Common Mistakes Nearly Every Poet Makes

As a writer, I know the feeling that knowing what you are supposed to do with our life and your time gives you. It feels great! However, when you’re a fresh star-eyed writer… or maybe even a veteran…there are a few mistakes are easy to slip into.

1. Implementing Excessively Flowery Language

Poetry is an emotional art. It is therefore understandable that poets use a plethora of beautifully expressive words. Too much of it however will kill the reader. If you use too much perfume it will lose its pleasure and become a nuisance. In the same way, if you drown the reader in flowers, they will not want to visit your poem on authspot ever again, unless they love you as a person.

If your desire is to become a serious poet, you will have to determine what words are absolutely essential in conveying the message you want your poem to convey. This is a very hard step as most of us just want to create and let the poem hang all over the page. This step is for the person who is ready to become a mature writer.

2. Using the Wrong word in the Wrong Place… even though it sounds right

I am guilty of this writer -felony as well! You know that word that you really like, and you just read it in a new novel you’re reading, and you’re dying to use it? Do not put it in your poem (unless, of course, you fully understand what it means… that’s connotation included)!

3. Using the Wrong Image in the Wrong Place

Poetry gains its power from the images we choose to use. Images have specific connotations; writers need to learn how to work those connotations to their advantage. It is not enough to know that orange is a color… we have to know that orange is lively and breathes of exuberance. We need to know that if surrounded by other colors, its connotation changes just a little. We need to know that roses can mean love, life, friendship, and innocence… as most flowers can. Most importantly, we need to learn how to use images to convey emotion.

What is the difference between:

“I was sad

I walked down the sidewalk,” and

“Cold blue air surrounded me

I lowered my head dejectedly

The sidewalk slowly went on by.”

The difference is images. In the first we have a sidewalk. In the second we have blue air, lowered head, and a sidewalk. This element can really improve your work.

4. Failing to Break a Stanza

The form of a poem on paper is a lovely thing. Granted, sometimes Triond fiddles with the structure, but it is still important to declare where a flow of thoughts end, and not just with punctuation. Stanza breaks add power to the poem.

“Cold blue air surrounded me, I lowered my head dejectedly, the sidewalk slowly went on by,” has less feeling than the example with the stanza breaks. They give your reader a chance to savor what was written, and at times can lead to a deeper understanding of your poem.

5. Failing to Keep a Grip on the Rhythm

Poems can be very wayward things. They will to go this way and that, and they can, but all in good time. As the poet, it is your job to funnel the poems message and the poem’s will into one single direction. If the poem rhymes, let it. If it suddenly stops, reread it for any places where you can insert internal rhyme. This little addition will thrill your reader, and the best part is, the reader most likely won’t know why! All of the greats do it.

For those who want to improve their craft, keep trying. Writing is a life long journey… I’m not convinced that it ever really ends. Until next time! Happy writing.