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Poetry is art arranged into lines on a page.
Other than that, Poetry is whatever the poet wants it to be. The only rule of poetry is that the writer must allow the reader to understand what the poet feels or understands or at least allow the reader to know that the poet has feelings or understandings about the subject matter of the poem..
Writers and lovers of poetry tend to develop their concept of poetry by reading poems written by other people; perhaps adding that experience to what they learned in the study of poetry in classes at school. They see that poems are arranged in lines, and may have rhymes, rhythms, and cleverness that make them more enjoyable to read and so write poems using devices and structures they find in the poems of others. And so they want to use the same sort of devices and techniques in expressions arising from their own feelings and experiences.
However, there is no need for the poet to pattern new poems after the pattern of old poems unless the poet wants to do that. There are things that many poems have which are not a requirement of a poem.
Writing good poetry requires an artistic understanding of things, feelings, knowledge or events. The audience wants a fresh presentation to shape understanding and appreciation of the human experience.
This thing the audience wants is exactly what poetry is. A fresh presentation that comes from perspective and is delivered through artistic use of language.
Poems are for expressing, not for explaining. All the reader is entitled to is what you mean for the reader to receive. So, your job as a poet is to make effort to artistically package what you intend to deliver.
Unfortunately, many readers of poetry dislike poems that they do not “understand.” That is unfortunate for those readers but their failure to connect to a poem does not necessary condemn the quality of the poem. Some writers do not try to convey meaning in their work; leaving the reader to flesh out the meaning on their own. Not making the meaning clear can be a powerfully artistic way to introduce a range of perspectives to the reader/
Home Billy Collins wrote (brilliantly) about the often overemphasized role of "the meaning" in his poem called “Introduction to Poetry.”
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
In judging the three-line and four-line poems for the short poem contests we ask if the meaning of the poem is clear but we do not judge the poem by whether or not it is. If the poet aims to make the meaning clear and the meaning is clear then that is something to note. Sometimes the way a poet makes the meaning clear is art itself and can be wonderful; true, but this does not mean that poems must have a clear meaning that is discernible by the reader.
Reading the poetry of others may be the best step toward being an excellent poet. Read some of the well-known European poets from the 1500-1900 period and the modern poets that have followed them.Try to feel the methods and techniques they use, try to feel what they want you to fee, to understand what they want to be understood; and also, to appreciate the uniqueness of their presentation, the uniqueness that is the poet. Develop a habit of reading; try to keep notes of things in the poems that strike you. How the poems of others strike you gives clues to your unique perspective of the world.
Develop your poems from your personal experience. Every experience you have has the capacity to be a meaningful poem. Take inspiration from a walk, from something you notice in your house, or outside, or in your friends. Develop a language to describe how things affect you. What happens inside you when you hear news of a war, see your lover, are insulted, start a task? No personal experience or feeling is too ordinary. You are alive! What can you do with the experience of being a living, sentient being?
Take notes and write lines of poems even if you do not yet have the poem that goes with those lines. Never obsess to start a poem. Perhaps the line that inspired you does not begin at the beginning of a poem. Take your idea and begin to build structure around it. Perhaps your strongest line belongs at the end of the poem with some connection to ideas introduced in the previous lines.
Experiment using contrast and comparison to build structure. Try using metaphor to see if you effectively communicate with that as a strategy.
Build your lines without worrying about the whole of the poem. Many poems do not introduce their true subject until the final line which then makes clear the context of the preceding lines.
Set your poem aside and rewrite it fresh without destroying your original. Then look at what you have produced and ask yourself if you are doing what you intend.
More than anything, write in your own way. Make the poem yours. Each poem may have many readers but they only have one writer. The writer does not need to please the readers. The writer considers the audience but the writer is the person whom the writer must please.
Be fresh.
Poems are very individual things and a poets writing style should develop into something that is unique to the poet. Sometimes it is good for a poet to try adapting a style used by other writers. If sonnets appeal then try writing sonnets. All styles of poetry belong to the body of poets to use as we will.
