Secrets of an inexperienced poet: How to start writing poems?

I don't remember the exact time when my inspiration and obsession to describe the banalities of my room began to sprout. Messy, full of solitary and distant papers, and diaries from past years that I was reluctant to throw away. Undoubtedly, reading encouraged my love of words, all words: simple, complex, sharp, serious, slurred, ugly, pretty, cold or warm. The talent they have to transform and transmit the senses in a thousand different ways is what continues to captivate me.

I write for myself and my only reader is the night lamp, gossipy, always with its head down. I don't think I have excellent poems, much less I consider myself versed in the subject, but if someone ventures to write and doesn't know where to start, I have some recommendations.

1. Begins to vomit words

The key is in your imagination. Observe and describe simple objects, imagine that no one has found beauty in that old cup from your grandmother, what does it look like?, what does it transmit to you?, what does it look like? Another technique that helps is brainstorming. Remember that you can write about the eyes in endless ways. For example: My eyes... that throb at dawn, so bright and without light, disappointed in my dark circles. After practicing these exercises, find a way to describe the objects, without mentioning them.

2. Dance your pencil with rhythm

The most important thing in a poem is the rhythm. It has to be comfortable for the eyes and ears. Read your poem out loud, it should sound like your favorite song. To achieve this, the order, length, and last word of each verse must be taken into account. The assonance rhyme is characterized because only the vowel sounds in the last syllable of each verse coincide, while the consonant rhyme is one where both vowels and consonants coincide.

3. Choose a poetic form

The more you begin to experiment with the creativity of your writing, the more you will be able to choose the style of your poem. There are several poetic forms you can use, such as free verse, sonnet, romance, or couplet. I recommend you start with the free verse, since the meter will not be necessary. If you are looking for something more challenging, the sonnet is perfect, its metrical combination consists of fourteen hendecasyllabic verses, distributed in stanzas of 4 and 3 verses, and rhyming, almost always, consonant.

4. Avoid being cliche

The most attractive thing about poems is feeling what the writer tells you without falling into redundancy or past discoveries. For example: Haggard and tired, without remembering the last time she smiled. Better try: Dark circles pooled in the sadness of memory, that once smiled.

5. Literary figures will be your best friends

Don't be afraid to experiment. It is important to become familiar with various literary figures, you can start with the metaphor and the simile, which will help you give depth to your text. From there you can go looking for others that are useful to convey your message. Everything has a reason.

6. Let the ideas rest

Write and let the words sleep for a couple of hours. Then go back for them, read aloud, and change as needed. You can also share your poem with other poets or poetry lovers and receive feedback.

Writing is one of the best therapies out there. There is no single method on how to write a poem. You can play with all the poetic forms available to you to achieve that desired musicality in the verses. Do not limit yourself to the meaning of words in the dictionary. Have fun.