How do you write your poetry?

[vampiredust]

This is something I'm curious about. Do you write your poetry on paper first then type it up? Pencil or pen? Do you start off with an image then build your poem around that?

I know, for me, that's what I like to do. I'll come up with a line with a strong image such as 'the sky is starved of stars tonight' then build the frame around that.

 

[Angeline]

This is something I'm curious about. Do you write your poetry on paper first then type it up? Pencil or pen? Do you start off with an image then build your poem around that?

I know, for me, that's what I like to do. I'll come up with a line with a strong image such as 'the sky is starved of stars tonight' then build the frame around that.

I almost always write at the computer. I tend to edit as I write and it's much faster for me to keyboard than to handwrite.

Most of my poetry writing is spontaneous in that I sit down, a line comes to mind and I just get in this space where I'm not consciously thinking about it--it just comes out. Then I'll go back and edit it to get the poem into reasonable shape.

I do tend to think about what I want to write about while I'm in the shower, driving to work, working out at the gym--places where my mind can wander. I get general ideas about subjects for poems and I may (if I'm writing about a jazz figure or piece of music, for example) research them before I write. I generally do not have any phrases in my head though until I sit down and actually do it.

And however you're doing it, it's certainly coming out right! You are so prolific and your poetry just keeps getting tighter and stronger.

Good thread.

 

[clutching_calliope]

.....

 

[eagleyez]

Always typing...

BC (before computers-royal portable typewriter-dont leave home without it.)

 

[My Erotic Trail]

This is something I'm curious about. Do you write your poetry on paper first then type it up? Pencil or pen? Do you start off with an image then build your poem around that?

I know, for me, that's what I like to do. I'll come up with a line with a strong image such as 'the sky is starved of stars tonight' then build the frame around that.

I suppose several methods are used, depending on where I am and what is available.

'A tree limb lay like thoughts fallen yesterday' was a poem I wrote while mowing the yard. I had the whole poem wrote/ memorized, walked in and typed it out. I do this alot, as far as every day while working I will work on a poem in my mind and go home and jot down what I have thus far then add/edit it ... cooking it till it is done.

If I am not at home then paper and pen will do as far as scribbling out some verses, lines and or stanzas to build on later. Some poems come out simply and others arise kicking, scratching, pulling other directions from where I thought it would go, but I like wrestling with poetry <grin

 

[LeBroz]

This is something I'm curious about. Do you write your poetry on paper first then type it up? Pencil or pen? Do you start off with an image then build your poem around that?

I know, for me, that's what I like to do. I'll come up with a line with a strong image such as 'the sky is starved of stars tonight' then build the frame around that.

Good question. While there are exceptions, most times I write in three phases. When I first get a thought I want to put into poetic form I quickly scribble it down on any handy piece of paper then place it in a folder that's fairly bulging with ideas begun — to work on later when I will expand on the first faint glimmerings.

The next phase is usually still done on paper with pen or pencil - it doesn't matter which as I will scratch out offending phrases rather than erasing. Erasing takes too much time - when I'm writing I don't want to be slowed down. This is where the poem really starts to jell. Have a bunch still housed in that bulging folder.

Finally, when I've played with the idea enough (usually when I've run out of room on the sheet of paper and it's got as many ideas scratched out as remain) I'll transfer the surviving thoughts over to the computer. I do this when I've decided to pursue my original ideas. This is where the real fun editing occurs, deleting articles, conjunctions, adjectives, and so on. This is also where everything else really comes together. Most times there's more changes on the computer work than with the original playing around that occurred on paper.

Now if only I could get my butt in gear, move on to phase three, and get more notes onto the computer...

 

[WickedEve]

I've answered this question in several threads over the years. I usually stick with the same answer, though I do change it a bit from post to post. So... I'm sure some of you have heard of poetry trances. I won't even bother going into that again. Other than that, the rest of what I have to say is weird, so I'll stop here.

 

[Angeline]

I've answered this question in several threads over the years. I usually stick with the same answer, though I do change it a bit from post to post. So... I'm sure some of you have heard of poetry trances. I won't even bother going into that again. Other than that, the rest of what I have to say is weird, so I'll stop here.

I get the trance. The trance is where the poems live--in their first draft anyway.

Where's Lauren? I wanna know what she does. Do you think she gets the trance? She seems so utterly rational...

 

[WickedEve]

I get the trance. The trance is where the poems live--in their first draft anyway.

Where's Lauren? I wanna know what she does. Do you think she gets the trance? She seems so utterly rational...

Who is that in your av?
The L. was around a while ago.

 

[ishtat]

Where's Lauren? I wanna know what she does. Do you think she gets the trance? She seems so utterly rational...

