THE FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD LESSON OF POETRY

   Writing  a poem is just like writing a short story, you need to include the 3 W's (Who, What and Why) if you want your readers to understand your work. Many poets only write part of the story, they make the mistake of thinking everyone is in their head and assumes everyone knows or understands what they know. Say you are writing a poem about a girl you know, if you don't tell that to your readers how are they going to understand about the Who of your poem. I read hundreds of poems that say things like "She broke my heart" but never bother to explain who she is or how she did it or even why she did it before they move on to something else like "I forgot her and moved on". If you read a book that was so cryptic or vague you most likely would lose interest in it and not finish reading it. I tell every poet I know they need to have someone read their poetry out loud to them so they can hear how it sounds. When you read it yourself your mind fills in the gaps because it knows the whole story, but when you listen to it being read out loud to you, you'll only hear the words written. Hearing it read to you is the best way to catch the small mistakes we all make.
                   Bear

THE SECOND LESSON OF POETRY

A Poem by Bear

   Vocabulary! Write it the same way you would say it. Another mistake I see all the time in poems is where someone used a word that they didn't understand what the word really meant. This is the problem of using just a thesaurus, you look at a list of words with the same meaning but this is not always true. An example of this is the word LOST, say you are writing about something you lost, well absent is the first word that comes up on your thesaurus. An absent sock doesn't really mean the same thing as a lost sock. Also, you can't smell green or see happy without explaining just what you mean. Oh you can say (It was such a good day you could see the happiness.) If you use just that line without a supporting line then people are not really going to understand. Oh, you will get comments on your work but if you were to ask people what they thought that line meant their answers would be as vague as that line. Some of the best poems use simple words to get great depth and emotional meaning so: write it the same way you would say it and only use words that you know what they mean and if you are going to use a writing tool like a thesaurus also take the time to look the word's meaning up. Dictionary.com - The world's favorite online English dictionary! is a very good reference site for any and all writers.
                                   Bear

THE THIRD LESSON OF POETRY

A Poem by Bear

    What is the difference between a poem and a short story? Styling and sentence structure! A poem can be broken up into stanzas (an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme) whereas a story is broken up into paragraphs (a distinct portion of written or printed matter dealing with a particular idea, usually beginning with an indentation on a new line). Poems tend to be read with a meter or set timing for each line (much like a song), and a story is read at the same pace all the way through. Sentence structure also dictates the length of sentences, if you have ten words in a line and two in the next pairing line then you have changed the flow and meter the poem will be read. I am not saying each line should be the same length, I am saying that the length of each line determines how the poem is read. Think of it like this, long lines are read slow and short line fast, slow fast slow fast is a rhythm or pattern that make sense but slow slow fast slow slow slow fast fast is not. Try it, read a few poems out loud and see for yourself how the timing and flow is changed by different sentence length.

Well, that covers the basics of writing poetry. Feel free to send me a note if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer your questions if I am able.
                                 Bear


                      ANOTHER LINK JUST ADDED TO A GREAT WRITING TOOL
Grammarly makes you a better writer by finding and correcting up to 10x more mistakes then your word processor, do yourself a favor and check it out.
https://www.grammarly.com/1?affiliateID=1959&affiliateNetwork=ho
Or try this link https://app.grammarly.com/

                                    JUST ADDED
Sorry everyone but It occurred to me that I should have included this link from the very beginning http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.html This it the text to speech program I use. There are other programs, I like this one because it is easy to adjust the speed and voice sound to my liking

I just came across this website and fell in love with it, if you only want one site to help with your writing this is it!!! http://www.wordhippo.com/

Well, it seems I have overlooked a very helpful writing tool: The Thesaurus! If you have never used one it is a dictionary of words with the same or nearly the same meanings, it is a great writing tool that lets you find just the right word. Here is the link to the online thesaurus and dictionary that I use if you don't have one.
     http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thesaurus

Another helpful writing tool is the Rhyming Dictionary, for those of you who don't have one here is the link to the one I use from Itools:
     http://itools.com/tag/rhymes
Here is a link to the gateway to the internet and from here you can find anything. A must have link: http://www.refdesk.com/

Author's Note

As you can see I have put all three lessons of poetry on the one page, I hope this is easier to read.

