Tuesday, November 20, 2007

4 x 4 Poetry Meme

Clare at Clare's Sunflower Sky tagged me to do the 4 x 4 Poetry meme. One is supposed to list at least 4 things you think a beginning poet should attend to, and 4 mistakes you think a poet should avoid.

I bent the rules a little to get a nice chance in saying all I wanted to say (hope that's not a problem) and stated five pieces of humble advice on poetry writing (what you shouldn't do is implicit in them as well). Well, it was fun to write, so here it goes...

About Poetry

-Even though without them a poem cannot come to be, the finality of a poem is not in the words themselves, but in what they mean, so picture the words you use as an instrument for expressing some greater thought. Let words serve your ideas, and not the opposite.

-Being objective and subjective at the same time usually causes the effect of depth in a poem. Good poems don’t exhaust their content easily; rather they allow themselves to be rediscovered through time.

-Examine yourself and the terrain in which you step in, the things that cross your mind. If you understand yourself, chances are that others will too.

-Let feeling guide your choice of words. Poems are especially good because of the feelings that they can recreate in us, and a poem that was written with feeling will most likely be a sensorial experience to those who read it as well.

- Poems can be magical but they’re not usually created out of magic, in fact, most times a good poem is very hard work. So give yourself time, respect yourself and the poem your writing. It so happens that the words you’re looking for might be waiting for you in the next corner!

4 comments:

awareness said...

Hi there. Thank you for your feedback on my poem tonight. It was truly appreciated. When a poem comes to me, it seems to rush through me from somewhere else...it doesn't happen very often, but when it does, the urge to capture it is quite strong. I don't know if this process is common or not. Perhaps the hard work....finding the multi sensory word tripping lines has already taken place in my heart....where my feelings are stored.....and so by the time it reaches my mind, it's already composed? :)

I like your thoughts here too.......will think about the process some more.

Anonymous said...

a maestria de escrever é maravilhosa.
a poesia, quando bem escrita, tem vida própria. o poeta lhe dá vida para que o leitor a acolha e a perceba de maneira particular a cada vez.. aquela que reserva grandiosidade expande os significados ao passo que é relida, resignificada..
o que escreveste sobre poesia me apetece os ouvidos, me faz sentir água na boca. pois não encontrei nada mais verdadeiro pra adicionar sobre.
a grande chave do poeta (ou do leitor) é a sensibilidade. e isso é a raiz das tuas observações pertinentícimas.

um grande abraço.
marcus.

Anonymous said...

bem... eu assumo que não li. Tô aqui pra resmungar... -.-' onde está você? a gente ainda estuda na mesma faculdade? eu espero que sim... poxa, dá um sinalzinho de vida, né?!?!?!
küsse.

Clare said...

Hi Gilson! I was away from blogging for a while and am slowly catching up. And I was so happy to come here to your blog and see what you've been doing! I love what you wrote for the 4 x 4 Poetry Meme -- you wrote such beautiful and spirit-filled advice that I will return to again and again to read and remind myself. I love the way you approach writing and poetry (and music and art and life, too!) -- in such a soulful way that dances and flows with the energy of life, in the moment, from the heart. Yes, to "words...as an instrument for expressing greater thought", and yes to poems "allowing themselves to be rediscovered through time", and yes to "examining yourself and the terrain in which you step in..." and yes to "letting feelings guide your choice of words" and yes to "giving yourself time". I thank you, Gilson, for doing such an exquisite job with this Meme, and for inspiring me as you always do! Peace and Happy New Year, too!
:)