Hi, I was just wondering how every one gets there ideas for writing their poems?? I want to start writing more poems but i can only seem to write them every so often when an idea pops into my head. it can take months to write a poem and half of them are not that good. and when i do write them they are completely irrelevant to my life and can be quite dark and deep for some reason. so i would like to know how some of you guys come up with your poems.
Thanks x

Oh! Sinead, where do we begin. They come from everywhere and the best advice is to always have a notebook and pencil with you at all times, especially beside the bed as they often wake you up at night!

A new word in a book, a place, a smell, a strange noise, light in the garden or out at sea, a beautiful girl/boy, a special place, a broken heart, an old friend, a pet, a sister/brother, there's a poem in everything.

read as much poetry as you can. i very rarely write anything without reading lots first

I disagree with Stu and David, the more I read, the more I want to copy the idea .. I'd rather have an original thought cross my mind like a word or a vision, then write a poem about it.

First off, I wouldn't worry about the frequency. Wouldn't you rather write two brilliant poems a year than 60 incredibly dreary ones? Look for the real truth inside you.

Secondly, poems are fickle creatures. They come when THEY fancy it, not when YOU want them to come. My best advice would be to keep a notebook, and if a phrase or an idea flashes brightly in your mind, write it down IMMEDIATELY. If you don't, they dance off into the ether, never to be thought of again. Once you've captured the idea, you can play with it in your mind, see if other stuff comes up. Write down as many associations with it as possible, see if there's anything there.

Thirdly, and I admit this is slightly contradictory to the above, you could always try using prompts. Here's a link to Jo Bell's prompts and I've put a link to Cathy Bryant's Comps and Calls series. Cathy's links are for competitions and publishing call-outs, but you can use them simply as prompts.

https://belljarblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/a-month-of-poetry-prompts1.pdf

http://compsandcalls.com/wp/


Oh, and I barely read any poetry apart from on here. Everyone is different :)

David,

As always, you are rather crude in your judgement of me.. Maybe you want me locked up as you strongly suggested in the past ..

If you can't read an erotic poem and see the beauty in the act, maybe you should live yourself fully. Immerse yourself in the beauty of the naked soul, full of distractions, and let yourself be free. But I sense you are rather vanilla in your thinking.

My erotic poems make up maybe 10% of my output but I don't regret writing any of them or sharing them.

Block my view .. block my poems .. all is fair in love and poetry.

Best of luck in the remaining journey of your life but expand your view.

I'm guessing you didn't like the poem I wrote for you David.

Vivons notre vie pour nous!!!

What we do when we can't think of something to write about is that self-indulgent thing of writing about poetry.

Well done Colin!

This thread asked for advice not personal criticisms. So let's keep so!

There's no such thing as an original thought. It's better to be influenced by good writers than by bad advertising copywriters or pop songs. Read. Read a lot. Explore ideas by reading non-fiction books as well as poetry. Be curious.

One thing I would always suggest is going to writing groups. There are good and bad ones, it depends where you live and what is on offer in your area, but if you get chance to go to a supportive group of other poets/writers, it can be a brilliant way of sharing ideas, getting constructive criticism, learning from others and experimenting - as can open mic poetry events.

It would possibly make a very interesting exercise for all poets, however experienced, to experiment with purposely writing in the perceived styles of different poets (ones whose style we like, ones we don't like...etc) and could help to extend a poet's stock of skills and flexibility. Musicians do it, visual artists often do it, and of course this sort of thing is very common in the world of acting ... it would make an excellent group exercise, and in fact I'm currently in discussion with a performance poet whose style is extremely different to mine about how we might read live in the style of each other, alternating between each other's poems. I find this sort of thing to be mentally invigorating and it can help to "sharpen" my writing instincts, and, as I say, guide me in other directions I might not otherwise dare to try!
So this approach might be another idea for you to try, Sinead...

"poetry is not made of words. It's made id ideas." Stephen Mallarme. Or in other words, don't bother about having big ideas. Small ideas will do as well; just make you language sing.