Thursday 8 November 2012

Poetry Thoughts

Woah guys, so I never thought I would get as into poetry as I have. I used to do it, but thought it was silly but now I'm learning about techniques and ways of making poems better and I love it.

I like the way that every word has to count.

I like the way that structure is important and so few words can say so much.

Thinking about all these techniques and ways of making a poem work is making me really enjoy it.

Sorry for the essay on poetry, I'm completely immersed in it at the moment, and I like the contrast between poetry and prose, and doing NaNo. It's nice to be doing completely different constrasting things alongside one another. 

Also, did I tell you guys that I read some poems out at a poetry reading/open mic thing? I was terrified, but it was actually really awesome and I really enjoyed it! I surprised myself there, but it was good fun.

We had an interesting discussion in my poetry seminar the other day. I capitalise all the first letters of each line in my poetry,  partly becasue word does it and I hate the green squiggly lines, but also because I like it looking neat on the page and that's just what you do - right? I hate things looking messy on the page. Maybe that's just a strange control freak thing, because believe me in normal life I am the messiest person ever. But apparently (and this is an ongoing debate clearly in the poetry world, which I am going to do some more research into) that is old fashioned and not necessary.

I know most of you are fiction writers, but what do you guys think?

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on reading your poetry in public, I so don't think I would be brave enough to do that!
    As for the capitalization debate, I think it depends. I know in some poetry that one line will sort of run on from the previous one, so maybe you don't need a capital on that second line? But then again, I know nothing about poetry, so maybe that's just nonsense LOL. I guess it all comes down to personal preference.

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    1. Thank you so much!
      Hmmm yes I think that was what the person in my class was debating! I guess it's an argument of traditional v contemporary, and all this sort of thing. It just feels natural to capatilise each line, but I guess it makes sense if it's just at the beginning of each line! xxx

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  2. So awesome that you did an open mic night! You are much braver than I could be. And I love how poetry makes you find the perfect word for everything you want to express--I try to do that in my prose, too.

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    1. Thank you! It was scary!
      Yeah, its when you have much fewer words to express yourself in, it really makes you think about it. xx

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