3 Ways to Brainstorm/Write a Poem

Here are a few ways to get those brilliant poetic thoughts out of your head and onto the page that I have learned over the years and use on a regular basis.

Your page won't look like this any longer...

Three ways to brainstorm and write a poem:

The early stages of "Ninth"

• Panning for Gold. This method I learned from the endearing and wonderful poet Price Stobridge, the Poet Laureate for the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. This method will train you to be both concise and eloquent. I used this to write the poem "Ninth."
• Begin by taking a sheet of paper and tilting it 45˚ on the table in front of you.
• Write one word in the top corner of the paper--the first word that comes to mind when you think about the subject of your poetic effort.
• On the next line, write two words, or however long it takes to fill the crooked space between the two edges.
• Keep repeating this as you go along, writing whatever comes to mind, so long as the thought can cover the diagonal length.
• Whenever you feel like you're finished, go back through and turn the words or lines you like into a poem! 

Running in circles...

• Spiral. I invented this method myself, and I find it quite useful. It forces you to only focus on the words which you are currently writing--not the ones before, or the ones you haven't yet said. It also lets you focus purely on the language you use instead of punctuation or line-breaks--you can worry about those later. I wrote "Dreaming to Run" and "When I Swing With You" using this method.
• Begin writing across the page at an angle, and instead of dropping down at the end of each line, continue to write in a single stream that curves inward, twisting your paper or notebook so that the words go sideways, then up-side-down, then sideways again, then right-side-up, then sideways, and so on.
• Pretty soon, you should be forming a spiral, writing underneath the words you have already written.
• The spiral will eventually get tighter, reminding you to bring your thoughts down to an end.
• Wherever you run out of real-estate within the spiral, you're done.
• Go back through and write out the poem again, this time adding line breaks and writing it like a normal poem, between the lines.

They'll never know what hit 'em

• Immersion. This method is a little trickier to pull-off, because it requires that you have the ability to write in spontaneous situations. But, it can also lead to some very interesting work. I wrote "Be Still, My Soul" and "The Child's Eyes" while listening to some great sermons that I still remember even years later.
• Carry a pen or pencil and some paper with you anywhere you will be listening to someone speak in front of a crowd. This can be during a lecture, a sermon, or while eavesdropping on someone else's conversation at a coffee shop. The main key here is to listen to someone else talk as you write.
• Find some way in which the thing that you are hearing connects to a thought or a feeling that you have, and just start writing the first words that come to mind. 
• Take cues from the speaker. Maybe incorporate specific words or phrases that you hear into your poem.

There you have it! Three fresh ways to help you brainstorm and write your next poem! Let me know how these ideas work for you, but never feel restrained to anything anyone tells you about creative writing. Experiment! 

Have any other ideas for brainstorming poetry? Let me know in the comments!