Poem / Poetry Writing Guide

Poem

The way to write a great poem in no time is to read some great poetry until you have a moment of real inspiration. Catch the trick of hypnotic, rhythmic language. Reflect on a concept, an idea worth sharing, and wait until words come effortlessly to you from some mysterious place. They arise seemingly out of nowhere, just as all life seems to arise from nowhere, and their rhythm is as natural as the rhythm of the rain, the tide, the seasons. You capture them as they come, tapping these keys and pouring the words onto the screen.

What Is the Experience or Truth You Want to Share?

Why say anything to anyone?

You try to explain, but people don't understand.

What is the truth most important to you now -- here and now?

Ask ten people what a poem is, and nine of their answers are wrong.

Poets, people who write these hymns, are carrying you along, and they hypnotize you.

Poetry is song played on a single, silent instrument. It's music made with the voice of the reader's mind.

Name the Person Who Needs to Know This Truth

Poetry is powerful communication. That important person, special to you, can understand you now. Thinking of her name now...

Think of what you want to express to her. What is the word that comes to mind?

Poetry Is Music, and Music is Hypnosis

Everyone likes music.

Music is like a hypnosis technique called “rapid induction.” Everyone likes to be entranced. Throw someone into a trance by overloading the senses – the sound, the sensation in the chest, the meaning of the lyrics, the feeling of energy rising in the body, the steady drum – music is just like a hypnotist soaking someone's senses in the sharp precision of the present moment.

Stare at a spot on the wall, and then inhale and notice the coolness of air flowing past the tip of the nose. So often, our attention is on objects outside the body, but music and hypnosis can cause a meditative state. It's a state of mind you experience now as you turn your attention within.

Isn't the voice of the mind always talking, even as you lay down to go to sleep? That babbling man in the restless mind is always looking around and talking to himself about every little thing he sees out there. The man in the mind gives you no peace, unless you rest nestled in the fullness of the present moment. He shuts up when you notice what you taste, smell, feel, see, and hear. So much sensory input! There is no room for that voice in this meditative moment.

Sitting In the Stillness of the Present Moment, You Notice a Natural Rhythm

Remember how you feel when hearing an amazing song? Start from that state of mind. Enter it now.

Good writers soothe the mind, so their own minds must first be soothed. Are you reading this with rhythm?

The voice of the mind is occupied with this task of narration as you rest all attention on these words. They soothe you, left-to-right, across each line.

Poetry is a soothing way to say something someone needs to hear. The man in the other person's mind doesn't like to be interrupted – but if you soothe him he quiets down.

Soothe him with rhythmic word combinations. Shock him into stillness so he settles down. If you speak like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. you will send listeners into stillness with the powerful sound of the wind instrument that is your voice. You'll entrance them into stillness. Written poetry is musical language read aloud in silence by the voice of the mind.

Attention on Breath and Body, What Is the WORD That Comes to Mind?

One word. Start with the stillness of the present moment, wondering what word will arise. You listen for it. Express in one word the idea you choose to share. Write it, and he'll recite it, that man in the other person's mind.

Tap, tap, rapid-fire raindrops on the roof, you find your rhythm. Inhaling cool air while sitting staring at the screen, aware of your stable posture. Can you feel your heartbeat? That throbbing pulse in the neck, face, and hands is rocking you with steady rhythm. Thinking of her name again now, what is the WORD that comes to mind?

Now You Are Ready

Waiting for that sacred word, you go deep into stillness, and when it comes it feels like the right word, the right rhythm. More words follow. Syllables are singing in the silence of the mind, and so you type them. Line after line, you type what you hear, funky rhythm, rat-a-tat.

Noticing the stillness of the body, the dramatic action of elastic lungs expanding with each inhalation... relaxing as you exhale... typing each line without thinking about it... without judging it... you leave yourself completely free.

Where do these words come from? You feel natural rhythm and the chill of inspiration up the spine. Listen for the words that arise naturally in an otherwise silent mind.