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Professional Poetry - How to write it

Professional Poetry - How to write it

Poetry is the Fado of the written word.

Many try their hand at poetry, but alas what comes out is amateur poetry. This is stuff that if submitted to critical review would get shredded to pieces. And that's assuming the critics would even deem to read it.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

I'm going to divulge the secret that will instantly transform amateur poetry into true professional poetry.

Take a look at this..

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree

These are the opening lines of a poem called Kubla Khan written by a guy called Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It's generally regarded to be a great poem.

But if you or I were writing this we would say..

Kubla Kahn decreed a stately pleasure dome in Xanadu.

Big mistake! This sounds like a sentence from an essay. It's direct and factual. That's not poetry, because poetry requires mystery, magic and longing, not facts.

So just move the verb to the end of the sentence!!!

Decree is at the end. Bingo, professional poetry.

Of course, I posted this partly in humor. Whoops, I mean..

"Partly in humor did this I post."

See, much better.

Content written and posted by Ken Abbott abbottsystems@gmail.com



Content written and posted by Ken Abbott abbottsystems@gmail.com