Becoming a Poet

The (not so) fragile art of painting with words

Writing poetry is one of the scariest tasks someone could ever be charged with. It requires one to look into themselves and trace the shadows and the cracks and peer around each unknown corner within their being. It requires vulnerability.

To carry the burden of being a poet, one must first recognize the burdens they already carry and note how each one of them has changed their gait. To be a great poet is not to have the most or the heaviest burdens, but to communicate those that you do have in such a manner that it, in essence, lifts them from your shoulders. Poetry is to give your burdens wings: your fears, you anxieties, your worries, your hurt, but also your hope, your love, your relationships, your joy.

Your job as a poet is to come as you are. It is not to write in perfect meter, follow a set rhyme scheme, or even to have a structure. If you chose to organize your words in this way, that is your choice, but it isn't a requirement. The only true task of poetry is to write yourself, your life, your world into words.

This is a lot easier done than said. An artist rarely paints a spectacular landscape their first day of art class. They start small with a shape. From there they add color. They learn how light moves on different surfaces and practice emulating it in their work. They don't learn rules for art, they learn how to build layers over time. The same is true for poets. Poets must start small then progress. Thus, no poet's first poem is their masterpiece. You must practice, you must allow yourself to be cliché, you must allow yourself to "copy" other people's style. You must also allow for yourself to grow slowly, develop with patience. No two flowers grow at the same speed.

Writing poetry is giving yourself permission to be vulnerable, not only in the words you write, but in the process of growing. By calling yourself a poet, you are saying that you are learning how to render your emotions, your motivations, and your intentions into something tangible, and nothing more.

Considering that the criterion for becoming a poet is nonexistent, I dare you to try your hand at poetry. If you typically write novels and aren't sure where to start, I'd recommend trying to describe something. Description is the place where novels and poetry meet. If you do try to write a poem, post it in the comments below or on the Poetry Thread in Groups and Clubs