Tuesday 16 October 2012

Why Is Writing Poetry So Difficult At the Moment?

I am having trouble with writing poetry at the moment, I want to know why. A few months ago I was able to get some down, two or three at a time. But at the moment, I can start off with a couple of lines and then dry up. One thing is that I am writing about things which happen to me and unlike those first few weeks I am not doing much, I guess. And a reservoir of ideas and creativity seems to have dried up.

Too many starts and not enough finishes / completions. I mean what can you write about a leaf falling:-
A leaf falls
A cloud crawls
Across a darkening sky
The year turns 
My heart yearns
For a summer lost, I sigh

 Or a bird which gets itself stuck, in a chain link fence:- Not even to enough to bother with yet.

 What about a sunny morning in October:-

Languid lazy water
Reflects the morning sun
A chill hovers before that disc
Waiting soon to run

A house for sale sign:-

Down our road houses marked
Signs proclaiming house for sale
Appearing like new flowers at dawn
On fertile hill and dale

Too many promising starts, most of the above actually run to three or four verses but at the end, I am thinking, "SO WHAT?" I saw this in one of the how to poetry writing books I have been reaading and it has bothered me ever since.  So the point of a poem has become more important to me, and most of mine are simply descriptive of events which happen to or around me. How can I make them more relevant. To what I ask? and the answer is I don't know. I must try and read that book again.

The other thing is bothering about small words and making poems more noun orientated. However, I am getting over that - if it works then so be it whichever it may be; but I do still prefer my lines to scan properly.

A bit of a rant and just wanted to show I have been thinking about poetry, just not getting very far.

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