Prompt #246 – At the Touch of Love

 

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

— Plato

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and, although the idea may seem just a bit trite, this is always a good time of year to read and write love poems.

To get inspired, there’s a great site selection of love poems on the Poetry Foundation’s website, which you can access by CLICKING HERE.

Of course, the prompt this week is exactly what you might expect: write a love poem.

Guidelines:

1. Think about different kinds of love that you’ve experienced personally (romantic, familial, love of nature or animals, friendship, platonic), and choose one that signifies a powerful emotional experience for you.

2. Start with a freewrite (and remember that freewriting can take place any time during drafting and, editing, and revising).

3. Try several ideas for love poems and keep the ideas that are keepers.

4. Experiment with stanza breaks but not too early in the writing process. Stanzas can help expose weak spots as well as wordiness and unnecessary repetitions.

Tips:

1. Often, love poems get a “bad rap” because some have been written that are overly sentimental, “mushy,” too personal, too confessional, or grossly overwritten. The challenge for you this week is to write a poem that involves love in some form or another and to observe the following:

• Strive for uniqueness (not the typical “How Do I Love Thee?” fare). Find ways to distinguish between the individual and the common.

• Create a sense of revelation without being overtly revealing. Remember the old poetry adage, “show don’t tell.”

• Remember that one of the biggest difficulties in writing love poems isn’t writing about love but, rather, writing about the feelings that underlie the love we feel and our attempts to recreate those feelings in ways that are understandable and believable.

• If you choose to write a romantic love poem, make sure you write between the lines and go beyond the first blush of romance.

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Prompt #176 – All You Need Is Love

This Friday, we celebrate Valentine’s Day, and that makes me think about love poems. Mind you, love poems are among the hardest to write because the pitfalls of clichés, triteness, and sentimentality are ever present, not to mention the fact that pouring intense emotion into written language can present some interesting challenges.

These days, it seems that love poems occupy a place somewhere between hot fudge sundaes and oatmeal. Poets of the past often wrote love poems and there are hundreds for us to read, but there’s not much contemporary interest in moonbeams through willows and the “archaic” romantic meanderings of yesterdays poetic styles.

So, what does make a love poem special by today’s standards? What makes a love poem unique? What gives a love poem the power to touch readers? What makes a love poem more than personal? What makes a love poem universally meaningful? How do modern love poems affirm without sentimentality? One of the best ways to consider these questions is to read numerous examples of contemporary love poems. 

Guidelines:

1. Write a poem to someone you love.

2. Write a poem to someone who loves you.

3. Write a poem to a beloved pet.

4. Write a love poem to an inanimate object. (You might try for humor with this one, maybe a limerick.)

5. Write a poem about unrequited love.

6. Write a poem to or about your first love.

7.  Write a poem about an unhappy romance.

8. Write a poem about platonic love.

9. Write a love poem to nature or a particular aspect of the natural world (perhaps an ode).

10. Write a poem based on this quotation from Pablo Neruda: “Let us forget with generosity those who cannot love us.”

11. Write a poem in which you examine how falling in love creates a new and surprising sense of mortality and fear of death.

13. Write a parody of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s famous “How Do I Love Thee?” (Sonnet 43).

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Tips:

1. The sonnet form is often associated with love poems. Try writing your poem in sonnet form. Work on the form in your early drafts and don’t worry if you decide to scrap it.

2. Write a ghazal (originally an Arabic verse form dealing with loss and romantic love). To learn about ghazal form, try the following links:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5781

http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms/g/ghazal.htm

3. Work your thoughts through imagery and be sure that you show and not tell about the love in your poem. Images should be crisp and original.

4. Watch out for clichés and “saccharine” expressions, and steer clear of sentimentality. It’s easy to fall into such things when writing love poems. Dare to be different, mysterious, distinctive …

5. If your subject matter is romantic love, try to create an intensity of feeling without using words like beautiful and love. Work toward a subtle sensuality without saying anything overt.

6. Try beginning your love poem with a subordinating conjunction as a way of attracting reader interest and a way of drawing readers into your poem. “Because I loved from a distance …” “Because he/she would never know …” “Because my reason for leaving was never told …”

(Remember Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death/he kindly stopped for me.”)