The warning is that if you adopt an existing style you must find ways to make your use of that style uniquely yours. This can be done by the way you internally structure the poem, possibly by making comparisons within the poem, having surprise endings, or even by having topics that are unique to you. There is no limit on what a poet can do with a style.
In being unique you must be authentic. Something unique-but-fake is not very unique. The way to be truly unique is to invest your real self into your work. You are unique, and if you are in your poems then your poems will be as unique as you are!
Perhaps the best way to develop your style is to write often. The more you write the more your internal self will find itself into your work. Your skills will improve and your internal sense of what works and what does not will grow strong.
Rhyme and Rhythm are sound devices that developed when stories and teachings were transmitted orally from place to place and generation to generation. They developed in poetry for a good reason but they are not necessary.
Poems from many countries and cultures do not use rhymes. Rhymes were not used in English language poems until the middle ages. Rhyming and other sound patterns became an important part of poetry for a simple reason: to help people remember the poem so it could be passed on to others. Typically pairs of rhyming words appeared in the two halves of each line, in adjacent lines, or on some pattern of line pairs. Later, as poetry became more sophisticated, rhyming became less important as a memory aid and more of a demonstration of artfulness and skill with language.
If you ever knew the poem Hickory Dickory Dock you will likely always remember the first stanza because of the rhyming words:
Hickory Dickory Dock. The mouse went up the clock
The clock struck one. The mouse went down
Hickory Dickory Dock
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
During the period that rhyming was almost considered mandatory poetry was generally transmitted orally. People heard the poems in readings during family, social, political and religious gatherings; and also often in pubs. The importance of rhyme and other sound devices in poetry began to decline in the twentieth century (1900’s.)
In the modern era people encounter poetry by reading more often than by hearing so rhyming and other sound devices have become less dominant. Much, if not most, modern poetry builds its structures using ideas rather sound devices.
Still, there may be good reason to include rhyme and other sound devices in your poems. Do you wish them to be memorable or perhaps to be used in oral presentation; maybe as rap or chant? Do you have skill with devices such as rhyme and are comfortable incorporating them into your poetic art? If you are not comfortable or skilled in using rhyme then your poems will likely be better without them.
Rather than getting hung up on trying to pick subject matter for a poem, practice by writing poems about randomly selected photographs. Find a picture that draws your attention. Ask yourself what it is that interests you. More than likely it is not the whole of the picture that grabs you but is some element or idea the photo presents.
After you identify the subject of interest assign yourself a short poem. Start with maybe a two-line couplet; or if that does not give you enough space, try a four-line quatrain. Make quick work of it. Get the lines down. You can rearrange or rewrite them later. The idea is to allow what is inside of you to express itself. It is not to be perfect, not yet.
To make this effort richer, try to engage a group that you are in to do the same exercise. Make it a lunch-time activity or before-meeting activity. Read each other's work and enjoy yourselves. Many great writers spent a lot of time writing among communities of writers.
You can expand the effort to poems about artwork; paintings, drawings, architecture, sculptures.
Take a walk. Maybe walk where you have often walked. It does not need to be a long walk.
Be present as you walk. Look around. Something is likely to draw your attention. Stop for a moment. Let it be your subject. Do not write anything down. Think of your subject as you finish your walk. Do not compose your poem as you think… just think about your subject.
When you return to your writing place write a few notes describing your subject and your feelings of your subject. Maybe note the location of your subject, what was near your subject. Make a note of the environment; the weather, the lighting, objects nearby.
Note if the subject has purpose, if there is a clear reason the subject was present and noticed.
Collect your random thoughts on paper and then leave for a few minutes. Maybe get a coffee or tea. Decide what the form of the poem will be. A four-line quatrain may be a good place to start.
Next, return to your writing place and form the most important line of your poem. After that important line is formed then build lines to support that one line. Begin arranging the lines in your head to get an idea where the important line will appear in your poem
Write your poem. Maybe write several versions if you are not satisfied. Do not write over previous visions. Keep each. Number them first, second, third, and on. At the end of the exercise put the poems in a box or envelope with a note of the date and time.
