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Entry 101 — MATO2, Chapter 3.02 « POETICKS

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Entry 101 — MATO2, Chapter 3.02

I wasn’t finished with the revision of my book, just with getting a good rough draft of it done.  My morale got a substantial boost on Thursday  3 January 1991 due to a letter from John Byrum.  He asked if I’d consider letting him run a series of excerpts from my book in the newsletter he edits.  I thought that a great idea and after my afternoon nap have spent quite a bit of time getting 12 excerpts ready for him.  As I’ve gone along, I have also found places in my book in need of improvement and have thus taken up the book’s revision again.  In fact, I’ve cut my final chapter by around 500 words.

9 P.M.  Friday  4 January 1991 I made a few new changes in the book and in the excerpts as well.

8 P.M.  Monday  7 January 1991 Got my Manywhere excerpts ready for John Byrum.

10:10 P.M.  Tuesday  8 January 1991  The bank account is very low–I can’t publish more than a hundred copies of my revised edition of Manywhere without going below the minimum balance on my last account with anything at all in it.  But I guess I’ll have enough to print 100 copies of the psychology book, assuming my Xerox holds up.

9 P.M.  Thursday  17 January 1991 The mail included a nice letter from Carita (a member of the Tuesday Writers’ Group who’d bought a copy of my book before moving to Miami)–and the card I’d sent to James Kilpatrick for him to let me know if he’d gotten my letter about “vizlation” with.  He had, and–more amazingly–will be quoting it in a column in February, he says.

10 P.M.  Monday  21 January 1991  I spent most of the rest of the day writing definitions for the words in Of Manywhere-at-Once’s glossary.  It took me a surprisingly long time, but it was helpful, for I was able to improve several passages conerning those words in the main part of
the book.  I was dismayed to find two or three spots where my definitions were quite confused.  But now the only thing left to do to get the book completely ready for printing is a table of contents.  (Aside from working out the margins and all that baloney.)

8:30 P.M.  Wednesday  23 January 1991 I heard from John Byrum, okaying my Manywhere series except that he preferred to start with my second excerpt rather than the one telling about my beginning the sonnet and I decided he was right.  So I withdrew the first excerpt and the last, which goes with it.  Consequently, he’ll be running ten installments.

26 January 1991 I am now like a 25-year-old in quantity of accomplishments and social recognition, but like a 50-year-old in actual accomplishment.  It also passed through my mind how extremely self-confident, even complacent, I am at the deepest level that things will eventually come out right for me.  I think I get that from Mother.  But I’ve always known, too, that I have to work hard if that’s to happen, as I have, for the most part.

Tuesday  29 January 1991 dbqp #101, which I found in the back of my mailbox when I put some letters to go in it this morning.   Very interesting short history of dbqp and list of its first 100 publications with personal comments about them.  He mentioned me a great deal which was flattering but made me a little self-conscious, too.

Friday  1 February 1991  I was full of intimations of apotheosis this morning.  My feelings built till I got back from shopping and found rather null mail awaiting.  They faded quickly, then.  But I continue to feel pretty good.  Actually, it was good mail–letters from Malok, Jonathan and Guy.  Also material about 1X1 exhibit but no letter from Mimi, and a request for a catalogue.  Lastly, a quotation for printing 100, 1000 copies of Of Manywhere-at-Once from McNaughton (or something close to that, a company I’ve heard does good work): $1000, $2000.  Second price not bad at all but 1000 copies too many at this time.

YEAR-END SUMMARY (of my fiftieth year): 9 minor reviews of mine appeared in 5 different publications; 7 pieces of vizlature of mine, all but one of them visual poems, appeared in 6 publications; 2 or 3 of my letters appeared here and there; I got 1 mailart piece off to a show; I got 8 textual poems into 4 magazines; I produced 2 or 3 unplaced visual poems; I wrote 3 not-yet-placed essays; I got my book, Of Manywhere-at-Once, published at last, then revised it in totum; I made and self-published SpringPoem No. 3,719,242.

In short, not much of a year, but not terrible, either.

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Learn to Write Poetry: Creative Writing Lessons – POETICKS

Learn to Write Poetry: Creative Writing Lessons

Most people think that poetry is a genius piece of work that only the most intelligent and talented people can undertake. This is however very wrong. Poetry is an open practice that anyone can engage in. There’s no doubt that the talented people will always come up with great poems quickly but this doesn’t mean that ordinary citizens can’t come up with poems just as good. If you are interested and committed to learning poetry then with practice you can also become a master in this form of art. There are several things that as a poet you will need to learn to get good in your work.

1. Accurately identify your goal

The success towards anything first begins with identifying what exactly it is that you want. Are you trying to express a feeling? Do you want to describe a place? Perhaps you want your poem to describe a particular event? Once you have identified your goal, you can then take a look at all the elements surrounding that aim. From these elements, you can now begin writing your poem without going off topic.

2. Look beyond the ordinary

Ordinary people will see things directly as they are. In poetry, you can’t afford to do this. You need to look in more deeply. Make more critical interpretations of what many other people would see as ordinary. A pen, for instance, in most people’s eyes is just a pen. But as a poet, you can start describing how a simple thing as a pen can determine people’s fate. How a tiny pen finally put down a country’s future through signed agreements. How a pen wrote down the original constitution that went on to govern millions of people.

3. Avoid using clichés

In poetry, you need to avoid using tired simile and metaphors as much as possible. Busy as a bee, for example, should never come anywhere near your pieces. If you want to become a poet and standout, then you need to create new ways of describing things and events. You can take these metaphors, try and understand what they mean and then create new forms of description from other activities that most people overlook.

4. Use images in your poem

Using of images in your poem doesn’t mean that you include images. It means that you have to come with words and descriptions that spur your reader’s imaginations into creating objects/pictures in their minds. A poem is supposed to stimulate all six senses. Creating these object makes your poems even more vivid and enjoyable. This can be achieved through accurate and careful usage of simile and metaphors.

5. Embrace usage of concrete words

As a poet, you should always aim to use more real words and fewer abstracts when writing your poems. This is simply because with concrete words most people can relate and understand what you are talking about. It will also create less conflict in interpretation as compared to when one uses abstract words. Instead of using words such as love and happy, which can be interpreted differently, you can think of events or things that would express the same meaning. Concrete words help in triggering reader’s minds extending their imaginations.

6. Rhyme cautiously

Rhyming in poetry can sometimes become a challenging task. When trying to come up with meter and rhymes, you should always take extreme caution not to ruin your poem’s quality. You should also avoid using basic verses and ones that will make your poem sound like a sing-song.

You can incorporate poetry in any aspects of your daily activities. In business, poetry is used to provide desired images to the audience. Check out how to get skinny legs howtogetskinnylegs.org to see how it is done. With practice after a few pieces, you will start noticing that you are becoming better and better in this art. Always follow the above tips and try to revise your poems all the time while making improvements. After some time you will be producing incredible pieces that even you didn’t think are capable of.