WRITING TIP #18

You can never predict when and why an idea is going to happen. That’s why besides my notebook I always carry at least two pens, in case one runs out of ink. As I said, it’s not at all possible (at least in the real world) to actually make a pizza the size of the sun, but that sort of thing should never stop you from writing a poem. A poem can be about anything, and you can make it as wild or weird or impossible as you wish. After all, you’re not a reporter for a newspaper, magazine, or television show, having to convey the facts about something that happened as truthfully and accurately as you can. You have the right to put anything at all into a poem. There’s even a common phrase for doing this, poetic license. This means that you’re free to write about an elephant the size of a dime, a chicken that’s stronger than a hippopotamus, or a sandwich that’s fifty miles long and someone who can eat that sandwich in ten minutes.



poetic license: a kind of freedom that lets writers (not only poets) change names, settings, dates, or anything else to make a particular point or create a certain feeling. Poetic license is my favorite license, and I use it all the time.