At some later time return to these poems and see how you feel about them. Perhaps write a new version. Poems are often revised over periods of time. Do not overwork the poem. Raw can be very good, especially if raw more fully exposes the poet within the poem.
To teach about poetry, English literature classes tend to put emphasis on devices commonly used in famous poems. Much class time is often spent studying rhyme schemes and various rhythms of syllables arranged so that their stresses fall into patterns. The students study rhyme schemes in the form of “ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH”, “AABBA”, “ABABCDECDE ”, and dozens of others. They also study rhythm schemes with emphasis on whether a poem has a “ta-dum ta-dum” pattern or a “dum-ta dum-ta” pattern and on the number of stressed syllables in a poem (“is it iambic pentameter?”).
There is no wrong in that. Such knowledge is useful in fully appreciating many great poets. But it is only useful in study of poets that actually use those devices or for those who want to.
The problem is that often the student leaves the class with a belief that those things are necessary components of good poetry; and so it follows that the student believes its poetry must conform to such highly idealized forms.
Here is the historical truth of poetic forms: each and every form and convention was first used by a poet that stepped beyond established forms and conventions. That others copied those forms attests that those others appreciated the art of the new form and conformed some of their new works to the style. That is imitation and it was only made artful by any “freshness” the new poets invested into their poems.
New artists always have a choice: whether to adapt techniques of their predecessors or to create new.
The highest rule for the poet is that their poems be the poems that the poet wants them to be.
Try rewriting one of your poems. Do not write over the old, start fresh. Begin by reading the poem afresh. Do you have the same feelings as when you first wrote it.
Rewrite the poem. Does it take a different form? Become more condensed, or maybe the opposite, expanded? Does the new version have a quality of freshness? Did the original?
In rewriting you may learn how to apply different strategies to treat your subject matter. Different approaches may alter the tone of your poem even if the subject matter has not changed.
A few days after your rewrite look at both versions again. What have you learned about your writing?
If you know any mandatory rules for poetry, rules that are without exception, please let us know. We don't know any. Not one..
Poet, you are free.
Haiku is a form of short poem that evolved out of Japan. Originally it was simply a short poem, often described as a poem in one breath. The topic is nature or sometimes how man is related to nature. It “shows” does not “tell” its story.
Artistic poets developed a style where Haiku took a three-line form that indicated one of the four seasons and had a feature that “cut” the poem into segments, with the cut serving to connect what it also separated. This form of Haiku also developed to have a fixed number of sounds in each line; five in the first and third lines, seven sounds in the second.
When Haiku began to be explored in The U.S. many focussed on the number of sounds, mistakenly assuming that sounds and syllables mean the same thing began to broadcast the rule that Haiku required five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five again in the final line. This sadly led to a lot of bad Haiku which forced possibly good ideas to a form of something in which they poorly fit. Mangling the poems while ignoring the important features of Haiku.
A Haiku is a breath that reveals something of nature, of nature's relationship with man.
Much good Haiku is written in a single line showing that there is not actually a rule that Haiku be three lines in length. When formed in three lines a popular form featuring a “cut”, the cut could be in the form of a word that seves as a break in ideas, or it could be a typographical device such as “...”, “-”, or “,”.
So, do forget the rules for your own Haiku; that is, unless you wish to adopt the style of those rules to suit your message. The rules are not bad, in fact they are responsible for the development of a lot of good poetry. What is bad is using a rule where it does damage to the from rather than add art.
Three-line poems in our short poem contests do not require Haiku. Although it would be nice to see some Haiku among the three-line poems because it is a form that many can use well.
Some criticize and are opposed to efforts to encourage Deaf to write poetry. They argue that many Deaf do not use good English grammar or that Deaf should not waste their educational time on something that will not benefit them, that Deaf should focus on things that will help them get jobs. Some argue from an institutional perspective that schools cannot apply resources to Deaf Poetics because the schools have many other important burdens.
