POETRY FRIDAY: Advice for Writers Starting Out

I read Ron Koertge’s poem “Do You Have Any Advice for Those of Us Just Starting Out?” Wednesday night. I liked his poem. It inspired me to pen my own poem with advice for beginning poets. What do you think about Koertge’s advice for writers who are just starting out? How do you feel about his poem?

“Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"
by Ron Koertge

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave

your house or apartment. Go out into the world.

It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap

one is best, with pages the color of weak tea

and on the front a kitten or a space ship.

Avoid any enclosed space where more than

three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware

any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks

across the muffled tennis courts.

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.

And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle

where a child a year or two old is playing as his

mother browses the ranks of the dead.

You can read the rest of the poem here at Poetry 180.


Here is my poem in a rough draft stage —a place where it will probably remain forever. I can’t seem to get the ending right. I know the poem needs work--but I'll throw it out there because I know the Poetry Friday crowd is an understanding bunch of people.

Write
(A Not-Yet-Ready-for-Prime-Time-Poem)
by Elaine Magliaro

Write. Write. Write.
Write all the time.
Write what you know.
Write to explore the unknown.
Write from your heart.
Listen to your inner voice.
Skip the adjectives.
Use strong verbs.
Write with abandon. Forget punctuation!

Write in the morning,
a cup of coffee steaming
at your side.
Write after midnight
when the house is still
and fills with soft sounds that creep out after dark.
Write with a pencil on a composition pad,
marveling as your words glide across
icy blue lines like Olympic figure skaters.
Write on a computer with Fred Astaire fingers
tap-dancing on the keyboard.

Don’t be afraid to experiment.
Write on a frosted windowpane with your finger.
Feel your thoughts cold to your touch.
Write with your toes in wet sand.
Watch an incoming wave
capture your words
and carry them off to sea.
Write on the sidewalk with rainbow-colored chalk…
or on a wall…
on any blank surface that beckons to you.

Write about anger and angst.
Write about loss.
Write about laughter and love and longing…
about languid summer days spent lazing in the sun.
Write about anything.
Write about everything.
Write about nothing.
And when you’re finished doing that…
Write. Write. Write.


At Wild Rose Reader, I have brief reviews of two poetry collections with poems great to share with kids at Halloween time and an original witch poem I wrote many years ago.

Kelly Fineman has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.