Articles For Writers

Click on a title to read that article:

Using Poetry to Organize Your Thoughts

These articles may not be reproduced without including the following credit: copyright Gregory Huff. Please visit www.CreativeHelps.com for more articles like this and resources designed to energize your creativity.

"Using Poetry to Organize Your Thoughts"

by Gregory Huff

Sounds flow

They go

On and on

Through rivers of the inner mind

Swelling, swaying,

To and fro-ing

Bobble-head rhythms

Bubble from the wellsprings of life.

I wrote this as I pondered what to write concerning this article. The words began to flow easily, because I allowed the poem to simply take its own form. It helped open me up and put me in the frame of mind to write the article. Writing it was a peaceful experience, but writing poetry need not always be.

What do you think about poetry? Perhaps you think you don’t like it, or need to take a class to help you appreciate it. Perhaps poetry seems like the ambrosia of lofty minds, accessible only after someone explains the life out of it. But poetry probably surrounds you every day without you realizing it. For example: if you’re listening to the radio right now, is someone singing? The words they are saying are a form of poetry. Right now I am listening to "Wishin’ You Were Here" by the band Chicago, in which the singer wishes his lover could be with him on tour. It brings to mind the postcards written by friends in faraway places, wishing we were there to share their experience. It is likely this song by Chicago started that same way.

The song also reminds me how my wife called me while she was out of town and I happened to be playing this song. When it got to the part in the song where they sing "wishin’ you were here," I put the phone next to my speaker so she could hear it. In all those memories may be the inspiration for a work of art.

Poetry can also be used as a means to unlock writer’s block. It can be a way of figuring out things on paper, much like an artist brainstorms on paper by creating thumbnail sketches. Poems can be a "snapshot" of your mind at a given moment. By looking at that snapshot, you may see something you can develop into a working idea. Maybe you just don’t know how to say something in a way that captures the essence of your point. Try poetry! It can help release the solution you are looking for.

There are many forms of poetry you can explore to help you organize your thoughts. Here are a few for you to try:

Haiku – This poetry form from Japan can be challenging, contemplative, and satisfying. Read more about it at: http://www.toyomasu.com/haiku/#whatishaiku

Dadaist poetry – Dadaist poetry is instant poetry made from whatever writing you have at hand. You will need: scissors, a small paper bag, glue, and some written material (such as a newspaper article or story from a magazine). Randomly select 3 sentences from the written material you have chosen. Then re-write them onto a separate sheet of paper, leaving space around each word and writing with large letters (a little bigger than the size you normally write them). Next use the scissors to cut out each individual word and place it inside the paper bag. Once you have cut out all the words close the bag and give it a gentle shake. Then pull out one word at a time and glue it to another sheet of paper in the order that you pulled it out, in the form of a poem. The words may not make much sense to you in the order they come out, so instead imagine that each syllable is a note in a song and hum the rhythm to yourself. Listen to it. How do the words create an audible pattern?

Free verse – This is a form that you may find the easiest. Simply write freely, allowing the words to make a meaning and flow. Free verse can be about anything or nothing in particular. The poem that started this article is an example. To me free verse can be like journaling your thoughts in the form of a poem.

Limerick – An often funny, 5-line poem that has a specific meter to it: aabba. This means that lines 1,2 and 5 rhyme with each other, while lines 3 and 4 only rhyme with one another.

If you would like to experiment further with poetry, try reading "Getting the Knack: 20 Poetry Writing Exercises" by Stephen Dunning & William Stafford, available here: http://www.creativehelps.com/all_store.htm

Feel free to have fun with poetry and use it the next time you need a breakthrough in your writing. Who knows? You may discover you’re a poet and don’t know it.

up