It is not the goal of the trust for scholarships to interfere with the educational goals of institutions and we have tailored two programs to support poetics by Deaf within the framework of schools. See more about the scholarships and contest prizes under topics found on the home page:Home
Written poetry is an area where Deaf can reach and keep a large following of hearing people. Deaf poets have been successful at this. The blunt truth is that hearing people do not maintain a continuing interest in signed Deaf stories and poetics simply because hearing audiences do not understand signed communication unless they know sign language. Deaf culture is not accessible to the hearing public by means other than written means. Poetry is the form of written English most accessible to Deaf.
Poetry does not require mastery of the rules of English grammar. Poetry has no grammar rules. See our “Tips for Poets” section on this page for discussion of poetry’s lack of rules.
Poetry can enrich any life. The ability to write poetry helps develop appreciation of culture and perspective. The world would be a richer place if every welder, doctor, store clerk, soldier, and technician were each a poet. One famous Deaf poet is a sheep farmer by profession.
Poetry historically gives the marginalized a place in American culture and has helped make known the grievances of the oppressed through poems such as Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird” and “still I Rise”, Langston Hughes’ “Harlem”, or Humberto Ak’Abal’s “Two Tears.”
Understanding that schools may be hard pressed to accommodate programs to encourage poetry among students, one of the programs of the Trust For Scholarship Awards for Deaf Poets is the support of student poetry contests. This program provides cash prizes for contest winners; the money is provided to the school in advance of the contests. Teachers judge the contests or assign judges. The trust does not interact in any way other than provide the money and suggested guidelines for the poems. This program provides valuable encouragement with only a small burden on school resources.
Understanding also that schools aim to equip students with skills useful for livelihood, the scholarship awards to graduating high school seniors may be used for any post-secondary education by the student regardless of the chosen career path of the student. The aim of the scholarship is to help the student along its path. Again, the trust has no interaction with the Student other than sending the money either to the High School the student graduates from or to the post-secondary educational institution or program the student attends.
Note: The trust is funded privately and does not seek donations, seek to know or use student names or IDs, and does not sell or publish poems used in the contests or for scholarship evaluation. The entire and only purpose of the trust is to encourage written poetry by Deaf.
Rhyming in Poems is the repeating of a pattern. Usually in poems it is the last sounds of certain syllables in words that are repeated. Example DOCK and CLOCK sounds in the poem Hickory Dickory Dock are rhyming sounds. Usually the sound repeated is in the last syllable of the word.
In ASL signed poetry it is handshapes that are repeated, not sounds that are not repeated. This is consistent with what the sound repeating in oral poetry is. It is the repeating of a part, or component, of a word. In ASL handshapes are used to form “words” (signs or concepts). They make part of the sign/word. The handshape itself does not have meaning.
This allows handshapes to be repeated in different signs in a way that is artistic. Examples of handshapes that can create rhyming patterns include:
SEE UMPIRE
SEE SNAKE
CELEBRATE
CELEBRATE MYSTERY
CELEBRATE MYSTERY WITCH
Poetry does not require that the writer follow the rules of English grammar. It must be stressed that most poems do not follow rules and norms of English grammar. Please read the “Tips for Poets” section of this page.
Oftentimes writers for whom English is not their first language tend to use syntax or expressions that differ from native English writers; however many of these uses are themselves artistic interpretations of the use of English language.
Some are quick to point to the difficulty English adverbs pose to non-native writers of English. The difficulty lies in making the writing appear as if written by a native writer of English rather than a non-native writer. Why should it be necessary for a Deaf writer to hide evidence of non-native thinking process?
Writing poetry and the practice of writing poetry in English can help the writer develop its skills for communicating through written English.
Again, please read the “Tips for Poets” section of this page. Coaching is available at no charge for adult Deaf poets seeking to publish through chapbooklets.com
Here are some thoughts regarding the writing of English works by non-native users of the English language that addresses critics of Deaf writers:
Exophony is a term describing use of a language by non-native writers. The exophonic writings in English by Ukrainian, Russian, Latin, and French writers often have word-choice, word-construction, and syntax that are unusual for English Language natives; yet these poems but are consumed by English speaking readers without controversy or judgment.
