New to the whole poetry scene and stuck in the old time warp of my mind concerning school taught poetry forms. Can anyone suggest some books or websites where I can learn the true intricacies of how to write poetry? Thank you all so much for your help.

A novice willing to learn

Dear wg.c,
In early "01 I got my 'puter and began writing more verse and posting it.
Soon I learned that one who never took a course on poetry writing, is likly to write the type of verse he read in school as a child.
I realized soon that the world had changed. Rhyme and meter was out, and I was
cliche. Oh, yes, cliche was out too!
I suggest you read poetry from all ages before you decide where your style will fall. Once you know what you want to write and who you want to please, then ask for guidence books.
As for me, I freely admit to appreciating our poetic heritage. (An old pfogi)
Good luck and welcome aboard.
Cheers, ron jgdittier

Gene, I would start writing in notebooks things that come to mind, yo can do this in ryhme or free verse, in the meantime go to your local library and ask them to recommend a varity of poetry to read. I have a lot of favorites, Frost, Walt Whitman, Poe, Rod McKuen, Longfellow, or go to your web browser and type in poetry, tons of things will show up, if you want to post and let us read your work everyone here is more than wiling to give suggestions on how to improve, I have been on a lot of poetry sites over the past five years, this is one of the very better ones. Welcome to MM. You might go to Acropolis and try your hand at one of the ten word challenges to help start your muse.
Steve

Hello Wri,

What an interesting question. There is no answer, except as in all things >> apply elbow grease. Take a pencil, write down thoughts, revise, revise, and then revise.

I've been at this for about a decade, and longer if you count the infrequent ventures over time. I find that doing rhymed verse is easier than free verse since you have a set of parameters to follow and adhere to. Example, a sonnet has 14 lines and 5 da-DUMS per line (iambic pentameter, if you remember school lessons). Ballad meter is easier, doing 4 + 3 beats per line, rhyming the even lines.

You gotta choose what suits ya best,
and start at number one.
The rest will settle into place,
but keep the process fun.

Certain things don't really pass nowadays >> don't capitalize the beginning of each line. That was once a typesetter clue of where to start lines. We mostly find reading easier if non-capped. Don't use archaic diction of thee and thou nowadays, unless you are a Quaker. That worked back in Shakespeare's time but this is now. Speak naturally. Choose things to write about that are not Haifa-looten, like love is a rose. That's been done. Don't rhyme trees with breeze - Al Pope already complained about that 500 years ago.

Happy to have you aboard - have fun. BTW, critique at MM is relatively gentle. Many good suggestions given will show you where you can improve. It will be to your credit if you can accept critique.

Merlin

Sorry if I scared you off, Wri. Didna mean to do that.
Merlin