How do you write your poetry?

[The Mystery Valiant]

Magic!!!!

Now the question you ask, is very tough. As it seems for some of the other poet's as well. As for material mediums, I have used pen and paper, pen and cardboard dividers, PDA (which is "Personal Digital Assistant" or a "Palm" device), My cell phone, my desktop computer and even my new laptop.

As for creativity, I'm not sure there are words for how I come by it. But it's like I get this feeling from way down inside, I get my writing medium and sort of let it bubble up from somewhere, not sure where. sometimes I have to stop as it just doesn't quite fit into human language and so I have to wait and search until something close and abiding comes to mind and then work it in.

My few times that I had anybody look and critique my poem's gave me the distinct feeling that they wanted to understand what I was writing about. But that's not what I wanted to convey. The one time I let an Editor tell me what was wrong, I regretted it absolutely! My poem become a tiny little truck, dependent on "catch phrases" and "hooks". Maybe that's what todays reader's want, I can't think about contemporary people. They are showing themselves as not honest and true artists anymore. And I don't mean those who are putting their stuff up there! I mean the ones who are paying for the work! I have to think about tommorrow. And since so many seem to read poetry for comprehension, I'm elsewhere. Some seem to understand that there is an underscore here, a determination through the soul.


I don't know where it comes from..., I only know that it works. Not popularly, but then the world continually changes. "And so, this too shall pass."

 

[wildsweetone]

This is something I'm curious about. Do you write your poetry on paper first then type it up? Pencil or pen? Do you start off with an image then build your poem around that?

I know, for me, that's what I like to do. I'll come up with a line with a strong image such as 'the sky is starved of stars tonight' then build the frame around that.

I write it on whatever is handy with whatever is in my hand at the time (though tomato sauce doesn't work well on napkins). Okay you know I'm kidding.

I write on paper with a pen/pencil, or, I write at the computer (by the way, the pen has to be very fine tipped, I loathe those thick bic biro things they simply don't write what I want them to write). It depends entirely on when the wish to write happens.

I have mountains of paper sitting beside my chair in the lounge of stories or poetry that has come to me whilst sitting watching the glass teat, or when I've been pacing the house in the night. I have a fair bit of poetry/stories on the computer too. Sometimes when I write with pen and paper I'll transfer it to the computer as the set out and font can make a difference as to how I see what I've written (I find the same thing between writing in Word or RoughDraft, to seeing an actual poem posted in a thread - I think it's the font thing that helps me to fiddle some more).

Do I start off with an image? Sometimes. I can look at a picture/photo and write my heart out. I don't often write from something I've heard (my hearing is not good) unless it is sounds of nature. Sometimes I might write a bounced idea off another person's poem. A single word from another poet's writing might trigger a poem for me.

Sometimes I might start with an object. If it's something in the house, I might remember its origins and the memory might trigger a poem.

I don't use my cell phone to write poetry, but I have used the recording function to record a phrase that might come to me as I go for my walks - I have a lousy memory at the best of times. Also I keep paper and pen by the bed in case I wake in the night and need to clear my head of whatever mess it's got itself into - I write then in the dark which is an art in itself. lol

 

[DennisMenace]

It depends

Most often I start on paper, or a journal. Then when it is coalescing into an idea do I put a draft on the computer. Then the editing, which is often chaotic, adding possible lines, phrases, moving things around. If I'm not sure of something, I put parentheses around it. And then print a draft to see what it looks like on paper, or to carry with me somewhere to do more editing while away from computer.

However, I will also start directly on computer sometimes. But overall, I prefer that primal feeling of pen on paper.