“We Who Write Poetry Are Doomed.” David Greenberg

Poems are crystallized language, faceted with the heat of your intelligence
Story – stories are a conundrum of a puzzle- limited language

Very few words rhyme naturally and fluently with sounding Forced rhyme
Using meter helps challenge your brain

A great poem does not announce itself as a poem- it dawns on the reader it is a poem

Every line by itself should sound like prose- not attempting strange contractions.
Any one line has the quality of prose, when combined they form a poem

A piece of poetry is like a trapeze –the more dashing and daring the lines, the more exciting the poem. The less probable yet fluent the language, the more intriguing.
Language should be unforced
Convoluted grammar
Intense economy of language
Many poems tell a story

[David entered into a discussion on rhyme in children’s books since many picture books rhyme.] A good rhyme should not be easily predictable.

2 qualities that make for a good rhyme:
1 Words share phonetic value but spellings are different
2 Multisyllabic rhymes are more difficult than monosyllabic

Exercise Try six words and create lines that rhyme
Rat
Bat
Sat
Fat
Hat

Here is my bad example:
Giant tabby cats
Grapsing flabby bats
That hang from their claws
[I need to use an aws sound at the end of this line]

Next we tried multisyllabic
Suspension
Tension
Venison
Intentions
Invention

Yeah, right. YOU try it! Good luck!


Happy Writing.