Poetry and Poems

I read the poem a long time ago. It’s about a tree who gives shelter to a bird with a broken wing. The bird and the tree have fun and stuff. And then the bird gets healed and flies away, never to return again. The tree feels angry, sad, and betrayed. Then the tree realized that the bird had nothing else to give. It was the tree who was in debt. The poem is something along those lines. I’ve been trying to find it for so long.

Good luck with that,
Im not sure

There is this poem that lists a series of "mean" things that a parent does. All of these "mean" things are really done out of love and so that the child learns to take responsibility & grow into a well-adjusted adult. I heard it read once in church and once at a graduation ceremony by a parent. But I can’t remember much about it, other than the fact that it really impressed. If anyone knows the name of the poem or anything more about the poem that would be great. Thank you!

dont know

I need to write a poem about Christmas. How do I start? I need it not rhyming, and I can get going after I get it started. I don’t know what type of poem to do, either. If you tell me how to get started(you dont need to start it for me) I can follow through and get the poem done. Please?

When life is rough and unforgiving,
at least we know that christmas is near;
To help fill that empty space in our hearts
with love and that jolly christmas cheer

that’s good??? best i can come up with. If you need any other help just leave an answer on any of my questions asking me for help and i’ll respond. Hope it helped:)

Everytime I ask about a poem, I only get one or two answers, though I ask for negative criticism as well.

What is necessary to make a poem interesting? Rhymes often make the poem sound immature, in my opinion, unless the poet is extremely skilled. What should I focus on when writing? Should I hold onto the poem for a few days and di many revisions before posting it? Is that it?

Those of us who have published even a few poems are always glad to see someone from the younger generation getting into it, as we believe that an appreciation of poetry is essential to a fuller life. It is a good thing, in the beginning, to perhaps compare learning to write poetry to learning to play the piano. One starts by practicing scales for months, then simple tunes, sometimes for years, and after maybe ten years one can play a nice piece very well. But one does not start with a complex piece. One should know that to write a good poem one also needs about ten years of practice, in this case reading good poetry, over and over. But because it is so easy to write down words, much easier than to play a good tune on the piano, some think that they can write an interesting poem right away. Now poetry is more like music than like short stories: it is a different way of writing. The musicality of the poem is more important than the literal truth of the poem, and usually a poem is NOT very true to literal facts, but to our feelings, just as music is.

Poetry is the art of hiding our meaning just a bit, in order to make the reader search us out.
It usually tries to show us, with images, instead of just telling us, with statements, facts.
It should surprise us with language we never thought of before. Above all it must avoid cliche, use images that we did not expect.

Many first poems show how the author has plenty of feeling for the subject, but you know, we all want our own feelings, not someone else feeling for us.
Reading a poem, we are all like children: we want to be surprised.
What do you think of this:

Among twenty snowy mountains,
the only moving thing
was the eye of the blackbird.

Of course if we can see 20 snowy mountains, we cannot see at the same time a bird´s eye.
But the contrast between great and small, black and white, stability and movement,
is so interesting, who cares if it is true?
Tell us some great lies, give us a big surprise, an emotion, make us feel!

To make your reader feel (and all of us want to have our own feelings,
not just hear about another´s) you want a surprising, even a startling image.

Try this, by Elinor Wylie

PROPHECY

I shall lie hidden in a hut
In the middle of an alder wood,
With the back door blind and bolted shut,
And the front door locked for good.
I shall lie folded like a saint,
Lapped in a scented linen sheet,
On a bedstead striped with bright-blue paint,
Narrow and cold and neat.
the midnight will be glassy black
Behind the panes, with wind about
To set his mouth against a crack
And blow the candle out.

Will she really go to live in a cabin in the woods, is she talking about her wish to die? (Of course not, she was a sophisticated poet and she is inventing, but we don´t care, because she has interested us with her images.)

She is obviously alone and despondent, and she makes us feel something by the strong images she invents.
We are surprised at the end. Her last bit of light is put out, what happened?
We have to invent, to imagine, to make up our own meaning. That is poetry.

