I'll be a Poet. Writing Poems Looks Easy.

Is writing poetry easy?

Q: Is it Easy to Write Poetry?

Heck no.  It’s no easier than any other writing —probably harder.  You have to work hard and you have to edit a lot.  It’s best if you’ve studied and practiced writing poetry, sometimes for years.  It’s not something someone says, “Hmmm, poetry.  I think I’ll write poetry and be a poet.”

With poetry, the writing is condensed. Then there are considerations like meter, imagery, alliteration, whether to rhyme, and other elements that make poetry what it is. 

A poet has to carefully choose every word and make it count. Imagery, for instance, is very important in a poem. It creates pictures and feelings in a reader’s mind and good imagery writing is not easy to do. If you read a lot of poetry, you will have favorites that are Masters of Imagery. They say ordinary things in a whole new way — they are in touch with their feelings and I hold them in the highest regard.

Another instance when poets have to choose their words carefully is when a poem ‘tells you’ it wants to rhyme. Rhyming is not easy to do —good rhyming is even harder.  You want the poem to naturally rhyme, never sound forced. Grabbing a word out of the air just because it rhymes won’t do. Nothing says ‘amateur’ faster than forced rhyme in a poem.

Rhythm, or meter, is another area where poets have to choose words very carefully. Rhythm is most often used in a rhyming poem, but I love reading non-rhyming poetry with a gentle rhythm to each line. It allows the poem to flow from one line into the next, making it feel like a song. I find when I read a poem with a gentle rhythm in the lines, it touches my heart and feelings.

My Favorites are the rare, very rare times when a poem comes to me, as though the words are being sent from someplace unknown, or the whole poem is floating in the air around me at a frequency I’ve in some way tapped into. Whatever it is, wherever it comes from, it feels like magic.  Most poets have experienced it at least once.  I like to call it “Being in the Zone.”

I love when that happens …

Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
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