Chatterbox: Down to Earth

How to write a free verse poem! Ok! This is terribly general, I know, and I know that everyone writes differently. This is what works for me, though. Give it a go! And Admins, I know this is long - I have another copy of it, so if you don't want to post it, I won't get my hacker brother to break into your database and delete it all. :D Also, I'm sorry about the stuff at the bottom - I don't want to retype this all. 

Hopefully, you will end up with a free verse poem if you do this. :D I followed my own instructions and got a decent one, so I hope you will, too. 

You will need:
One pencil (or two if yours breaks)
One sheet of paper (or two if you rip yours in frustration)
A quiet place (or a place with background noise if you like it that way)
A brain (most of you have those :D)
Fingers (or you could dictate to someone else)
A versatile vocabulary (or you could use a dictionary)
That's about all. 

For this tutorial, I will demonstrate with a poem that I wrote this morning at co-op. I believe that most of my examples are from poems that I have written, so they should be relevant. :D 

1. Ok! First we need a topic for our poem. This can be the hardest part. To find a topic, you can a) do a quick run-through of your surroundings - anything you're particularly attracted to? Anything you dislike? b) analyze your mental state. Is there something you've been brooding over? Something you're happy about? worried about? c) examine your physical sensations. Are you hungry? Do you have an ache? a gaping wound? (jk about that one - I hope) d) look at your past. Is there something you remember clearly? Don't remember? Feel strongly about?

I chose a physical sensation, in my case cold. The thermostat was around fifty degrees, and we were all freezing. 

2. Think for just a moment about your topic. If it is an object, why do you like/dislike it? Does it bring something else to mind? If it is an emotion/thought, what was its cause? What associations does it have? If it is a physical sensation, why do you notice it? For all of them, ask yourself how it affects you.

I noticed that I had been cold for some two hours at this point. The cold had been slowing me down. It felt like it was constricting, closing in.

3. Take that thought from step two and look for a comparison or contrast. Not an elaborate one - poems thrive on simplicity, as a rule. Just an adjoining thought works, too. 

In my case, I thought about all the times I had read the phrase "biting cold," and how poorly that phrase described the cold I was experiencing.

4. Write several words - a short sentence or two or maybe a couple phrases - about your initial topic. You can keep this step as one line or split it into others. Line breaks work well right after verbs, between adjectives and their nouns, or between prepositions and their subjects. Work with your own, though - however you like it.

I wrote "They say / cold bites." Here I have begun to incorporate my contrast from step three, but the main thing I have done is introduced my topic. 

5. Finish/continue the thought from step four, incorporating your comparison/contrast/adjoining thought. Most of what this does is create a beginning, an introduction for your poem. It can also elaborate on your topic, describing it a little. 

I wrote "Wind bites. / Wind cuts. / Cold grips."

Now what you should have is your topic and a bit of an introduction, a comparison/contrast/other thought to draw the reader in. You've got the hardest part - a topic and an introduction.

6. Begin to elaborate on your topic. A short description of the trait of your topic that ties into step three usually works and flows on smoothly.

I wrote "When cold's / present, / cold is / present / always / pushing / never / gone." You can see that I have chosen to use short lines, but you don't have to - many of my poems have long lines. 

I have found that if I chose comparison in step three, my topic sometimes changes to the comparison, not my original topic. If my topic was originally ice and I was comparing ice to glass, I might end up writing about glass insteadof ice. This is Ok - it's part of how your mind will shape the poem.

7. Continuing the thought you began in step six, write a little more about your topic. 

I wrote "Not / intrusive / never / hurting"

8. Look at what you wrote in steps six and seven. Is there a phrase or idea you could bring back for a theme? If you want to do this, add it to what you wrote in step seven or keep it in mind to work in later on. You can reword it if you like, but I find that I like poems with clear repetition better, so that is what I do. If you don't want a repeating phrase, that's fine, but it can help at the end.

I liked the "always / pushing / never / gone" from step six, so I added that to what I wrote in step seven. I did change always to only, because it fit this part better. 

9. Take a look at what you have. How cohesive is it? What themes have you brought out? Is there anything you dislike?

At this point, I had 
They say
Cold bites. 
Wind bites.
Wind cuts.
Cold grips.
When cold's
present,
cold is 
present
always 
pushing
never 
gone.
Not
intrusive,
never
hurting,
only 
pushing
never
gone. 

10. Tweak what you have based on step nine.  I didn't like how short my lines were, so I made one line of every two. I also noticed that I had four syllables in every line this way, so I wrote the rest of the poem trying for that. You can break it into stanzas at this point, too, if you like. 

11.  Repeat steps five and six until your poem is as long as you want it (or you've run out of things to say).

I did it only once more. I wrote "Dull the mind and / slow the body / always pushing / never gone." 

12. Look for a conclusion. The thing I like about themes and repetition is that you can get some good endings this way.  For instance, at this point I just stopped because my repeating phrase made for a pretty nice ending.

If that doesn't work in your poem, try one of these. a) Bring in your thought from step three again - that symetry of it appearing at the beginning and the end can be nice. b) Draw a moral of some type. Be careful if you do this - it's easy to get preachy. (i.e. a friend moving to spending more time with the people you care about) c) Connect your theme to something bigger. (i.e. a robin learning to fly to a kid growing up) d) If your poem is chronological, look ahead. (i.e. if you describe fall and then winter, you could end with a couple of lines about spring) e) If your poem describes some conflict, you could end with resolution (i.e. if you wrote about having a poor memory, you could spend a little time on something that makes you remember or something you do remember).

13. Let your poem rest for a while, then edit it. Change words you aren't happy about.

14. Post it on the CB. If you do not do this They will get you. :D

15. Put it in your portfolio

Hope you get a good poem, hope you like it!

-EH