A Poem Under Construction

by

Mona Hodgson

 

 

A poem might flow out of us on a wave of inspiration, but not always. Not even often for most of us. But fortunately, we don't have to be in the grip of inspiration to write good poetry.

 

We can have a plan for writing whether inspiration propels the poem or not. Construction. No hammers or saws required. But you will need paper and pencil or a keyboard for the basic stages of building a poem—planning, writing, and revising.

 

As you begin, remember that inspiration can show up during any stage of writing—pre-writing, first draft, or revision.

 

1. Choose your building material. Will you use brick, wood, or block? The

event or experience you select for your poem is the material with which you will build it.

 

Recall a time when you felt a strong reaction or an extraordinary emotion.

 

Choose an experience that happened in a specific and short time-span--within a few minutes or an hour, at most.

 

Make sure the experience happened in a specific place, one you can remember in full-color and in surround-sound.

 

Positive or negative, humorous or profound, the experience will serve as your building

material. I chose my father’s graveside service as the material for building my poem Daddy’s Girls.

 

2. Once you’ve decided on a specific situation or experience, you will lay the foundation for your poem.

 

Using your mind’s eye, return to the place of your experience and look around. What do you see?

 

Make a vertical list of words and short phrases that record the visual imagery you viewed in imagination and memory. Note shapes, colors, light, etc. Don’t stop listing until you have at least ten or twenty images on your list. These words and images you gather will form the foundation for your poem.

 

Here’s an example of what I came up with at this stage in one of my building projects:

family and friends gathered

juniper towers

hole in the ground

                       

3. Next, you’ll pour more substance into the foundation.

 

Go back in your memory to the place of your experience, and listen.

 

Start a new list, one that identifies as many sounds as possible.

I included such sounds as: bird songs from deep inside the trees, distant lawnmower, sniffles, and sobs.

 

When you have a list of ten or twenty sounds, repeat the same process for touch, smell, and taste.

 

Consider and list your emotions during the event. Attempt to communicate something about how you felt. Readers want to be emotionally drawn into your experience.

 

4. Time to begin framing your poetic structure.

 

Using a variety of tools, gather more words and images. A sight, sound, texture, smell, taste, or an emotion and reaction can inspire a connection or a comparison. At this stage, I especially enjoy a game of word and image association. The phrase “deep inside” made me think of the word “bowels,” a fitting image for grief. The word “family” gave way to the specific image of my three sisters and I--“the four daughters of Bill.” “Hole in the ground” sparked the image of the dirt piled beside it, and that became “grave dirt.” The combination of “bird songs” and “sobs” in that setting inspired the image of “praying for lessons.” Looking up some of the words on your lists in a thesaurus, dictionary, encyclopedia, or other reference books, may help you make connections and comparisons.

 

As you collect words and images, jot down any ideas that come to mind that might be helpful in writing about the experience.

 

Be creative, letting your imagination and passion have control in this part of the process.

 

5. Adding the utilities begins when you select the best words and images from your lists. Highlight any word or phrase that strikes you as good. Be subjective. If you like it, mark it. From my lists, I highlighted juniper, bowels, grave dirt, bird songs, memories, and praying.

 

6. Writing your first draft is like dry-walling. Because of the pre‑planning and the attention you

gave the material, the foundation, the framing, and the utilities, you'll find writing the first draft much easier than if you had started building without those considerations. As you write, employ as many of the marked items on your lists as you can. When the first draft is written, set your poem aside. Put it away for a couple of hours, a day, a week, or more before the first big inspection.

 

7. Now that you have a solid structure, it's time for some finishing touches—the trim-work, inside and out. For your poem, this is the revision and refining stage. Time to take a fresh look at it with your playful side ready to share its space with the analytical creator in you.

 

In her book Poems From The Heart Irma Dovey said, “Often we think the first wording is inspired and not to be changed. If the thought is strong, it is tough enough to withstand examination and rewording.”

 

Start by reading the poem aloud. Listen for grating sounds. Watch for words that through sound or meaning interfere with the effect you want to achieve. Are the words you’ve chosen consistent with the subject and tone? Would grave dirt dance or mingle with memories?

 

Make every word count. Remember that regardless of the form, you can emphasize a word best by putting it at the end of a line.

 

Check your poem for any form of "to be" as the main verb (is, are, was, were, will be, am, being, have been, has...). When possible, avoid using it. Seek out strong verbs as replacements. “Were standing” becomes “stood.”

 

Take out any qualifiers, such as very or really. They've lost their power to intensify. “A very tall juniper” becomes “a towering juniper.”

 

Get rid of unnecessary adjectives. You might change some adjectives to nouns, others to verbs.

 

Cut out adverbs whenever possible. If you used an adverb to prop up a verb, chances are you selected the wrong verb. Try changing an adverb/verb combination to a single verb. For instance: don't say he walked slowly, when you can say he ambled or sauntered. Be concise. 

 

If you're writing your poem in a rhymed pattern, do it well. Don’t sacrifice clarity and simplicity for rhyme.

 

Know when to call a sub-contractor--someone who can offer a constructive critique of your poem.

 

Here's my revision (I’m careful not to refer to any of my revisions as final).

 

DADDY'S GIRLS

We stood together—

 the four daughters of Bill

watching grave dirt mingle

with memories

and listening to the robin sing

from the bowels

of a towering juniper,

praying for lessons. MH

 

Regard your writing, poetry and prose, as a multistage process of planning, writing, and revising. Treat each stage as vitally important. 

 

Now that you have the blueprint you need to construct a sturdy poem, choose your material, make your lists, and have fun watching it come together!

 

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