Converting thoughts to poem

I've recently taken interest in poems, and for now I am focused on free verse.

I'm consistently having a tough time getting words out, however. It's definitely writer's block of some sort. I know what I want to write about, but I can't seem to find the words. And I can't always necessarily explain these feelings, I just know what they are and they are there, if that makes any sense.

I'm wondering if y'all have any exercises you recommend, or maybe a different way of looking at things to loosen up my ability to convert these thoughts to poem.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks

Hi there, SynonymousTom!

I see you're having a bit of trouble with poetry, or expressing thoughts to words. Something that could be happening is that you're trying to adapt your thoughts too literally into poetry. Another something is that these don't even have to be thoughts at all, they can be emotions. The two are distinct to me. Ask yourself a couple questions about how you're writing poetry.

Do you focus on a particular theme that's usually pretty clear and straightforward? Do you write on a certain emotion or tone (this is what I tend to do while writing poetry) and you're finding this hard to express into words? Do you write even on an image that popped up in your head? All of these are viable ways of writing and coming up with ideas for poetry, you just have to learn how you write.

I know some people are very focused on the theme of the poem, where the theme for me might be more of something I decide to build around the emotion instead of building the emotion around the theme. A metaphor that I always go to is a large tree surrounded by many other little trees. Sure, there are people who are more balanced with their poetry though usually the big tree is their speciality or their main focus.

An exercise that I recommend is practicing these three and see which works best for you. This is generally the three ways I see people write poetry though there can be others (such as building around the structure). Writing a poem based on a theme, an emotion, an image, and a thought in itself is practice.

Explore and see what works out best for you. I find that people who write imagery-based poetry have an easier time expressing sensory details while people who write more tone-based poetry are better at emotional impact. It's the same for theme-based poetry since that usually gets a stronger message across. Experiment with strengths and weaknesses. See what works best and smoothest for you. That's the best exercise I can offer to you.

Hope this helps!

So far most of my inspiration has been emotional. There has been some event/image inspired, but those are emotionally based as well for the most part.

I'll try out your suggestions! Thanks for the help

Hey @SynonymousTom,

Nikayla has some great tips - I'll just add a few thoughts of my own. I do agree that oftentimes it is very difficult to get that lump in your throat into words, into lines, into a poem. It does take practice to get it down, but it's always been helpful for me to bring out a notepad and just freewrite. Vomit it out of you, just subconsciously allow words to come out without inhibitions. Allow yourself to use broken phrases, or incomplete sentences. Just write.

A lot of different people have different methods, different strengths and weaknesses. Try out any that appeals to you, if you haven't already!

1.) Some people have vivid, movie-like memories and have fun recreating past things, recalling old memories, childhood nostalgia. Sometimes flipping through old photo albums (or facebook albums lol) and digging through things they barely remember: that childhood trauma, or that time back in the summer of 97 and the fun comes in re-creating that experience.

2.) Others are just keen observers and insights hit them faster when things are moving and living around them. So they do well just being hyper-aware of the here and now and kind of observing their surroundings from outside of their window. They may be watching the leaves fall or whatever it is that their surrounded by. This method works well if you're in unfamiliar surroundings too, like if you were to write the poem at a coffee shop, or underneath a staircase or some unusual place and just people watch!) Reflective experiences (jogging, driving, taking a shower) are also helpful.

3.) There are also people who prefer to kind of "architect" their way around a poem. Inspiration may derive from the words themselves or the brain-puzzle, so to speak. An example: "I'm going to write about this lump in my throat - but I'm going to do it using only cold words..." ---- "I'm going to write about this lump in my throat, but I'm going to avoid using pronouns" ---- "I'm going to write about this lump in my throat, but I'm going to personify my feelings - as if my feelings were a dysfunctional family living inside my gut-house"

There are many variations of this method. So, it can start with an outline, a theme, a metaphor, etc. It can start with digging through a thesaurus or a dictionary or just reading a collection of your favorite poems, or reading through random online prompts. You can get really funky with this.


