My FIRST poetry thread

what makes a good poem? what separates a good poem from a bad poem?

first off, good poems have lots of metaphors / alliteration

>this thread again
Just read Milk and Honey. That's got everything you need to know man.

will do

emphasis on the word everything.

lel just b urself and rhyme :^)

unironically start with simple ABAB or ABCB rhyme scheme 4 stanza poems on a topic. This will get you comfortable talking about something outside of a prose-like context. You'll also find that your mind will start have ideas that don't fit inside those molds. After you start to only think in vivid, nonrhyming phrases, branch out. If you want to challenge yourself, find a poetic form and work on it until you create something you like, then move onto a second one.

Dont listen to this guy, he's a skeleton

it depends on a few things, OP

>IF YOU WANT TO MAKE BANK
pander to those hopeless tumblrinas and cut your dick off. write a solid paragraph about your experience and then press the enter key randomly, like this:
my peepee it
leaves me
but
atleast i hav
e my
dignity.

-retard mcnodick

>IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO BE A POET
start with the most mundane rhymescheme and get a feel for alliteration and dictiom; you need to develop a solid vocabulary before anything. read the classics, of course. learn scansion. lots of nitty gritties. after that, vomit words onto a paper and just keep going, no matter how edgy or disgusting. eventually, you'll develop a feel for it and probably end up writing something that you like but no one else does.

>what makes a good poem?
perfect form, a good poem has perfect form
a great poem has perfect form and perfect word choice

I would like to clarify that by form I mean more than structure and meter, but every mechanic has to work symbolically towards one goal.

look at Ezra Pound's Station of the Metro for an easy piece to pick apart this way.

kek

inclusion

it's a NYT bestseller so I'm skeptical of that.

and he was stuck there to this day. The end.

Craft:

You have to hide the idea that your line breaks could ever be meaningful. They must appear as arbitrary as possible. There can be no meaning at all generated by any reader as to the point of your line breaks. The poem is to be inaccessible as possible because poetry, like any art, should be isolated from the masses. It should be exclusive.

There must be no capitalisation or punctuation because they distract from the words. We are talking pure poetry here with no adornments and distracting elements like letters of a different size or little dots everywhere that dictate to you the pace at which to read. A poem with these elements is a poem with training wheels. The poem should be read BY ITSELF.

The poem should be sort of impressionistic outbursts of feeling that are idiosyncratic and nonsensical to anyone who reads them. They can only try and guess what you mean but they should never know for sure. You are overwhelmed by sense inputs so you grab at random around your personal locked toolbox for something that seems relevant to the situation. What you grab may not make sense in a traditional sense but it is uniquely you -- it is a 'true' poem not reliant on the decaying pages of centuries past. Your poem is generated by ephemeral stimuli -- any attempt at giving the poem weight makes it sink like a stone. If you want something that lasts, carve a gravestone.

Any poem less than true is a failed poem, reflective of a failed life.

OP, if anyone here knew what a good poem was they'd be writing good poems. Nobody here is writing good poems. Take a peek at a critique thread and you'll think twice before trusting the things these guys say.

>did i like it?
good poem
>did i hate it?
bad poem. my taste is supreme

I write good peoms, mr. debbie-doubter

Start reading up on Russian Formalism and then get into Structuralism/New Criticism. It isn't in vogue right now, but then again no particular critical type seems to be. these critical schools will however give you a powerful basis for perceiving the aesthetics of poetics.

Also read Aristotle's Poetics to start.

>start with the most mundane rhymescheme

Don't take this guy's advice on writing poetry.

Some amazing counterpoints you have there. How should he start if not with the most basic forms of poetry?

I'd also suggest people like Creeley and Olson who have some interesting ideas on poetry.