Writing a Poem

So, how does one go about writing a poem?

I can only speak for myself, but this is my process  -

Taking as an example, my poem "The Wave",

            So, you're just going about your usual
            daily business,
            and then something triggers a feeling in you.

            Here, I was relaxing at the beach,
            pretty much doing nothing,
            just watching the tide come in,
            and then the way the waves splashed against
            this rock started to take my attention.
         
                The Wave                                       It was something about the motion
                                                                      of the waves splashing up and over this rock
          Oh, to be a wave,                                  continuously, that triggered a feeling in me.
          Dancing on a rock,
          Splashing in the air,                               I would say that the feeling was there inside me
          Spilling o'er the sides,                            all the time, it's just that this "event" harmonised
          Back in to the sea.                                with it.

                                                                      At the time, I was wishing that I could dive in
 (c) Katherine Stuart 2013                                        there and have a swim, as it was a hot day, but I
                                                                      didn't have the confidence.

                                                                      Okay, so I had this feeling,
                                                                      and I was associating it with the image I was
                                                                      seeing in front of me, of the waves splashing
                                                                      over the rock.
 
                                                                      Then I decided, to express this feeling in a
                                                                      poem.

                                                                      I always carry spare paper and a pen,
                                                                      so I just wrote down what came in to my head.
                                                                      But, I had to re-work it quite a bit,
                                                                      until I was happy with the sound of the words,
                                                                      and that it accurately expressed my feeling.

So, writing this down as a process, it would go something like this  -

1.  Go about your daily life
2.  Has a feeling been triggered?
3.  Is the feeling associated with an image?
4.  What is the image?
5.  What is the feeling associated with that image?
6.  Describe that image/feeling in words
         -  Use short lines of words, either,
               -  short sentences, or,
               -  long sentences, broken up into shorter pieces (you can use commas)
         -  The lines of words can rhyme or not
         -  The lines of words can be arranged in groups called verses (stanzas)
               which can each express individual ideas

         :)

(c) Katherine Stuart 2015