I am not a poet!

[BigTexan]

I am taking a creative writing class at our local college. Last night was the first night and my first assignment is to write two poems.

Problem. I'm not a poet! I don't read poetry, I don't like poetry, and I suck at writing poetry.

So, I will sludge through this section of the class and hope it doesn't last too long. But why, why, why does a creative writing class have to have a poetry section?

BigTexan

 

[TheEarl]

Cause a lot of the people who go to creative writing classes are convinced that they're really good poets. They've got all sorts of deep emotions and they could create something really beautiful. If only they could write...

BT: Do you honestly expect to learn anything from a creative writing class? IMHE most are complete and utter tosh. Learned more from here than on any course.

The Earl

 

[wildsweetone]

i've been thinking about this for an hour or so...

you have a gift with words dear. i think if the emotional tug is great enough in what you've been given to do, then you may well surprise yourself how well you write.

i can't write poetry (have only ever written one piece), i was told by several teachers that i also couldn't achieve the correct understanding from poetry, so that coloured my lens a tad too. but i do love reading it. - they couldn't stomp that bit from me.

...perhaps it's been included in the class to open your eyes to other possibilities. no point joining a class with blinkers, right?

 

[KillerMuffin]

Because the things that poetry teaches you vastly improve your prose. Poetry teaches you how to use an image in ways that defy conventional use of description. It teaches you symbolism, meaning, tone, and mood.

In my opinion, a prose writer can only improve when s/he has written some poetry. The poetry does not have to be what one would call "quality" or win any awards. It must simply exist.

So write your poems without a thought to "good" only toward the end of learning to manipulate your language.

Take this line from James Broughton:

a dreamysmile Buddhafaced son of a gunman

And think about it. You can tell this man's childhood story from this simple line.

 

[Guest]

engineer here

BT-

While I don't write poetry anymore, I think that writing it can enhance all of your writing... kind of like flash fiction ...

Imagery can be refined in poetry for the joy of the imagery.

Words can be explored and melded for the sensuality of the words.

Throw out your paradigms for poetry. See it as just another opportunity to refine part of your prose arsenal... (used that imagery to appeal to the testosterone in you).

Can't wait to see your poems.

b

 

[Alex756]

The evils of having to write poety

I too took a creative writing class and much to my torture, 90% of it turned into poetry writing and we had to go to a reading and everything.

After it was all said and done, I do feel the torture improved my prose (people here might disagree ).

So don't give up hope of getting somethign good out of the class, if you can develope character in a poem you sure can do it in prose.

I think there is a misconception about the relative hardness of prose vs poetry. bad of either is very easy to produce and good of either is a pain.

Agree very much with the flash fiction being like poetry and a good exercise, when you have a few thousand words to play around with it is alot easier to lose track of where you are going. in both shorter forms there is no room for deveation.

So hang in there
--Alex756

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

BT,

When it comes to poetry, I'm on board with you, and KillerMuffin. I'm not a poet, but wish I was and think some grasp of the art can improve a writer's prose.

For what it's worth, here's the world's shortest poem. It was crafted by that well-known American word-smith, Muhammed Ali.

"Me. Whee!"

Rumple Foreskin

 

[BigTexan]

BT: Do you honestly expect to learn anything from a creative writing class? IMHE most are complete and utter tosh. Learned more from here than on any course.

The Earl

Earl, I really think that you get out of life what you put into it. So yes I expect to learn a lot from this class.

I may not like the assignment, but I'll do my very best at it and I'll learn as much as I can in doing it.

To WSO

Wow Thanks for the super kind words. You've seen enough of my writing to know better though

And, honestly, I meant that as a rhetorical question, but still I thank you for the answers. They all made me feel better.

BigTexan

 

[Sabledrake]

BT -- I sympathize ... I took a few of those classes on my way through college. Had a teacher still desperately clinging to her beatnik days with a real thing for assigning us to write poems about how terrible our parents had been. Woman had serious issues.

I don't do well with poetry, personally. I get all worked up about each line having the same number of syllables and it's all got to rhyme, and I stress myself into a frothing fit.

My one and only poem here on Lit is also my one and only completed effort at a more relaxed and freeform style.

Good luck with it! Let us know how it goes. I hope your experience is much better than mine.

Sabledrake

 

[KillerMuffin]

You know, I've never taken a creative writing class. I've taught some, but I've never taken one.

Huhm.

 

[Guest]

I loved my Creative Writing classes I took in both high school and college! They were a lot of fun!!

 

[Dirt Man]

Some of the greatest books written are sheer poetry...

One of my favorite poets, Dylan Thomas wrote a whole poem that Rodney Dangerfield once interpreted as meaning: "I ain't taking no shit!" It is titled, "Do not go gentle into that good night." Poetry is many things to many people, but to those who write it, and write it well, it is a means by which they capture a moment in time with as few words as humanly possible, and still be able to relate a story that captures the reader's mind by drawing the reader into the poem with them. And isn't that what we as authors really want to do with our stories? If you need some inspiration, try this: Write a Love Poem without ever using the word Love in it even once, and that includes the title.


As Always
I Am the
Dirt Man

 

[wildsweetone]

uh oh

You know, I've never taken a creative writing class. I've taught some, but I've never taken one.

Huhm.

me neither KM! - but with me, i think they can tell

*giggling*

 

[JUDO]

I am taking a creative writing class at our local college. Last night was the first night and my first assignment is to write two poems.

Problem. I'm not a poet! I don't read poetry, I don't like poetry, and I suck at writing poetry.

So, I will sludge through this section of the class and hope it doesn't last too long. But why, why, why does a creative writing class have to have a poetry section?

BigTexan

BT -
Try this:

Go to your local bookstore or library. Get assistance finding a few general poetry collections. Reading more modern poetry, rather than the classics might help you understand the poet's voice more easily -- you might relate to it more easily than Nineteenth Century Romantics or Shakespeare. Reccomendations? Rita Dove, Maya Angelou, Carl Sandberg, Robert Frost & Sara Henderson Hay. There are many others. Read some first, try to understand what the poet is talking about.

Then, take something that you feel strongly about -- love, religion, helping others, aggressiveness, politics, war -- whatever it is and try to communicate how you feel in a paragraph of prose.

Now, take each sentence, each image, each feeling and idea and get rid of all the words in the sentence that aren't necessary to communicate it. Start with short words -- the, and, or, of, this, etc. Then work towards eliminating prepositions, if possible. Perhaps combine some words into one word. Ex: "slid through the entrayway" might become "entered".

It's likely that in order to use so few words, you may have to get creative with simile or metaphor -- don't rely on them too much.

If you stay focused on the essence of what you intend to say, line by line (possibly only one image, feeling or idea communicated per stanza), then you might create something poetic.

Good luck.


- Judo

 

[TheEarl]

Life is like a sewer. You only get out of it, what you put into it.
- Tom Lehrer

Agreed BT, but IMHE Creative Writing classes are rarely useful. Either they're too technical and don't concentrate on the actual skills rather than the technique, or they're all airy-fairy for people who like to think they have a story in them.

90% of the people in the Author's Hangout or SDC are infinitely better than any creative writing teacher I've ever met. And a damned sight more helpful.

The Earl