| Author | Message | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 31189 Registered: 11-1998 |
. Dearest Membership -- Here is the thirteenth in The Poet's Note Card series. These Note Cards come from a book entitled The Mind's Eye: A Guide to Writing Poetry, by Kevin Clark. Mr. Clark is a winner of the Distinguished Teaching Award, is a university professor at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, and a widely published poet. This book on the teaching of poetry writing is concise, practical, and has been designed specifically for a college-level term. It includes a progression of lessons, example poems, and stimulating exercises. While most advanced poets already know these things, it doesn't hurt to review them. Or to learn them if you are a beginner to the craft of poetry making. I'll try to bring you a Poet's Note Card every so often. While you might not agree with every point Mr. Clark makes, I do hope these note cards serve to help those who are new to poetry by providing some basic foundation of information on which to build. Oh, and I do recommend that you acquire the book. It's an excellent textbook, especially if you would like to attend a college-level poetry writing course, but cannot for whatever reason. The link above (click on the book's title) will take you to the WPF BookShop and the Amazon description of the book. Thanks for reading! Love, M (Administrator) ------------------------------------------------- The Poet's Note Card -- #13 from The Mind's Eye: A Guide to Writing Poetry by Kevin Clark Romancing the Poem 1. A good love poem must have a conflict. 2. Love poems are often marred by excess sentimentality. 3. Some of the best love poems balance strong romantic feeling with gritty assessment. 4. Love poems can be sabotaged by the pervasive clichéd language around us, especially in mass media. Find fresh ways of describing strong emotions. 5. Poems about first loves or lost loves are often “elegiac”; they may risk excess sentimentality, but, if handled with restraint, they can be insightfully evocative. 6. The love poem has a public audience; make sure that the poem is accessible to all readers. 7. Erotic poems run the risk of being merely titillating; a good erotic poem must be about something more than carnal pleasure, even if it is simply insightful about some aspect of carnal pleasure. 8. In an erotic poem, often what is not described intrigues the reader. Restraint can be an asset. 9. No poem succeeds simply by telling. To a greater or lesser extent, virtually all erotic poems render their key ideas by depicting or implying sexual acts. 10. Often described as “transgressive,” some poems takes risks by crossing the border of decorum into a taboo manner of expression that may repel some readers or persuade others to reconsider their assumptions. . | ||
| Rania S. Watts
Advanced Member Username: cementcoveredcherries Post Number: 1732 Registered: 04-2008 |
Thank you so much M. I appreciate you posting this, considering all the stuff you have to do this weekend. Cheers, Ran "I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again." ~ Oscar Wilde "You will hardly know who I am or what I mean" ~ Walt Whitman Cement Covered Cherries |
