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Re: HI RAINWOMAN
ma,
i don't know if i responded to u already about this...i have spent some time away...
anyway, if u are still here, i wanted to say that our culture is very mind and head oriented, and it is very difficult to deconstruct that. remember, these are just guidelines, you can take or leave them for what they are worth. they are, in my opinion, five things every poet should know. it sounds like you are, or were, really tapped into spirit and that the divine inspiration was really moving through you. every human being has an innate sense of musicality, both aurally and through the written word. the process of doing something over and over again basically consists of peeling layers of all the conditioning that we have learned through the years and getting to the purity of our own innate rhythmic voice. by the time we become adults, we are so conditioned to not listen to our own intuition anymore. it is not easy, or glamorous, or comfortable. it sometimes requires going through alot of pain to get through all of that baggage to get to the good stuff.
you always have the option of taking a class, buying a book, etc, if you feel the need for more structured guidance. i would just say keep doing what you are doing, it sounds like source is really guiding you strongly.
i have had the good fortune of having some really great mentors and english teachers who have helped me develop alot as a writer. this is a great format because it exposes your work to such a wide audience. i had one mentor who would rip my work to shreds, yet he absolutely loved my writing. i loved that he ripped it to shreds because it made me be a better editor of my work. we're always growing, developing, if we choose. learning new things, getting outside of our comfort level a little is always going to push us as artists. just remember to always follow your inner voice, and if you want help from someone else, say someone who is a teacher or an experienced editor, ask the universe and it will come to you. the best advice will ultimately come from inside of you, all teachers and mentors can do is guide you to that place.
all the best,
rainwoman
posted by
RainWoman
on July 17, 2008 at 8:08 PM
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FEEDBACK FOR THE QUESTIONING WRITERS
otay, first off, there is nothing wrong at all with end rhyme. There are formats and styles in poetry, just like anything else, but you can bend and break these rules, just like with anything else. It is about what is going to add strength to your work and what is going to take it away from your work. Ask yourself, does this piece read smoothly to me? If so, it should read smoothly to others.
I am not academically trained as a poet, I just have kept a very undramatic commitment to something that has burned in me since I was 13. I have been writing ever since I could hold a pencil, and writing poetry for almost 11 years. I don't know how to write a sonnet or a haiku, and most great poets were not academically trained as writers. But what they had was an empathic sense of voice and language, they just knew how to write. Unless I'm Shakespeare, I am not going to venture out into the realm of sonnets or couplets or end rhyme. It's a difficult form to master successfully without either sounding flowery or abstract and vague. I write in a free verse format, which actually is a derivative of the beats poets like Kerouac and Ginsberg deconstructing old forms that were derived from classical poetry. There is no meter, you put a line break where you want to put it, and things don't have to rhyme. This format, to me, is the most appropriate today for a society where most people are not classically trained as writers. It's just not mainstream knowledge anymore.
That is wonderful if you just have words streaming in your head and you have to write them down to sleep, that means you're tapped into source! Go with it! just keep in mind, if you are wanting to communicate something powerful, ask yourself if you could cut out the end rhyme and see what happens, if that makes a phrase or stanza "stand out more". I almost think of it as the difference between color and black and white photography. Color is what everyone knows, what everyone likes. But black and white makes shadow, line and light stand out more in relief on the page, you aren't distracted with the floweryness of color, so you focus on what the essence of the image is.
and also, please feel free to browse through my stuff as examples, if you so choose. You can cut and paste them or whatever.
cheers! keep writing!
posted by
RainWoman
on August 19, 2006 at 5:48 PM
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thanks for the advice, rainwoman...
..
..now if I can just figure out if I'm writing prose or poetry, or maybe a combination?, I'll be ok...
posted by
Rumor
on August 19, 2006 at 1:35 PM
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definately some good advice here..
Thank you..
posted by
SomeoneElse
on August 19, 2006 at 8:33 AM
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poet
thats why I write about relationships, love and sex
posted by
Lanetay
on August 18, 2006 at 8:00 PM
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HI RAINWOMAN
JUST FINISHED READING THE FIVE THINGS EVERY POET SHOULD KNOW AND AM NOW WONDERING IF IM DOING IT RIGHT..... ALL MY POEMS END IN END RYHME, IS THAT WRONG?
NOW IM CONFUSED, I ONLY STARTED WRITING POETRY AFTER BECOMING INVOLVED IN SPIRITUALISM AND ATTENDING PSYCHIC DEVELOPEMENT CLASSES, I WOULD GET HOME FROM THEM AND HAD SO MANY WORDS RUNNING THROUGH MY HEAD THAT THE ONLY WAY I COULD GET TO SLEEP WAS TO WRITE THEM DOWN.
I MUST ADMIT I REALLY DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT POETRY OR HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN.
I WOULD APPRECIATE ANY FEEDBACK YOU COULD GIVE. (SHAZ)......
posted by
ma_blagden
on August 18, 2006 at 7:41 PM
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Hi, Rainwoman,
Thanks for the advice. You sound like a teacher. There are many of those here on Blogit, and I love learning from all of you. I'm not sure if you're new here, but if so, welcome. :)
posted by
BlackPearl1
on August 18, 2006 at 7:03 PM
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