Poetry Anatomy

strong beginning, middle and end, helps a poem in a powerful way. It doesn’t have to be story based, or a sequence of events. There are many ways to start.

  You can have a hook line with sparks intrigue. You can give a summary of the poem. You can establish a state of mind. You can establish a mood. You can hint at the deeper meaning. You can have a line which means something at the start but after reading the poem, repeating it at the end gives a whole new meaning. The possibilities are endless but it’s good to focus on this structure since it can dramatically improve your writing.

  My next stanza deepens the experience of love and adds more information about it. After that, I focus on how valuable it is and the extreme importance it has. A bit of a metaphor there in the last line too. The last line sums it up. Embrace it and receive it and let it flow through you.

  Contents

  Mother of Nature

  The mother of nature is here

  She gives us the life we share

  Her forests are cleansing the air

  Her life giving force full of care

  The giving of nature won’t cease

  The waters of oceans are clear

  They surround this beautiful sphere

  It’s gorgeous for all of the year

  The birds have a beautiful call

  It sooths the soul with its peace

  Your joy levels always increase

  It’s always a strong stress release

  The gifts flow like a water fall

  They’re given free to us all

  Footnote:

  This is one of my most recent poems which I finished only about a week ago.

  I took a new perspective on this one since at this stage, I didn’t want to just reformat the elements of other poems in a sense. So here I have made it more about mother nature as a person. So here we have a personification of nature as 1 living entity.

  In the first stanza, I am introducing the mother like aspects of mother nature. How a mother gives us life through birth, and mother nature gives us life through air.

  After that, I go onto the beautiful aspects of nature which are given to us. I know I neglect the aspect of mankind destroying nature and the destructing aspect of nature’s fury, but this subject is not about the negative. It’s a positive view of Nature’s Beauty. So that ends the Octave with the beautiful personality of mother nature. Her nice side.

  In the third stanza, I have turned it onto how this effects us and how powerful the beauty of nature is for our lives. It begins the Sestet by connecting this magical power with our spiritual selves. The couplet at the end sums up how freely we can experience it.

  The middle of a poem delves into the core of the subjects and elaborates on the concept. You want to back up your subject with other examples or views or substance so that you bring more understanding to the reader. You give them a deeper experience and take them into the essence in ways they may never have even dreamed of.

  Contents

  Dreams You Can See

  Dreams that you can see

  Core desire destiny

  Reason for your birth

  Gifted to the hilt

  Overflowing blessings spilt

  Purpose spawning worth

  Always doing right

  Never giving up the fight

  Sacrifice some more

  Learning all you need

  Practicing until you bleed

  Then one day you score

  >Footnote: The Haiku

  Japan. It’s incredible where many different parts of the world influence many different aspects of art. I love the fact that there is so much diversity and that we can delve into all of this new skill, harnessing the techniques that we can use to further our creative knowledge.

  Thanks to Japan, we have a new structure. The Haiku.

  This incredible new way of constructing poems is rather interesting and if you wanted, you could play with it and tweak it into your own style.

  We have here, 3 lines. The syllables for each line are set in stone. We have 5 syllables in the first line, then 7 in the second line, then 5 in the third line.

  As usual, I have added a rhyme pattern to it. This pattern is very common in song lyrics, but usually it’s more like a ballad in songs. They usually have 2 short lines that rhyme in a small couplet A, A, then a line twice as long with a second rhyme word, B. Then we have another couplet with the same sort of rhythm and length of the 1st couplet but with a different rhyme, C, C. Then another line which is about the same length as B, with a B rhyme. I’ll point this out later.

  All that changes here, is that my lengths are set in stone. My rhyme pattern is:

  A A B C C B D D E F F E

  Contents

  Love is in the Air

  Love is in the air

  It’s a bond that you should share

  Shared with all your heart

  So much more than lust

  Born and bred and raised in trust

  Can’t be torn apart

  Shared it’s so much more

  They’re the one and you are sure

  Thankful every day

  With the perfect one

  You’ll be blessed with so much fun

  More than words can say

  Footnote:

  Remember before how I said I used Love is in the air? Here is where I have repeated that line. You may have also seen other areas where I use the same line and words but just manipulate them to fit seamlessly into the new poem as if it was designed for it.