7. Although the feelings you write about will be personal, work on making your poem universally meaningful.

Examples:

Click here for a list of contemporary love poems from Poets.org. 

To All of You from Chaucey and Me

P.S.  Click here to hear the Beatles song from which this prompt's title comes ("All You Need I Love").

Prompt #99 – Imagery

For those of you who don’t subscribe to Diane Lockward’s excellent poetry newsletter, I thought you might enjoy working with the craft tip I wrote for the May issue (see below if you'd like to receive the newsletter).

  

                                               In a Station of the Metro
                                                                            by Ezra Pound

                                              The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

                                              Petals on a wet, black bough.

What is it about the above poem that captures the imagination? It’s a short poem, only two lines, and it “says” little. There are only two images in this poem – the apparition of the faces and the tree petals to which those faces are compared. However, Pound evokes thoughts about attraction, human beauty, and springtime; we feel his surprise and awe. He might have written “I stepped into the metro and saw faces in the crowd that looked like tree blossoms.” The haunting quality and the heart of Pound’s words are powered by a fundamental component of poetry – imagery.

Imagery is best explained as vivid description or figures of speech used to recreate things seen (or otherwise perceived) through written language. Imagery is often explained as the process of creating “mind pictures” with words but, while image is synonymous with picture, effective imagery is not exclusively visual and may spark any of the senses. Imagery enhances meaning, develops tone, enriches context, creates tension, and establishes voice. It can also be a means through which a poet reveals a poem’s emotional center. 

In my work with poets in workshops and critiquing sessions, I offer a the following suggestions for creating successful images. 

1. Always be specific, avoid general terms, phrases, and statements. Images aren’t about abstractions or philosophical musings. Rather, they evoke the meaning and truth of human experiences in perceptible and “actual” terms.                                                                                                                                                  

2. Avoid lofty language and literary affectation. Neither big words nor literary pretensions lend themselves well to effective imagery. The imagery “wow factor” lies in language that is unexpected and deceptively simple. 

3. Watch out for clichéd images. Examine your poems carefully and note any phrases or lines that seem familiar or general. Work to create images that are striking and fresh – distinctive and different. Think in terms of similes, metaphors, and other types of figurative language, and how you can use these to enhance your images. I love this related quote from W. H. Auden: [A poem] “must say something significant about a reality common to us all, but perceived from a unique perspective.” That unique perspective can be articulated through imagery. 

4. Don’t merely “ornament” your poems with images. Good imagery isn’t a pair of Louboutin shoes or a Rolex watch. Imagery doesn’t “dress up” a poem and should be only be used to present your subject exactly as you perceive it. Imagery that’s too deliberate or self-consciously “poetical” can ruin an otherwise good poem. Don’t be clever or cutesy. Let your images evolve organically with just the right amount of tweaking.

5. Be wary of “imagery overkill.” Too many or over-written images can be tedious if not mind-numbing. When asked how many images a mid-sized poem should contain, my answer is always the same: if you look at poem you’re writing and only find five great lines, then the poem should only be five lines long; in the same way, if you look at a poem you’re working on and only find a single brilliant image, then the poem should only contain a single image. And this in closing: sometimes we write images we love but which aren’t quite “right” for the poem in which we’ve placed them. When this happens, be prepared to sacrifice an image you love for the sake of the poem. The poem (and your readers) will be grateful.

This week, try writing a poem in which you include some striking imagery. One way to begin is to simply make a list of images. Focus on details and originality of expression. The choose one image give it image its head – let it lead you into a poem.

Examples of Imagery

"A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M." by Amy Lowell

 "To a Poor Old Woman" by William Carlos Williams

 "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot

"The Daffodils" by William Wordsworth

"This is a Wonderful Poem" by David Wagoner

"The Great Black Heron" by Denise Levertov

"Gospel" by Phillip Levine

"My Mother on an Evening in Late Summer" by Mark Strand

"The Harvest Bow" by Seamus Heaney

"Obsolete Angel" by Renee Ashley

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