The following lessons are intended to help the beginning poet understand the potential and discipline of poetry. Those familiar with my Storytelling lesson series will know that I teach Creative Writing classes at the middle and high school level. As the year has progressed, I have actually gained a couple of adult students, mostly parents of the children in my class who also aspire to write. I believe these lessons to be a good starting point, regardless of your age or education.

Poetry is quite a bit trickier to teach than storytelling, mainly because of the closer emotional bond that the poet has with his work. Many poets are under the belief that anything they write is “right” because it comes from their emotional center – thus, they resist any attempt at criticism or efforts to alter their work in any way. Because of this philosophy, bad poetry is allowed not only to exist but to flourish (I will define “bad poetry” in the first lesson). If a student wishes to improve their craft, it is essential to shed some ego and admit that there is in fact room for improvement.

As I proceed both in my real-life classroom and in my lessons online, I welcome questions, comments and suggestions. My curriculum is still being developed, so it is quite possible that I may overlook an important aspect of poetry. As with the Storytelling lessons, I will focus less on the technical aspects and more on the finer points of poetry.