I suspect she's watching Football and anticipating Portugal's defeat in the next round

 

[TheRainMan]

I suspect she's watching Football and anticipating Portugal's defeat in the next round

that should get her out of the woodwork.

 

[TheRainMan]

This is something I'm curious about. Do you write your poetry on paper first then type it up? Pencil or pen?

the crutch of a computer has made my handwriting indecipherable, even to myself . . . i continually write lines on paper i can't read . . . sadly, i need a keyboard now, or all i'd have is chicken tracks.

Do you start off with an image then build your poem around that?

reading this, it just dawned on me that i have no fuckin' idea how i start.

it just kind of happens.

i should probably try to figure it out . . . someday.

 

[Sara Crewe]

I write it in a house. I write it with a mouse. I write it with a fox who likes to eat his socks. I write it on a train when I feel like being a pain.



Sorry, VD. Too much sun today and I was around 45 six year olds all day.

...and nothing rhymed with computer.

Oh, I can redeem myself by answering the second part of the question. I start in many different ways. Sometimes by what I see, sometimes by what I feel, sometimes by words that pop into my head, sometimes it's the need to share an experience with other people in order to validate my existence. Sometimes there is an energy in me that just needs to be let out and for me it comes out in words.

 

[Angeline]

Who is that in your av?
The L. was around a while ago.

David Ortiz, designated hitter extraordinnaire for the Boston Red Sox.

Yes, I'm a baseball freak.

 

[Angeline]

I suspect she's watching Football and anticipating Portugal's defeat in the next round

Ooooh. She'll come in this thread and spank you for that, you know.

 

[WickedEve]

David Ortiz, designated hitter extraordinnaire for the Boston Red Sox.

Yes, I'm a baseball freak.

oh. baseball.
I was thinking football, but it's baseball, of course.

No. I know nothing about sports.

 

[Sealace]

David Ortiz, designated hitter extraordinnaire for the Boston Red Sox.

Yes, I'm a baseball freak.

have you written any baseball poetry for Slow Trains Journal?

 

[Angeline]

have you written any baseball poetry for Slow Trains Journal?

I haven't written much for weeks. I was in the hospital.

 

[TheRainMan]

I haven't written much for weeks. I was in the hospital.

ugh.

hope you're feeling better, princess.

 

[Tzara]

Do you write your poetry on paper first then type it up? Pencil or pen? Do you start off with an image then build your poem around that?

I prefer to write on the computer. It is not only more legible and allows one to handle mistakes and rewording quickly, I just plain type faster than I can write by hand.

Which isn't to say that I never hand-write anything. I will sometimes write drafts of poems, or more often, snippets of poems or isolated lines on paper for possible use later on.

As for how I start a poem, there are a lot of different ways. Sometimes it is a line or image that comes from somewhere. I've had these pop into my head when I'm doing something else or when lying in bed in the morning, half-asleep. Other times I have been trying to capture something I've seen. Most of those I wrote recently about Europe were of that type. Sometimes, I just set out to write about some topic.

 

[Angeline]

ugh.

hope you're feeling better, princess.

I am, thank you.

I attribute it to ee's tlc and my new smoothie machine, which we have been using to make the most amazing, delicious concoctions with fresh fruit and yogurt and such. I may be the healthiest one here at this point.



(VDust, sorry for the minihijack.)

 

[annaswirls]

.

"There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein​

I feel the same way about being a poet. Either I am a living poet and everything I see is a poem, or I am not a poet and nothing I see is a poem. It is very scary for me to be in the latter state. I do not know what comes first, the generalized anxiety which makes me unable to write, or the anxiety over not feeling poetry in my every step.

I try to breathe my way through these times, to live in the faith that my writing will come back. It helps to be around other writers, to be in the middle of the process of writing when I am not wanting to write, because if I don't I start to believe that poetry does not even MATTER and I start to feel blessed that the curse of writing has passed my house. But the motherfucker always finds me.

 

[annaswirls]

I am, thank you.

glad to see you are feeling better

 

[Liar]

If I wrote stuff on paper I wouldn't be able to read it afterwards. I'm an all-digital boy.

Asd for method, it var¨ies. Sometimes I build a poem from a title or a single phrrase, sometimes from a sentiment, sometimers from a structure.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

because my writing is appalling I carry a little mini recorder every where and have it by my bed too so that I can make a memo of any ideas the occur to me at night and they often do, by morning they're gone.

All my poetry is written and edited on the computer but I'll often record it and listen to how it sounds.

Inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere - what I read, hear, see day to day. I used to paint and draw, sculpt even, so now I put that into words.

Great idea for a thread, vd.