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Poetics

Compiled by Glennis Hobbs

How We Write Poetry

This is the first of a three-part article featuring the Senior Poets Workshop at Writers' Village University and will feature some of the ways that the Senior Poets work with poetry.

The Senior Poets Workshop, also known as P123, is an open workshop for experienced poets at Writers' Village University. Here writers hone their skills as advanced poets, study recognized poets, discuss matters of joint interest, practice prosody, expand their knowledge of poetic forms, participate in the development of group exercises and course facilitation, have a place to pursue literary critiques of poems and poets and work with some of the master poets at WVU.

The responses come as part of a course that Gwen Austin and Linda J. Austin are developing called Lead And Silver. This is a course on working with poems from one’s slush pile of unfinished poems and revising them rather than starting new poems.

Question: How do you write poetry? (on impulse, when the muse moves you, with a plan)

Gwen:
My most fun and easy to write poems come when the spirit moves me—such as when I see something so special out my window or on one of my walks through our woods. Nature is my highest inspiration. When I’m given a topic or form on which to create a poem, I have to work a lot harder, and I find that so often the results are not quite right—the poem isn’t one I’m excited about.

Chris:
I have to mull it over for a while and agonize over my lack of ideas before I sit down and write. Then it usually comes pretty easily. Often I just have to start writing in a stream of consciousness style until I hit on something. Then I go off on a tangent and find something completely different than when I started. I don't keep notebooks around to jot down ideas. That is something I should probably try to do. I hate sitting down in one place to write.

Rolando:
I guess it's a little of the three. More on impulse, though.

I don’t have a formula when writing poetry. It’s always hit or miss with me. Hence, you must be thinking with that kind of a game plan, it must be more misses than hits and you wouldn’t be far from the truth. I have about a hundred poems either to be totally thrown away or begging for a rewrite. At any rate, I usually start with an idea, an image and from there formulate an expression of some sort. I work from there.

Janice:
I tend to write most poetry when the muse moves me, although I also like to write with a plan, such as contests and challenges that present a subject or form. I like to be inspired by something, someone or a thought.

Sarah:
I usually start with words, i.e., a phrase or word comes to mind that appeals to me somehow and I try to make a poem from it. Sometimes the word will easily associate itself with something. Last week I put the words “musk crush” together and got a poem about sitting on my grandfather’s lap out of it. I also write when the muse moves me, and keep a pen and paper around at all times. Reading poetry always gives me ideas. I can also write with a plan like we do in trigger classes but I can’t start with an exact plan like “write a poem about your neighbor showing what an incredible pain in the neck she is.” It has to be general. I also don’t really like assignments like “write a sonnet.” I feel I’m in a vacuum until I have a topic.

Mo:
Poetry seemed rather distant to me when I studied some eighteenth century poets in school. The best way to understand poetry is to write a poem. I needed to write one to discover the magic of it. It starts with a thought in my head. A picture in my mind. Two or three words. Something I've seen on a walk like a one-legged gull or writing in the sand. Emotion has a lot to do with writing to me. The feeling won't let go of me until I write it down.

Glennis:
I write poetry a variety of ways. Sometimes a poem occurs when I listen to music. Other times it happens when I read a story or article or watch a documentary that impacts on me. Most often I get an idea for a poem by listening to words or hear a phrase. For example, many of my spiritual poems have come from listening to sermons that our minister delivers. I frequently find I make notes on the church bulletin and when I go home I have the makings of a poem.

Sometimes an idea strikes me and I’m able to capture that idea in a few minutes. For the most part, the idea for a poem goes into the back of my mind and simmers there for a while. When the time to write comes, there may be one poem or several.

Ideas for poems go into my poetry journal and remain there until I look for an idea for a poem.

I plan for poems in that I write down what I want to try to say. For example, when I do a persona poem, I may make notes for things I want to describe in the poem. I list these ideas either by writing them by hand or by making notes on the computer.

Right now for a series of poems about my home town, I have listed several poems I want to try writing and I have made notes for what I want to try to write. Eventually these will go into a poem.

For the most part, I write my poems with varying methods.


Presenting The P123 Poets

Gwen Austin, retired therapeutic recreation specialist, lives and writes in Washington state in a woodsy spot near Mt. Rainier. Her first book of poetry, Through a Dusty Lens, is about a year in Vietnam. Gwen is also the author of two novels, Twilight Manor and Fateful Days. Currently, Gwen is co-facilitator for the Senior Poets Workshop at the online Writers' University Village.

Christine Bloom is a special educator and mother of two who resides in La Verne, California with her husband. She has been active in the Writers' Village University program for the past two years through the advanced poetry classes. She is a member of the Senior Poetry Workshop. Christine holds a Master's degree in the education of learning handicapped children, a counseling credential and several other teaching credentials. Her undergraduate degrees are in History and in English.

Rolly delos Santos is an Art teacher of De La Salle Zobel School, a school on the outskirts of Manila. He has been writing poetry for about two years now, thinking it will help enhance his third eye which he uses for his paintings. Rolly has been a member of WVU for three years and is presently a member of the advanced poetry group (P123).

Janice Oestermyer received her A.S. from St. Mary-of-the-Woods, near Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1984. She also studied poetry at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and children's writing via the Institute of Children's Literature. She has had several articles on writing poetry published; the first at The Christian Communicator, four articles in T-Zero: The Writer's Ezine, and one published at Fellowscript, Canada. Her poetry has been widely published and has placed in contests.

Lori Romero is a published poet and fiction writer. She served as Artistic Director of Friends & Artists Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles. She currently resides in New Mexico. Her poetry and short stories have been published in Onset Review, Lotus Blooms Journal and several other journals. She recently published a book of poetry entitled Wall to Wall. She is a co-facilitator of the Senior Poets Workshop at WVU.

Sarah Sloat was born in the 60s in New Jersey, where she attended university. She lives with her husband, daughter and son in Frankfurt, Germany, where she works for a news agency.

Maureen (Mo) Swanson has been teaching in elementary school for nineteen years. She is a member of Word Weavers and Senior Poets Workshop.

Glennis Hobbs is a Canadian poet-writer. She has published two other poetry books, The Waldron Wild Cats and City on the Rocks and most recently In and Out of the Shadows. She is currently working on a novel plus three other poetry books as well as a novel. She is a co-facilitator of the Senior Poets Workshop and as well co-facilitates two online poetry courses at Writers’ Village University. She is a contributing editor for T-Zero: The Writer's Ezine.