Joyful Poems And How To Write Them

By Bonnie Contreras


Poetry takes many shapes, both in subject and technical form. While some people keenly throw themselves into it with free verse, others might find it more intimidating as a medium than prose. It does not have to be this way, however, as you do not need an extensive knowledge to write joyful poems. To begin with, it really is as simple as sitting down and writing out your feelings. Put it together as a poem, later.

For now, just sit in front of a blank piece of paper or an empty page on a word processor and just write. Either do this for a set amount of time or just until you feel that you have written enough. The key here, though, is to do it without pausing and without editing yourself.

At this point, do not worry if you make any mistakes or worry if anything does not read like you think it should. When you are done, you will have a chance to read what you have written and circle anything you think stands out. After this, use these excerpts to either prompt new poems or to be put together into one single poem if you think that works.

This exercise has helped you capture something important about your own feelings. This, in the end, will help you produce better content than trying to craft something that sounds like you think good poetry ought to be. This will help you put across what you want to say, as well as elicit an emotional response from your readers.

If you are more genuine in your words, they will be more genuine in their emotion. There are more things to know, however, when it comes to helping your work look less trite. If you want to sound original and fresh, you should, of course, avoid known cliches. This means things that you have heard too many times because the same will have gone for your reader.

Look at your notes and consider your own metaphors and similes. Thinking this way can take time, but regular writing will help you become more adept at crafting an image. If you want to, you can tackle cliches individually, by taking them, working out what you really want to say and creating a new phrase.

You should also keep in mind that, while emotion is good, you should make sure to avoid sentimentality. You want your emotion to be genuine. Do not force it into your poems and the audience will have a more personal reaction to them. Another thing to remember is to not use too many abstract words. These detract from the impact of your poem as tangible imagery will elicit more for readers.

Your readers should not be told outright that you are angry, sad or happy, they should, instead, be given concrete imagery to understand those feelings. Do not, as you write, consider editing too much, though. You need to just get your poem on the page, to start with, before you can do that. Start revising what you have written after that, and it is a very important stage that should not be skipped. You will, eventually, have the first of your joyful poems.




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