You have to pick up a pen, a pen that feels good in your hand, a pen, old or new, that might talk to you. Or, find a comfortable place where your muse hangs out and place your hands on the keyboard and type away. Seriously, rearrange the words later, spellcheck later. Write about the emotions that sail through your brain, the events in your life, the scene you recorded in your head when you went outdoors today, tell your personal journey, make up stuff. Rail, wail, detail, light side, dark side, somewhere in the middle: find your voice. Write the way you think your poetry should look, feel, smell, appeal. Here's the kicker, it doesn't even have to rhyme. If you feel like rhyming, do it. Invent, be creative, set no limits--this isn't school, it's you, it's yours.
Give yourself the freedom to wordsmith: create, build with words. Cobble them together and allow the words to entertain. Later, after you've edited and edited your words, read other poets work, then possibly the history--rearrange the words again or not. Cut and paste, or not. If you like what you did, share your words with someone who will tell you the truth about how they sound, but don't as your family.
All the time you're creating and cobbling, call your words poetry, call yourself a poet. Say it now, "I am a poet." Look up, and say "world, don't you forget it."
Now search the internet for the formula, buy some editing tools, or go to the library. You'll need a dictionary, a thesaurus, possibly a rhyming dictionary, and Strunk and White--look the handbook up on Amazon.com or one of the other book sellers online. Educate yourself in between writing your poems. Write and write and write and edit and edit and edit and edit. Remember to enjoy the time you devote to your writing and remember to improve every line you write. When you feel accomplished and have a little confidence in what you write. Submit your poems everywhere.
Where? Check out Poets and Writers magazine first and go from there. Also, have adventures in life and travel, but not necessarily. Everything depends on your unique style and your voice. Learn from other poets, but don't copy them, surpass them. I wish you joy in you endeavor.
--e. smith sleigh
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