Often the exophonic writings add dimensions of interest or present ideas in different but useful forms; they may seem quaint, but when people encounter works by foreign writers they are generally receive them with the understanding that they are artifacts of a different culture and make attempt at acceptance. Why should it be any different for exophony that originates in the visual language of Deaf rather than in a written language? Marked differences should be expected in such cases and should be understood as natural.
Human Language is something more than a system of rules and signals we use to share thoughts and ideas with one another.
Language is a development inside a human that happens early in life and guides it to understand how to communicate with others. We use language to communicate with others and, importantly for this topic, to communicate with ourselves. We use language to describe our life experiences to others as well as to ourselves.
The poem forms inside the poet and flows from the internal dialog of the poet. Sign language, for those with a sign language basis, is the mother of poetry for the Deaf.
A poet does not stop being Deaf when it picks up a pen or pecks on a typewriter. The sign language of the Deaf person is present in the written English Poetry of that Deaf person. English words and grammar are simply modes of transmission. English words can be made into art by a Deaf person, art as valuable as that of a hearing person .
The Deaf who perform visual art faces severe challenges in reaching and keeping a hearing following. Hearing people do not understand the language and communication of the Deaf artist. Even though they may find it interesting they will not be able to sustain interest because people are consumers of information. That is what drives consumption of art.
In contrast to live performed art by Deaf, written poetry by Deaf is accessible to a hearing audience. Most people consume poems by reading them on paper or on screen. These are domains where the Deaf writer does not experience the barriers in communicating with the audience such as found in live signed expression.
Fans of Poetry are open to fresh styles and modes of communication. Every style and kind of poetry was new when introduced. This opens the door for the Deaf poet to bring new and fresh experience to lovers of poetry.
The Deaf artist does not need to choose between signed live art and written poetry. The feelings that drive the signed art can also drive written poetic art. The poet who succeeds in communicating experiences to hearing audience can reach larger and more sustainable audiences.
The poetry tips on these pages and on the pages and books by many others can help the Deaf poet develop the processes and skills to develop their own style of written poetry and to share their unique lives with others.
Deaf are underrepresented in American Cultural Expressions. How badly underrepresented? Take a look at the number of Deaf people who received Doctorates the U.S. in 2017: 654. Wow, of the 54,664 PhDs awarded 654 were earned by Deaf; that is a whopping 1.2 percent of all PhDs.
The percentage of Deaf among people with audiences and followers: so miniscule as to be unmeasurable. Measuring by percentages, there are certainly a lot more Deaf/Hoh in labs and teaching positions than existing as writers and stage artists.
Where are the Deaf newscasters? Where are the Deaf in public-facing roles?
BTW, unfortunately, the 1.2% of all PhD’s is a sign that Deaf continue to under-perform academically because Deaf/HoH make up 2.2% of the demographic pool between the ages twenty to twenty-nine. We use the statistic here only to demonstrate that it is harder for Deaf to gain an audience than to earn a PhD.
The pool where Poets swim is a relatively small pool.
Imagine the impact on American culture if one or two percent of all poets are Deaf/HoH. Imagine the positive impact high participation by Deaf in the arts would have on the Deaf and their families, schools, and communities.
As stated elsewhere on these pages, in the year 2017 over one percent of PhDs awarded in the US were awarded to Deaf/HoH.
So, How many Deaf do we see in participation of the U.S. American public, social, cultural, and civic experience? Where are they? Is their invisibility a sign of something gone wrong with U.S. programs for Deaf?
These pages are built from a strong belief that Deaf deserve a greater and more visible presence in the U.S. and that poetry is one of many means to help toward that goal. Please encourage Deaf to write their poems, to share them with the world.
The three-line poem contest is a short poem contest that is held in participating high schools and are sponsored by the scholarship trust. The program is exceedingly simple:
The four-line poem contest is also a short poem contest held in participating high schools and are also sponsored by the scholarship trust. Like the three-line poem contest, the program is simple:
All proceeds (100% of retail price) from sale of Chapbooklets are irrevocably deposited into the charitable trust for scholarship awards to Deaf poets. However the authors are compensated,, usually by receiving free copies of the chapbooklets they themselves may sell.