loud upon demand was a whole different type of experience, one that was filled with dread and anxiety.

For most people the craft of poetry either comes easy or hard. I don’t think any poet can control this any more than mankind has learned the weather. So especially in school, a number of students struggle when it comes to writing upon demand. At the same time, some are gifted enough that verse on any theme comes extremely easy. After all, the basic techniques of poetry are fairly straightforward. Poetry primarily consists of:

• Alliteration - when two or more words in a poem begin with the same letter or sound

• Assonance - the repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close to each other - this also includes diphthongs.
• Consonance - characterized by the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession
• Meter - the basic measured rhythmic structure of words in a verse or lines in verse
• Rhyme - repetition of similar sounds in two or more words that sound alike but may not always be spelled alike
• Stanza arrangement - an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more containing every variation of measure in that poem

There are other techniques to learn but the above mentioned are basic to any poem.

Just about anybody can learn these techniques in poetry with effort and time. Teachers for generations have invested a lot of effort in trying to bend young minds in the direction of poetry, usually to the woe of any young student in terms of having to sit still long enough to write a poem.

However, for anyone who writes poetry simply for the love of doing it, the craft of poetry comes differently. It springs from an internal desire that clamors for expression, a lot like our dreams, both the day dreaming and sleepy night kind, for they are the ones that are filled with the desires of the heart and the mind. Now, I’d like to think that any true poet at heart is an especially sensitive soul just simply needs to release the poem within into the universe. To keep the poem inside is just plain wrong.

Also read and study poems written by others, not just the classics of yesterday, but ones great poets of today are writing. One place to begin is right here on this site, because among us are some superb poets. I learn from their poems regularly and they are quite inspiring.

In case you are wondering where to get inspiration to write a poem, it's just as simple as learning the techniques of poetry, mastering them and then just writing -- for inspiration is all around us, we just have to be open to it. It's in the hopes, the dreams, the tragedies of life, love that surrounds us, nature, relationships, and the in every day things this world has to offer us.

There many different types of poetry forms, both in fixed and free verse and all are worthy of mastering. Sometimes though, it’s just best to write your poem. I find that some of my poems just arrive within my mind, long before I think to write anything down. Other times, I find myself waking up from a nap or a good night’s sleep with a couplet, or a single line, that is insisting it be written down. For me, writing such interjections into my consciousness down just as it comes to me, even if it’s just phrase or a line, is the first hint that my mind might be pregnant with a poem waiting to be born.

Writing your poem down is where that piece or fragment of poetry meets any technical mastery instilled by teachers. I was one of the lucky ones during my student days growing up in California where student teachers from the University of California at Berkeley were part of a grand experiment in team teaching in the California public school system. I always thank goodness they were gracious enough to have gifted such knowledge and joy of poetry to me, a very reluctant student of poetry. The following is a poem that I dedicate to them, for they wore many masks. They were our mentors, our teachers, our friends, and so much more:

Romance in many faces appears upon a stage

A mime, a tragedian, a lover, a sage

Yet in each performance

Exists an essence so profound

The audience, enraptured,

Dares not make a sound.

Ahh, but in that sacred silence,

Every soul wonders in vain,

What splendid faces behind those masks

Causes such joy, such pain,

Lord that I might see that face,

Each spectator prays silently.

And die knowing the vision of the most splendid ecstasy

For cruel or kind, bitter or sweet,

Romance leaves every soul starving or replete

More human, more complete.

Shall I introduce you, love,

That they might rise to their feet?