The quote ‘you get out what you put into it’ is the most accurate description of writing poetry in my opinion, the best answer to the question of ‘how to write great poetry’ there is
because…
You need to fill your mind with experiences in order to give you something to write about.
I.e. You need to fill your life with…
life.
With examples of what it means to love and to lust and to grieve and to hurt. And, sometimes to hate, for no apparent reason (until you come on your period, and then the reason becomes clear…
#RagingHormomes
#DefinitleyNotLivingLaughingLoving
#IrritableAF),
you need to fill your mind with these things.
You need to fill your mind with all the ‘big’ things in life like;
Meeting someone for the first time
and being overcome with panic
but then, when they become a part of your life, the panicking gets replaced with loving,
of the purest kind,
of the
‘I can’t imagine my life without you in it’ kind…
&…
You need to fill your mind with all the silly little mundane things too, like;
Brushing your teeth and ironing
(Does anyone actually iron anymore?! Anyway… you get the point, I hope).
& with all the ‘disgusting’ things that we pretend not to do but, we all do, like;
Going to the toilet and !! not washing your hands !!
or
Coming on your period and !! not having a pad !!, so having to shove toilet roll down your pants until you get home…
You need to fill your mind with all of this, all of the things that make up the collective experience of humanity. You need to do this so that you can write poetry that touches people, that gets to the heart of what it means to be human, in all its messiness…
Why Write Poetry?
Helping us all to feel seen and to recognise that we are not alone in our struggles and that, ‘my’ struggle is not really ‘my’ struggle, but our struggle- a struggle for a sense of peace, perhaps? A struggle for a desperate search for what this- life- is all about/what the point of it all is, writing offers us an opportunity to uncover the answers to life’s biggest questions through the delivery of raw words and emotion…
The above is is what I get out of writing, anyway. The above is why I write. And, I believe that it’s the reason why most people write as well, actually… Because of writings ability, through the medium of the written word, to offer us a unique sense of togetherness, (both for the writer and the reader), unlike anything else in life…
Now for what you clicked on this post for…
Tips On How To Write Great Poetry
Based on the quote; ‘you get out what you put into it’, (‘it’ being your ol’ noggin), evidently the biggest tip is to
PUT STUFF INTO IT!!
Easier said than done though, I know. How exactly do you ‘put stuff into it?’….
You put stuff into it by broadening your mind…
And, to ‘broaden’ your mind
you must first,
get out of your mind
by
putting down your pen for a bit…
walking away from your desk for a bit…
and
putting yourself out there…
No matter how ‘out of your comfort zone’ doing so may feel to you,
no matter how uncomfortable you may feel,
you must put yourself in situations that scare you
(as long as you make sure that you’re safe)…
Because,
‘We grow in discomfort.’
It is only in doing the things that force us out of old habits,
the things that force us to create new habits,
to change our ingrained ways,
(&, we need to be forced.
‘Old habits die hard’ n all that)…
that we can grow.’
So;
Date cool people-
eccentrics
to give you someone to think about when you write-
a muse.
Go to cool places-
to give you life experiences to write about
to broaden your mind-
amuse.
Get out of your own head,
stop telling yourself that
‘you’ll do it some other time, instead’
and
do it now.
Do it now
to prevent, in the end, you being left questioning
how
so much time has managed to pass you by
a whole lifetime-
gone-
seemingly in the blink of an eye.
(& yet, here you are, with nothing to show for it…
Just regret for all of the things that you didn’t do,
for all of the things that you told yourself you’d do ‘some other time’
but
never did…
Forever an excuse on hand (convenient) as to why you were ‘too busy’ or ‘too tired’ to do it)…
But, not anymore…
You must do it now.
Because, as in all the cliché quotes;
‘There’s no time like the present…’
(truly).
So, now,
Give your mind space to, like a sponge, soak up all the people, places, things that inspire you,
now.
Do it now…
Do it now
so that, when you sit down to go back into it,
to look back into your mind in the future,
to write-
it is full.
That thing that scares you?
Just…
do it…
now.
(& then, when you’ve done it, you can go back to the comfort of your desk to reflect on it all,
to pick your pen back up,
and to write the most amazing poems from all that you’ve experienced)…
❤
In short:
The biggest tip to writing great poetry is to live,
to be human.
Something which we can all do.
And so, we are all capable of being great poets,
simply for the fact that we are
human.
~ poetry ~
❤
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