Poetry With Emotion

When writing poetry I always focus on the one thing that gives poetic verse its greatest appeal - the strength of emotion.

In order to captivate a reader's attention with poetry there must be the element of emotion. The reader must be able to relate in some way to what is being conveyed in the poem, whether it be from personal experience or an awareness of what someone close to them has gone through.

Because poetry is so personal in nature, often relating actual experiences of the writer, it can have a very profound impact on the reader. Each poem should have content that is in some way unique, a different viewpoint or angle to the story being told. A poem about a love lost can loose its appeal quickly unless there is somehow a different perspective on the situation being conveyed. Give the reader a bit of insight into the actual reasons behind the lost relationship and what feelings have been evoked by the parting of two loving souls, not just that "I've lost him forever and life will never be the same....".

I inject descriptive words or phrases that pack a powerful punch, that breath life into each line. My approach to bonding each stanza tightly together in a cohesive manner is to determine in advance a supportive idea or theme within each stanza and generally speaking I will pair my thoughts in two lines. I will begin that thought illustration on one line and support it by expanding upon that thought into the subsequent line.

I find that the end result of writing a poem is less pleasing if I attempt to pick a subject matter out of thin air. If I get any sense that I really don't feel motivated to write on a particular subject on a given day I simply steer clear of it, otherwise the end result is a writing that seems forced, contrived, and lacking in strength or emotion.

I find that as a writer I have to be my own worst critic. I review what I have written, sometimes over and over, to get a sense of what emotional response I experience from what I am reading. If all I feel is "well, that was so-so" then I know the piece needs editing. The one thing that I have learned about writing and how people respond to what they read in my work is that if I pound out a quick piece, or a multiple of quick writes, and throw them out there for the world to see, chances are that the product is not going to be very appealing and the reader will look elsewhere for more satisfying reading.

The importance of re-working one's writing until it is as good as it can be cannot be understated. If it just doesn't seem to gel in my own mind as a compelling read, I edit as necessary until I see true elements of value in the piece. If I get stuck on a particular write I simply save the work and put it aside for another look later when I feel more motivated or in tune to the piece and can better reflect on what direction the reader might enjoy seeing the piece take.

Nothing is more important than editing. Clean up any typos or grammarical discrepancies and tighten up any loose ends or awkward phrasology before that written piece goes out there to the reading public. By doing so I find that my readers become devoted and return often to see more.

To view my archive of published poetry please visit http://www.poetrypoem.com/apoetsplace .

Don MacIver
author, Journeys In Verse