Poetry 101: What to Write About

Poetry is an art. Poetry is a way of expression. Poetry is a way of life. Poetry is many things but while some people find no problem in writing it some have trouble coming up with what to write about. This may not make sense to some because they believe that poetry comes from within you and you write from the heart which is true but not all poetry comes from the heart or brain. Poetry and inspiration for it can come from literally anywhere. If your writing about emotion then words usually flow out of you but if you’re looking to write poetry about a particular thing then you may need to look elsewhere which is what we are talking about today.

If you’re like me you can write a poem about just about anything. Sure you don’t need to write a poem about bread and chances are not too many people if any would want to read it but if you have the ability to make bread sound good in a poem then you don’t need to worry about not having anything to write about...or maybe you do. When writing poetry what exactly do you write about if not emotion or your feelings? Well, start with your interests, look around you, or think long and hard about a topic that you’ve had in your head for a while that may make for a great poem. Is not knowing what to write about for a poem considered writer’s block? Yes and no. If you don’t know what to write about then no it’s not writer’s block but if you’ve been thinking for days and nothing is sticking or popping out at you then chances are it is indeed writer’s block.

So what can you write about? Well, the best thing about poetry like I said earlier is that you can write a poem about pretty much anything. A good percentage of poems are about emotions and feelings. The second amount of poems are written about a tale, a story or something epic. Finally, there’s everything else afterwards which can be odes to particular object, a fun upbeat poem about kindness or a theme poem about candy or a whale...not exactly together but you get the idea, you can write a poem about anything if you really think hard enough. Poetry doesn’t need a fuse to get started it only needs a spark(an idea) and once you have that spark you can create a wonderful poem that will hold till the end of time and others can enjoy it forever.

In the end, it’s simple. Poetry writes itself if you think of a good enough topic or if you have a lot of emotions inside you. The best thing about poetry is you can’t make a mistake if the creativity isn’t good enough. Chances are you’ll know if the poem is good enough or not and if it isn’t then you can just try writing about something else. Don’t sweat it. When it comes to poetry what can you write about? Just about anything and everything because if you stop and think about it or smell the flowers you’ll realize that there’s poetry all around you.