Playing with Language to Create Interesting Images

Some people may suggest that your poem isn’t good because it doesn’t make sense.
However, if you spend time reading any poetry, you will find many poems that don’t
make sense on the first reading. Yet these poems combine words in a fresh and
unusual ways, causing the reader to pause. Poets know that if they capture us with their
fascinating use of words, we will stay around long enough to figure out the meaning.
Nonsense poetry is a useful practice tool to create word play.

1. Start by comparing two unrelated things, such as a living thing (plant, animal,
human) with an inanimate object. For example, “My dog is a garbage pit for table
scraps” or “The flowers bounced like girls skirts at a dance.”

The tree stood fortiefied like a pillar.

2. Write another comparison. Use two things that are totally different to create a sort
of wild, crazy analogy. Example, “My brother is a table lamp”, “The question was a
hallway with no end.”

the giraffee was scaffolding.

3: Describe a wild dream. This doesn’t have to be really crazy, but to get vivid
language, the wilder the dream, the better! Any dream you have had that did not make
sense will do. If you can’t remember one, make one up or write one a friend has told
you about.

An example of a wild dream would be:

“I was on-stage and forgot my lines. The light was bright yellow. I was alone on that wooden
stage, in the empty auditorium, failing and forgetting, and apologizing while stones fell from of
my pockets.”

As you notice, the wild dream has no connection with the comparisons. Write your wild
dream.
there standing fortified like a pillar, a tree holding resources for the scaffolding that
was the giraffee.
4. Include emotion. Emotion is the stock in trade for poets: they want their audience to
feel their anger, know their love. If a poem does nothing else but create an emotion, it is
successful. Think of an emotion and describe an event or situation that could arouse
that emotion in you.

An example would be: Freeway drivers who suddenly cut in front of me make me livid
with rage. Or another: Standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon creates in me a sense
of awe, of wonder at the universe. Write an emotion and describe its cause.

Theres no other peacful silence than there is in the secluded forrest.

5. Having written the above, you have all the elements to form a poem. Look back over
the various words you have written. Mix them up in a new way. Try for a strange
combination of words that does not make sense. Remember my theory. If you are new
to writing poetry, you will have a tendency to strive too hard for meaning. You may lose
the sense of word-play that is vital to poetry.

Two rules:
 Don’t rhyme
 Write the words in any form that looks like a poem to you.

Here’s an example of a nonsense poem formed from the italicized examples

above:

On that wooden stage,

wonder bounced
like forgetting flowers
failing,
and apologizing -
a standing dance
girls’ skirts
the universe -
a hallway with no end -
The light
was bright yellow
At the edge of the Grand Canyon
question scraps
I was alone
while stones fell from of my pockets.

Note: You do not have to use every word you previously wrote, but the words
should be mixed up as much as possible.
Write your poem here:

The only time

where the noise doesnt dance
the only time
where the picture lies still in the retna
of an owl
only for a time to come where it sees light
no more

6. What did you like about the comparison poem activity? What didn’t you like?

I like the promt. I think it was perfect for getting the brain going on what to write. The
part in which you just write down random things allows me to piece together an idea.

Now, consider the same poetry formula, with slightly varied directions to create a poem
that has more meaning.

7. Think of the name of a person you know quite well. (I’m thinking of a friend named
Jessica.) Write a person’s name on your document. Then, think of a non-living object
that reminds you of this person. (My example: Jessica is a paint brush dipped in cool
violet). Now write your comparison.

Zebulin is a 12 string guitar.

8. Next, add a second comparison, this time thinking of an animal related to your
subject (Jessica is a honey bee, who flits from bloom to bloom in the summer time).
Write your second comparison.

Zebulin is a lion who strikes his targets without them knowing.

9. Does the person you are writing about have wild dreams? If so, write down one of
them, or make up a wild dream you think the person could have. Or if you feel this is
better suited to your subject, write the person’s dream or goal in life. Or create any kind
of dream you think would fit your subject. (Jessica dreams of living in a garden, where
she can play her guitar all day long and never be bothered.) Write the dream.

Zeb dreams of preforming in an arena playing music with our band.

Step 9: Your last information about the person is to select the emotion most typical of a
person. Name it and write what you think might create that emotion in your subject.
(Calmness. Peace descends like dawn whenever Jessica puts on a good record and
lays in the hammock to listen.) Write the emotion and its cause.

Modesty. His humbleness is contaigious and his music taste is phenominal.

Step 10: As before, combine the elements into a poem. Mix up the words any way you
desire, but strive to make sense this time. Leave out anything that does not seem to fit.
Add any words at the last minute that do fit. Again, do not use rhyme. Write the words
in any form that looks like a poem to you. A poem about Jessica might be:

Jessica is
dawn
dipped in cool violet
her guitar
honey bee,
flits
 from summer bloom
to paint brush
bloom
time
in a garden,
Calmness.
Peace descends
in the hammock to listen
puts on a good record
and lays
all day long.

Write your poem.

Zebulin
transforms into his guitar
12 strings of pure
bliss with his
modesty
translated
into you through
his music
you never see
him coming before
your eyes but when he
strikes it feels right
thats Zebulin

Congratulations! You have now written a poem that is probably an effective portrait of
someone you know.