A. What is Poetry?
Has it is said; Poetry is an art (a way of writing). It is the art of writing in prose and stanzas with words on lines, having its own ways of arranging words, line by line. It uses languages to convey a lot of meaning in its own context.
Poetry is the work of poets and writers (those involve in writing prose, plays, song lyrics and movie scripts), which is often referred to as literature in the art world.
B. What Poetry is all about?
Poetry is all about you, your imagination, culture, environment and everything seen, heard, understand, understood and known around or across the world.
It is an aspect of arts that is so unique, powerful in helping to create a balance in a world of chaos, through written or spoken words; helping to create humor in the society, teaching morals, educational and cultural lessons.
It is about building a better you, country through good information, education and analyzing prospects for better ethical standards.
Basically, it deals with the morals (good behaviors) and amoral (bad behaviors) acts of a giving society and help in curbing amoral acts, bringing it to light for all to learn something out of.
C. Poetry Requirements.
Many hobbies or sports require special equipments but with poetry the arrangements needed are not special in any form because it is not a dangerous hobby. All that you need is a pencil, pen and a piece of paper.
When a car breaks down a mechanic comes around to repair it. Usually he has a bag of tools with him. Nearly everybody needs tools to do their job. A painter can't paint without a paintbrush, paint and other tools for his trade.
A poet needs tools also: A pen or pencil, something to write on, perhaps a word processor (computer), but most important of all - words. The more words you know, the better equipped you are to write poems.
You don't have to have a big vocabulary to write poems. Sometimes the simplest words can produce beautiful poems. But poetry is all about finding the exact word that you need.
How do you improve your word power? The best way is to read. Read lots of books or have a catholic taste for books - and whenever you come across an unfamiliar word, find out what it means. It could be just the word you'll need in your next poem.
Most people (adults as well as children) tend to read the same sort of books all the time. You find a type of story you like, or a favorite author, and you read it. But poets try different sorts of stories. Read newspapers and magazines. Try reading novels and motivational books. Once in a while try an "adult" book. And if you are going to be a poet, read lots of poetry. You probably have some favorite poets, but read other poets too. Keep on reading to improve your word power!
You should understand that a pen and a paper are the only things you need, but in serious writings there are other tools that are valuable to your trade, which you must have, and they are listed hereunder.
1. Notebook
This is the most important tool of the trade. A small notebook/notepad, better still one that can fit into your pocket, that you can take along with you everywhere or wherever you go. You can't tell when ideas will occur to you, and if you don't write them down, you stand the chance of forgetting them.
Having or carrying a notebook with you all the time will help you in writing or jotting down your ideas immediately when they occur to you so that none will be forgotten.
• Usefulness of a notebook or Journal
Some poets consider using a Journal, which is like a book having blank pages that you, can write anything into. It is like a diary only that it does not have pages for each day of the year, but you can organize or arrange it in anyway you like it to be. But here, understand that a notebook is more appropriate for the job because of the advantage of being able to carry it about in your pocket.
Now, if you are ready to be a poet: then go get a notebook or journal or a pocketbook and start jotting or putting down your ideas, this does not mean writing an entire poem. It can be as simple as noticing a word, a rhyme, whatever word that can be of use or of interest to you.
You don't need to worry yourself on neatness, spellings or punctuations, just write as you wish, don't worry about the write-up. What matters is being able to capture ideas as they come to you by keeping them in your journal or notebook.
You can also use your notebook to write an entire poem or the one that you can finish later.
Also understand that a poet is an observer. A poet keeps his or her eyes open and notice things. It's a good idea to keep a notebook handy at all times because you never can tell when you'll see or hear something that might be useful in your poem. So do not only keep your eyes and ears open, but your nose as well.
Make a notebook you carry about your best friend or companion for writing poetry. Write down your ideas in it and make good use of it, using your brain wisely with your pen in hand; all hobbies are learned by doing.
• Dictionary
This helps you to understand works in their real context, arrangements and patterns. It also helps in the understanding of the connotative (applied meaning of words in the prevalent society of a writer due to long usage of the words) and denotative (the real meaning of words according to dictionary usage) use of words in everyday speech.
One thing you need to understand is that some dictionaries are better than others in terms of selection of words, clarity of definition etc. Now go get yourself a Good dictionary!
• A Thesaurus
This is another book; it is the last book of the trade. Every poet needs to have this because of it's help in the understanding of words, their meaning to a society or to an individual, given the privilege of finding words that "mean the same thing" or the opposite of a given word.
Having and using a thesaurus can help you to improve your poetry by offering you the chance to choose appropriate words for your poem or words that fit the structure (arrangements) of your poem. They can help by giving you new ideas that you would never have thought of.
• Rhyming Dictionary
This you need because it's important cannot be overlooked. It is a book that lists words that rhyme with end sounds of other words. If you don't have one, my advice is that you look for it as quickly as possible because it will help you in your journey to becoming a good poet.
• Free net
This is a language playground that is found on the net, it can be of good use to you if there's access available to the Internet. It is like a thesaurus, usually, it can look for synonyms and sometimes antonyms. It can also get you rhyming words, sound-alike words, anagrams (words that use same letters) or words that are generalizations. If you wish to explore this avenue; here are links for you bellow:
http://www-link.cs.cmu.edu/lexfn/
http://www.dictionary.com-m-w.com/
http://www.thesaurus.com/
http://www.xlibris.com/
http://www.universe.com/
http://www.m-w.com/
You can also create your own poetry web pages:
http://www.blogg.com/
http://www.poetrypoem.com/
Site for poetry competition:
http://www.forwardpress.com/
http://www.poetry.com/
http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions
http://www.winningwriters.com/
http://www.poetrykit.org/comps.htm
The Book: Poetry For You
From: Treasured1 Creative Ideas Int. Publishing
ISBN: 978-978-088-341-6
By: Salau O John
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