Comments on: Poetic Craft Is Of The Utmost Importance

By: A Few Short Poetry Announcements | 1800blogger

A Few Short Poetry Announcements | 1800blogger — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:00:48 +0000

[...] John call this type of poem a hybrid, I have taken the liberty of calling the movement itself the Millennial School without ascribing a name to the type of poem. I essentially meant the same thing that Swensen says [...]

By: Jill

Jill — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:19:02 +0000

I completely agree with you. When I first began writing poetry, I was given the same advice: “Just write what you feel.” Then, by the grace of God I was given the most amazing teacher. She taught me how to write poetry in form. Whether or not I continue to write in form or in free verse, it is essential for any poet to BE ABLE TO write in form, use metaphors, and know how to effectively use diction and imagery.

By: Jim Murdoch

Jim Murdoch — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:11:09 +0000

The one example of craft that sticks in my head in Dylan Thomas’s ‘A grief ago’ which was easily explained to me – it had to be – and has always stayed with me as a very powerful and effective use of language. Similes and metaphors seem to have survived, but then they are used in common speech, but what about little gems like the oxymoron? It depresses me that so many young poets are oblivious to the techniques that are available to them. My daughter was a prime example when she was younger. She was a card-carrying member of the it’s-a-poem-because-I-say-it-is school of poetry and would brook no criticism of what very little I ever got to read. And that bothered me. Poetry is more than dumping raw emotions on a page, bunging in a few lines breaks and saying, “Take it or leave it.”