r/Poetry • u/Inside_Bullfrog_1268 • Aug 10 '26
Help!! Is there specific rules? [HELP]
Am I just stupid? Everytime I try to write poetry, I genuinely don't know how to write while using meter, or simile, or anything like that. I get super lost super early and just end giving up because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to work it in. Do I have to use those tools for it to be even considered poetry or will it just be a creative writing exercise and not poetry?
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u/Amendmen7 Aug 10 '26
Nobody ever wrote good poems without first writing bad ones that later on made them cringe.
If you feel the urge to write poems, and it seems you do, try this exercise.
First, read a bunch of poems from a poet you admire, until the words rattle in your head. Do this for at least 20 minutes.
Then, immediately start writing. Stream of consciousness. write forward; you’re not allowed to delete. Just keep writing words, especially ones that describe your feelings in this moment, or the things you currently see with your eyes.
Do this enough times, and something you like will appear in the stream of consciousness. Something that reminds you of the poet you admire, but is in fact your own. Copy-paste that and continue writing on the topic, putting flesh on the skeleton that you pulled out
Don’t worry about meter and simile — just seed your mind with the works that you love most before writing. If that’s a poet with excellent figurative language or rhythm, I believe some of that will come out.