If you want to carry on, and I hope you do, I recommend Emily Dickinson´s poetry. In this one

Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn
Indicative that suns go down;
The notice to the startled grass
That darkness is about to pass.

I think she is talking about death, but does not mention the word, she makes us work for it.

Surprise us, give us feeling! (you are on your way, keep at it.)

For example, the number of lines in a stanza and the number of stanzas in a poem? I’m doing The Moose by Elizabeth Bishop and there are 28 stanzas in the poem with 6 lines in each.

The structure of the poem, a good poem, supports the style and message of the poem. Nursery rhymes, with their paired couplets, are meant to sound light and memorable…you wouldn’t try to read "The Moose" to a class of First Graders and expect to keep their attention. By the same token, Nursery Rhymes sound too "rhymy" on most adult ears. The Moose is written in a poetic narrative, but with some structure. In addition to the six line pattern, there is a varying rhyme scheme. The varied pattern of this rhyme scheme keeps the poem from becoming too predictable, yet the rhymes that do exist keep your ear in waiting for the next rhyme. The lack of strict pattern in rhyme and meter also allows the poet a wider choice of words so that details are not sacrificed to form. The number of stanzas are less important than the number of lines in each stanza. The number of lines keeps the poem from being too choppy (as it might sound in only 4 lines) and allows the rhyme pattern to wander past the fourth line. The number of stanzas is determined by how long it takes to tell the story…but to keep the audience’s interest for 28 stanzas, the poet needed to find a form that would not tire the audience’s ear, yet keep their attention. A six line stanza with varying form is very good way to achieve this result.

Hope this helps

I am doing a project for my physical science class about the element Berkelium. One of things I got to do is make a poem about Berkelium. Anyone know how to start it out??(the poem has to be 10 lines)Can anyone give me a line or two? I am going to make the poem talk about how useless Berkelium is(it really dosent have any value and really no uses) any ideas on how to do it?

This is VERY LAME i know

But you did sound desperate – and I tried!!!

An atomic number of 97!
Said the professor to his Berkley brethen
With melting and boiling points still unknown
“It’s worthless”, the students bemoan

Its metallic and radioactive
But not flashy enough to keep an audience captive
Though silver in colour
It’s really much duller

I need to write a poem, but need more information on the format of a Blues poem or Affirmation poem. What exactly is a blues and affirmation poem? HELP!

Poetic Form: Blues Poem

One of the most popular forms of American poetry, the blues poem stems from the African American oral tradition and the musical tradition of the blues. A blues poem typically takes on themes such as struggle, despair, and sex. It often (but not necessarily) follows a form, in which a statement is made in the first line, a variation is given in the second line, and an ironic alternative is declared in the third line.

African-American writer Ralph Ellison said that although the blues are often about struggle and depression, they are also full of determination to overcome difficulty "through sheer toughness of spirit." This resilience in the face of hardship is one of the hallmarks of the blues poem.

Some of the great blues poets include Sterling A. Brown, James Weldon Johnson, and Langston Hughes. The title poem of Hughes’ first book, The Weary Blues, is also an excellent example of a blues poem. It begins:

"Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway . . . "Another example is Brown’s poem "Riverbank Blues," which begins:

"A man git his feet set in a sticky mudbank,
A man git dis yellow water in his blood,
No need for hopin’, no need for doin’,
Muddy streams keep him fixed for good."Contemporary poet Kevin Young is continuing the tradition; his most recent book, Jelly Roll, is a collection that draws heavily on the blues tradition. Young is the editor of the recent anthology, Blues poems.

========================================

Write an Instant "Writer’s Affirmation" Poem

Method:
Line 1 I am creative
Line 2 I value
Line 3 I write
Line 4 I trust
Line 5 I honor
Line 6 I give voice to
Line 7 I give voice to
Line 8 I am
Line 9 I make
Line 10 I hold
Line 11 I am safe writing on the page
Line 12 I make my home a place to write

Sample: I am creative
I value the artist in me
I write what’s in my heart and head
I trust the nature of my truth
I honor my kind audience
I give voice to what haunts
I give voice to what heals
I am open to inspiration
I make a place for creative expression
I hold the outcome in high esteem
I am safe writing on the page
I make my home a place to write