Look for new and different perspectives. You create meaning out of your perspective and interpretation of the world, so try changing the way you look at your environment and see what you notice. For example, if you are looking at a sunset, you may notice that it is pretty. Stop and consider why you think the sunset is pretty. Is it the way the colors in the sky blend together? The way the light reflects off the clouds? The way the sun casts long shadows away from the horizon? Think about how others might experience the world differently from you. For example, how might the world seem different if you were taller or shorter? What if you had been raised in a different home or grew up speaking a different language?
Poets find ways to make the ordinary extraordinary. When you see the beauty in everyday mundane things, you begin to tease out the hidden significance of everything around you. Start out by being mindful of the things your body does every day without thought, like breathing or coordinating your movements. Expand outward to think about how every individual interacts with their environment, and consider how amazing it is that you can be a part of that person’s world (and vice versa). Breathe deeply and force yourself to look more slowly and closely at your environment, even if you’re in a place or situation that’s familiar to you. Adopt an attitude of curiosity and ask yourself questions about what you see, feel, smell, hear, and taste.
No matter what you do, in work or in your personal life, there is a way to live your life creatively and artistically. If you work as an accountant, for example, you can think of yourself as someone who brings balance and a sense of order to the world. Consider what you love about your job. Think about the unique touches and skills that you bring to your work, and take pleasure in those. Also look for beauty and joy in the mundane aspects of your work, like the rhythm of your typing or the unique way you organize your space. Let your creativity touch and inspire others around you. People will recognize that you see yourself as an artist, and they in turn may begin to see themselves as being a part of something poetic.
For example, you might make a game of finding rhymes or alliterations (a series of words starting with the same letter or sound) in your speech. Try changing the order of words in a sentence and think about how it affects the mood or meaning of the sentence. For example, how does “I am so tired” feel different from “So tired am I”? Can you change the meaning by switching it around even more (e. g. , “So, I am tired,” or “Am I so tired?”)?
You can learn new words by consulting a thesaurus. Any time you’re tempted to use an old, familiar word, look it up in the thesaurus to find a suitable synonym. Subscribe to an email list that sends out new vocabulary words. Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day, Vocab Vitamins, Wordsmith, and websites like The New York Times and the Oxford English Dictionary all have word of the day subscriptions.
Try an online poetry database like the Poetry Foundation. You can search through thousands and thousands of poems by subject, poet, occasion, school/period, and geographical region. [4] X Research source Explore different poets and different styles of poetry until you find someone or something that is highly engrossing. Discovering poetry that you’re very fond of will make it easier for you to fully engage with the text.
Set aside any assumptions you may have about a particular poet, their work, or poetry in general. Every poem is different, so you’ll want to approach each piece of writing as a unique experience. Remember that poetry is not written like prose. Poets may play with spacing, word choice, and organization on the page to create distinctly original pieces of writing. Line breaks help the reader find the poet’s intended breath for each line. However, some lines in free-verse and experimental poetry are irregular and don’t follow any metrical order. Recognize that poetry is essentially about capturing a moment. A poem may not have a logical beginning, middle, and end, but it should cause you to have some type of emotional reaction and sense something deeper beyond the words on the page.
Read slowly. Don’t rush through each line; take the time to savor the interplay of language and imagery. Pause when you encounter punctuation, rather than pausing at the end of every single line break. This will make the poem less choppy and clearer to listeners, should you decide to read a poem in front of an audience. Don’t try to use a “dramatic” voice; just read the lines in your normal speaking voice and tone. If you encounter a word you don’t know or aren’t sure how to pronounce, look it up in the dictionary. You owe it to the poet to understand their word choice and arrangement, so keep a dictionary on hand whenever you read.
Read slowly. Don’t rush through each line; take the time to savor the interplay of language and imagery. Pause when you encounter punctuation, rather than pausing at the end of every single line break. This will make the poem less choppy and clearer to listeners, should you decide to read a poem in front of an audience. Don’t try to use a “dramatic” voice; just read the lines in your normal speaking voice and tone. If you encounter a word you don’t know or aren’t sure how to pronounce, look it up in the dictionary. You owe it to the poet to understand their word choice and arrangement, so keep a dictionary on hand whenever you read.
You can find a listing of poetry readings in your community by searching online. Even small towns should hold some type of reading series, especially if you live near a college or university. Start out going to readings just to hear other poets and experience the sounds of poetry. As you get more comfortable living poetically, though, you may even want to bring your own poem(s) to read in front of an audience.
Check your local college or community college for academic classes in poetry. You can also take poetry classes or workshops for free through community centers, poetry organizations, or certain nonprofit groups. Search online for opportunities to study and write poetry in a class setting in your community.
Explore every aspect of the moment you choose. [8] X Research source Consider what it felt like living that moment when it was fresh, as well as how it appears now that the moment has passed. Don’t overlook the everyday moments of your lives. A moment spent waiting in fear or apprehension, for example, could make for a powerful and moving poem.
Instead of just seeing what people are doing in a given moment, imagine the private lives of those people. Think about what they do or don’t do, what motivates them, and what makes them happy or sad. You can also apply this method to physical places. Look past a building’s 4 walls and think about what might have transpired within a given place and what it might have meant in someone else’s life.
Every poem has a theme. This is the central “topic” of the poem. A strong poem will expand on the theme with the poet’s opinions and beliefs regarding that topic. This makes it more powerful as well as more meaningful, and it separates your poem from every other poem on a given subject.
Say the words out loud to see how they sound, both individually and with one another. Remove unnecessary words, including words like “and,” “then,” and “because. " Many of these and other words can be removed without causing the poem to lose clarity. Try swapping out familiar or overused words with something new. Let yourself be surprised and see how the poem turns out differently with those changes.
Poetry often relies heavily on similes and metaphors for their imagistic effect and their ability to relate 2 seemingly disparate things in a short span of space. Think about what a word really means, and find words that express similar things. For example, drowning can literally mean being incapable of swimming, but it can also describe a sense of feeling overwhelmed or overpowered. Think about the symbolism of any words you choose. Even if you don’t intend a word to carry a given symbolic meaning, some readers may interpret your work that way.
Instead of saying that a person is happy, use concrete words to describe that person’s smile or the look in their eyes. You can also use a metaphor or simile with concrete words for added effect. For example, you might convey that a person was happy by saying, “A smile cracked her stern face like ripples across a still pond. "