4.) Or rather than the here and now, rather than past memories - you can just build it entirely from your imagination and be really whimsical with it. I actually use this method the most just because coming up with ideas feels second-nature to me. Typically what I find myself doing when I use this method is seeing connections between things. So I want to write about this lump in my throat and I find a connection between this lump and the knotted branch outside my window. And that knotted branch outside my window is connected to french croissants. And french croissants leads me to the french revolution. And all of a sudden I am writing about a revolutionary portrait of a narrator who is an emotional eater and stuffing her face in revolt. This approach sometimes leads me to googling interesting revolutionary words or facts or tidbits that I can weave in. Google Images is also helpful. Visual images and interesting photography does something for me.

5.) Lastly, there's always audio. Some people can just tune into music and really get those emotions flowing and just ..write as though they are talking to an intimate partner or confidant and just coming clean, so to speak. Sometimes just hearing the music gets you that meter, that melody or that rhythm. Emotions are very heavily tied to music too, sometimes just listening to a guitar riff gives you a scene, or activates your other senses. It can be a very magical method for trying to build that poem!

Any of these methods, or any combination, or any other method that I've not even listed - I mean the paper is yours! Sometimes it may take a bit of time, or it may come out awkward or clumsy at first - especially if it's been a while since you've written a poem, or if you're just not used to writing them - and then it's just a matter of enjoying the journey and practice, practice, practice. Happy writings!

Thanks so much for all the suggestions and help, Audy! I'll definitely use those going forward.

I've been writing free verse poems for several years, and I still have trouble converting my thoughts into written words. I'll often finish poems felling slightly angry, frustrated that I haven't adequately captured the feelings that I want to.
A few pieces of advice:
1) People will tell you not to force it- that you should just "wait for inspiration to come"- don't listen to them. Carry a notebook around and write poetry all then time, even especially when you don't feel motivated. Even if it's something inane, or you really can't come up with anything, write. It can even be something like







You just have to get those creative juices flowing and see where they take you.
2) Any time you feel any sort of strong emotion, write about it. Happy, sad, heartbroken, stressed, frustrated, or anything else. Particularly negative emotions- writing, especially poetry writing, can be incredibly theraputic
3) You must be honest. That doesn't mean that you can't write nonsensical/fantastical/imaginative poetry, it just means the feeling the feelings behind it must be honest. Like with music, readers can often just tell if the emotion isn't there- you can feel it.
Honesty in writing is hard. We're so used to building up our walls and hiding the truth from everyone, but you can't do that with poetry. It's like being in a serious relationship- you've got to bring down those walls and expose yourself, no matter how scary it is. There will be people who will find fault in your poems- who criticize your very heart and soul- and it will hurt, but there is no other way
4) Finally, you must realize one thing, which is true about every single form of artistic expression there is. You will never, ever be satisfied- and that's okay. There's just too much of a gap between feelings and words. But it's impossible to view your writing objectively, anyway. Just like a singer can't hear their own voice the way everyone else does, a writer can never experience their writing the way other people do. As long as you put your heart and soul into it, there will be people who understand the emotion that went into it.
If you decide to post any of your poems here on YWS, add me.
Best of luck,
LJF

This is too late, but I wanna give some input nonetheless.

Write everything down first even if you think you can't find the right word. This is a problem of mine too when it comes to writing story/poem, and it usually hinders me from writing more. It's our inner editor side taking control, and when it comes to writing, editing comes later.

Once you wrote it down, take a look at it again and see which word you can switch, with phrase can be replaced with a shorter one, which lines can be broken better, etc. At this point it shouldn't be hard to do so as you now need to think how to make it better instead of how to create it.

Even if you still can't improvise it, let it simmer. Take your time. Pick the moment when you're in a good mood and read it again. Or when you are in your most critical. That way, you can view it with fresh eyes and improve it.

Hope this helps!