Reviews

[1VJ]

Thanks for this wise endeavor, I have to constantly remind myself of that first rule.

[Bear]

Thank you, glad you found this helpful and I shall return the read and review favor soon :~)
If you have been writing for very long then you know that there are exceptions to every rule. There are some kinds of poetry that these rules don't fit perfectly but the understandings do. If there is anything I can do to help feel free to contact me and I will gladly help if it is within my understandings :~)

[1VJ]

I've been writing for some time, but this is the first I've been brave enough to share it. Thanks so much, I might take you up on that. :)

[Bear]

My pleasure :~)

[zaisham9393]

Okay...so first I would say that your tips were amazing.

I also think that the best point you raised here was that you need to make the audience understand and make them feel what you are feeling ,you need to show them your story or opinion through there perspective and make them see what you see.this makes the writer connect with their audience.

I loved how you differentiated between the short story and a poem is that poetry is broken into stanzas the length of the stanzas whether short or long should follow a pattern which makes it easier to read and a smooth rhythm and the flow.
Hope I did make sense lol......
...summing up this is what I think you said...:))
This was very helpful dearest friend :))

[Bear]

Very astute of you, yes you have it right. If you write something using every big word in the dictionary people would need to look up many of the words to understand what you wrote, and who is going to do that? I read many poems here where the author is writing creatively to their their thinking but nonsense to everyone not in his/her head. I understand the desire to write something new and different, but if you have to explain what your work says/means then you didn't do a very good job of writing it. If there is anything I can help you will, feel free to contact me and if it is within my knowledge I shall :~)

[zaisham9393]

Thank You so much ;))!! I always love your ideas and thoughts :).

[butterfly desire]

Iam so glad you wrote this your advice
is so. helpful I learn something new every day
thank you bear .

[Bear]

It is my pleasure, if there is anything I can do to help feel free to send me a note and if it is in my ability to help I will :~)

[butterfly desire]

I will thanks bear

[Robert]

Great advice bear and very helpful indeed. I will try to remember this advise when I write as I know I sometimes write only for myself not thinking of others who will read it, Therefore I make the mistake you have mentioned above, when the reader night think, Huh?

[Bear]

Thank you Robert, when I posted this I was thinking of the beginner just starting out. When I taught poetry back in the mid nineties, half of the people had never written a poem before and poetry.com had just become popular so everyone was thinking publish. That was the format that these lessons were intended and not for every poet but if you want the world to enjoy your poetry on a site like this or published in a book or magazine then these lesson hopefully will help :~)

[Matching Socks]

That's really good advice.
It's very important to connect with reader and I think your tips are helpful.

[Bear]

Thank you. I really should add some info and links because I have recently learned that many people have never used a thesaurus and in my experiences it is a writers most useful tool

[pikachulover]

Wow, as I thought, much helpful! lol I realized my mistakes, I think, I make them all, kinda funny but as I know them now so I can surely improve, thanks for sharing! :)

[Rainslover]

Thanks for this! Great Help! I guess I need a lot of working on the first and second lesson. Lol. Will focus on it. I can check this every time I edit and know what and how are my mistakes. Will def work on this. Thanks!

[Bear]

I am glad you found this useful, I know many editors with publishing companies use a model guide line much like this one. So it could help get a poem as far as the editors desk but it will take your own creativity to get your poem into print so good luck and good writing :~)

[AaronFreitas]

I like it my friend :) It's a good guide

[marcus]

Valuable advice, thanks for posting!

[Tom McRoberts]

I can see this becoming very handy when doing my editing. Thanks for taking the time to post this, Bear, it's a very considerate diversion from your usual contributions to the site.

[Bear]

Thanks, I read a lot of poems here that are worthy of being published but would not make it past the editor because of something as simple as form. People don't understand than an editor sees thousands poems so why should he bother with something not polished or unprofessional? Your taking creative writing so your professors must have told you all this already but not everyone knows it. Thanks for taking the time to check it out.