  I read these with a modern rhythm.

  V ^ V ^ V

  V ^ V ^ V ^ V

  V ^ V ^ V

  Again I begin with the introduction of what the poem is about. It gives a basic definition of true love. After that, I am elaborating. I am expanding on the basics that many people already know.

  I then turn into a new direction in a sense. Where it’s hinting at the avenue of one sided love. That one line instils the comparison between the two. God I love how much meaning can be portrayed in so few a words. This stanza also addresses how thankful one should be to find that shared love.

  And then I wrap it up with how awesome this situation can be. If only we can find the perfect one, we will be one of the very few who grasp what “More than words can say” , truly means.

  Contents

  Sun Flowers Ocean Cliffs

  Sun beams down its rays

  Pinks and reds without the greys

  Sunrise soaks my eyes

  Flowers near the beach

  All these colours skyward reach

  Food for butterflies

  Ocean mist wafts in

  Soon the blueness will begin

  Dolphins play around

  Cliffs have water falls

  Birds are singing blissful calls

  Beauty sight and sound

  Footnote:

  Here again, I use a similar structure to one of the previous Nature’s Beauty poems. I even have it summed up in the title which is actually the 1st word of each stanza, in order. It’s interesting how the title implies only 2 visuals from 4 separate subjects in that manner. Sunflowers. The big yellow ones that birds love to eat. Then you have Ocean cliffs forged by the constant crashing power of those awesome waves. Obviously, these 4 subjects are the sunset, the flora and fauna, the ocean, and the mountain forest falls.

  In the first stanza, I have again a line to introduce. I elaborate with the pink and red colours which are in other poems of the same set subject. I then have the metaphor of it flooding my eyes with the beauty of the sunrise. Rise has an assonance with eyes so in that sense, it works better than sunset.

  I really love this next stanza. It ties in so much is such a perfect way. It introduces the topic of the stanza, and includes the awesomeness of the beach. Then I tie that in with the colours of the flowers being similar to the colours of the sunrise, in which the flowers are reaching up towards. It ties in so well. And then to have the rhyme of butterflies feeding on the flowers. It’s li
ke a perfectly fitting puzzle slotted together with a perfect fit.

  This is in a sense, in chronological order too. I distinctly remember having it this way where the sunrise starts, connected with the colourful flowers reaching up to the colourful sky near the ocean which will soon be blue once the sun finishes rising. Got to include the dolphins ;) And then again I sum it up with the early bird calls creating the visual and audible brilliance.

  Contents

  The Day of Birth Gift

  Given when you’re born

  Seed to grow into your life

  Greater future sworn

  Hack a way through all the strife

  Slice of life with your skill knife

  Always seeking dreams

  Even though it looks like hell

  Never what it seems

  Breaking through the prison cell

  When you’ve got it you can tell

  Don’t give up the goal

  Even though you sacrifice

  Strive with all your soul

  If you follow kind advice

  you will see it’s really nice

  Power is within

  Growing stronger greater more

  Someday you will win

  Started on the lowest floor

  Rising to the top to score

  Footnote: The Tanka

  Japan. Thought that was a mistake? Nope. This is another poetry structure from Japan. They are good aren’t they?

  But really it’s not that full on different from the Haiku. Here we have 5 lines. The first 3 lines are the same syllable structure as the Haiku. 5, 7, 5. The difference is the two extra lines per stanza at the end which are both 7 syllables. So we have a syllable structure of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7.

  You will notice that I have a style of rhyme in these which is in a way like a quatrain, where line 2 and 4 rhyme, but also 1 and 3 rhyme, and then the extra line on the end which rhymes with line 2 and 4. I have used this rhyme sequence a fair bit and want to do more Limerick style rhyme pattern with the Tanka. You will also notice the reason why I chose this rhyme pattern. The 7 syllable lines rhyme, and the 5 syllable lines rhyme.

  A strong metaphor start of the skills you are born to pursue. I then go into the other