Introduction
As a teen, teaching you how to write poetry is not really that different from teaching anyone else how to do it. Teenagers are stereotypically known for their angst, moodiness, emotional flair-ups, and difficult demeanor while on the way to becoming an adult. By acquiring the knowledge and skill of writing poetry, the tumultuous feelings you are experiencing can find an outlet and be written down. Hopefully, by communicating through poetry, you will be able to express your feelings in a way that makes you and others feel valuable, appreciated, and acceptable. This new talent will also help you learn how to sort out your feelings. Writing poetry gives you a place to go and be your best you each day.
When no one wants to hear what you have to say, when no one cares what you think, or, you are under the impression that is true, poetry is good to have as an outlet to express yourself. Maybe your opinion or your viewpoints are unpopular. Pen and paper want to hear from you. They cannot choose to shut-down or be unavailable just because your opinion differs from most of the population—not by a long shot.
Learning to create poetry gives you a place to be yourself without suffering criticism. It is categorized as art. On paper, you can be anyone or anything you aspire or dream. When you put your thoughts into poetry, it is really you in disguise. You are pretending to be something else or someone else. That is the beauty in the art of creating poetry. Even if no one but you see what you have written, you have participated in the art of creation.
The quest to learning to create poetry can begin in middle school when you start evolving from a child to a teenager preparing for high school. Of course, in high school, you will be required to take higher level English and language arts classes. No one particularly likes these courses, but you have to think farther ahead than each year and start to prepare for the days when you are out of school.
While you are in school, you are preparing for adulthood. But it is still a chaotic time in your life. It sometimes can be very stressful. By writing your thoughts down, you are giving voice, giving life, to the things inside your body that are bothering you. Writing poetry can help you set those things free without risking anything you are unwilling to sacrifice.
There are many misconceptions about writing poetry. Most people think to write poetry, you must do so within a strict set of guidelines. They think everything must meet a certain criterion or it is not poetry. As you will learn later, there are specifics to poetry, but poetry is whatever you write down and however you decide to record it whether it is on paper or electronically. It is up to you.
The idea is that if you are going to write poetry, you just write it. Why make it harder than it really is?
You Have To Write What?
You may be quite intimidated by the very idea of writing poetry, especially in school. If you have ever gotten an assignment in school to write poetry, you might have been afraid the teacher would read it aloud or make you do it. That would be very embarrassing!
As a potential teen poet, do not underestimate yourself. After nearly 10 years of learning, using, and practicing reading and writing a language, you possess some level of mastery. You are more capable and competent than you know.
Writing poetry does not mean closely imitating Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, or any other “celebrity” poet. It also does not mean creating any type of poem on command. Insecure people are quick to compare themselves to the famous and successful. Imitation is nice, but originality is everything. Poetry is personal because it is original, unique, individual, or important to you.
What Poetry Is—And Is Not
There are two kinds of writing—prose and poetry. Most people are accustomed to prose. Stories, novels, articles, and school writing assignments are prose. Poetry is, of course, poems.
When the word poem is spoken or read, usually the first thought that comes to mind is the rhyming poem. The universally known rhyming poem is not the only kind of poem. It is definitely the most popular, but is not the required framework to use in writing a poem.
A poem is a heartfelt expression that contains passion, feeling, and honesty. Poetry is about what is important to you, and that could be absolutely anything. In truth, you decide what the poem is and is not.
Wedding vows written by a bride and groom are poems, too. Greeting cards and songs also qualify. At times, so do radio and television commercial jingles.
In conclusion, you make the final decision about what your poetry is and is not. This book will help you realize what options are available on the road to finding a poetic signature that is especially yours.
The Work Of Other Poets
Reading other poets’ work will help you learn how to express ideas by seeing how someone else did it successfully. The point is to notice how it was done, not to deliberately mimic it. It is to show you how to express written thoughts by displaying the many ways to do so.
Every poem starts, ends, and progresses in a way that no other does, even the ones by the same poet. Poems written by poets hundreds of years ago will be quite distinctive in comparison to those written by newer poets. That is, because the language changed over the centuries, and even more over recent years. Language is an evolving thing, so poetry cannot help but do the same.
Successful or famous poets were just that in their time or era. What worked in the past may or may not work today. Timing is important. More important is knowing yourself. As a teen, you grow and change at least once before becoming an adult. Let the work of other poets be a guide, not a rule. The more natural a writing style feels to you, the more you can develop it.
Some of those prominent poets had a following which led to the success they achieved. An entourage, though not a requirement, can help attract new fans to a poet’s work. Certainly, having a sort of fan club can make you feel better about your work. If you persevere, you will develop admirers of your own who genuinely like your work.
Edward Estlin Cummings (e. e. cummings) was and still is a stand-out poet due to never using anything but lower-case letters in his poems (and not much formal punctuation) in addition to the renowned content of his writing. That was his style.
When Dr. Seuss is mentioned, his unique children’s books with their zany characters and wonderful rhyming schemes automatically spring to mind. Despite that his audience is children, an adult wrote them. Think about that and the loyal following the books still have. Adults enjoy reading Dr. Seuss books to their children. They are fun for the reader as well as the listener. Because they are lighthearted, entertaining, and laughable, Dr. Seuss books are very successful.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed when you get the next writing assignment, think of Dr. Seuss and take a deep breath. It is really not the writing itself that makes you get upset, it is the thought of doing the research, the number of pages you are required to hand in to the teacher, and being told you have to cite references. Yes, this is all a lot of work and very different from writing poetry, but this is exactly what you will be doing approximately once a month or more in college. Just do it and do it right!
There is power in words. With poetry, you can convey your true thoughts in just a few, short, well-thought-out sentences. That’s power!
The Point Of This Guide
This book will teach you the fundamentals of how to write poetry. You will learn how it starts, progresses, and ends. When it is over, you will be on your way to a well-developed pastime and, hopefully, a lifetime hobby.
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