Mechanical Poems

What are mechanical poems?

Ready to write? What exactly do you do when you want to write poetry? Hopefully your answer is "I start writing," because even writing a bad poem is better than waiting for the "right words." You can always throw the poem away, after all, but the process has begun. You'll start to find the words sooner than if you just waited. Below are some more ways to get started. Poetry is poetry, even if the means to get there seem mechanical.

Singing A Poem

Here's a little experiment. Try it alone in the basement if you must. First describe something, and then describe it again, this time singing instead of talking. You will notice that the words you use have changed. Sentences will generally be more rhythmic, and it is also easier to rhyme when you're singing.

This is because singing comes from the right side of the brain, the side that handles pattern-recognition. As a result, when you sing, you access this part of your brain, and you'll get ideas or patterns of words that are difficult for your analytical left-brain to create. Why not try it now?

Using Poetic Materials

Create poetry by listing words most likely to result in decent poems. Try looking for emotional content, for example. "Love" or "worship" have more poetic potential than "like," don't they? You can scan a book, pick out powerful words, and write them down for future use. You may even want to write words that rhyme with them alongside. Then start using them, of course.

Try saying something dramatic, like "I sing of death," or "Your eyes called out." Just let it come from somewhere deep inside you, and then start explaining what it might mean. This process will almost certainly give you material for a poem.

Play around with short verses, long verses, rhyming and non-rhyming poems. Try haiku. Try writing down your thoughts as fast as you can, without stopping. Don't worry about quality at this point. You just need to get that creative mind working. Then, when you find gems in all the dirt, you can start polishing them.

Try these and any other techniques to get the poetry flowing. Poetry is poetry, even if you start with systematic techniques and "mechanical poems."

I've been been playing with poetry for thirty years. My wife Ana and I created the game "Deal-A-Poem," which can be accessed for free at: http://www.dealapoem.com, where you can find a few more poetry techniques and examples of mechanical poems.