01-10-2013, 04:56 PM
Hey Fathima,
I started writing poetry when I was 13 years old and I'm 24 now. I have tons of notebooks filled from front to back with poetry. Out of all my notebooks I can only think of two poems that I think are good. I had no clue about poetry or how to write them, but I did read a lot. I think the one thing I picked up from reading a lot of poetry from various poets were they each had their own style and their own voice. I think that's the hardest part about poetry is finding your voice that comes out through your work. Like Todd said it takes time, it takes practice, it takes reading, it takes a lot of experimenting and getting out of your comfort zone. You have thousands of words to play with, a million ways to express them...so the odds are in your favor believe it or not. What I did to overcome my confidence barrier is setting the bar higher for myself each time I sat down to write just to see if I can reach it.
Don't worry about what your friends think or say about your poems because you're not doing it for them you're doing it for you. Confidence in writing happens when you don't give up. There aren't any good poems, there are poems that are good to you or to someone else but it might not be good to me. Poetry isn't about being good, it's about learning, it's about workshopping (improving), it's about finding your voice through the poem that can be heard clearly, it's about the words, connection from reader to writer, the emotions and their impact. That's what you want, it's better than being good. Don't ever be discouraged or give it up because what ever you write and what ever you may think it is, it's yours and it means something to you.
My best advice to you is keep everything you write then in 5 months come back to your first poem you have ever written with the last poem you wrote and they'll be entirely different. Keep everything and keep looking at your old poems and you'll see what poetry is truly about. I'll guarantee you that having a good poem won't mean as much because it's about improving and reaching that next level and trying to get there then move on to the next. Keep practicing, do some reading, and don't listen to your friends who say your poems are lame because you saying that you've been wanting to write poetry tells me that you have an idea of what you want out of your poems which leads me to believe that there is talent, you just got to find it because it's there and build on your confidence.
I started writing poetry when I was 13 years old and I'm 24 now. I have tons of notebooks filled from front to back with poetry. Out of all my notebooks I can only think of two poems that I think are good. I had no clue about poetry or how to write them, but I did read a lot. I think the one thing I picked up from reading a lot of poetry from various poets were they each had their own style and their own voice. I think that's the hardest part about poetry is finding your voice that comes out through your work. Like Todd said it takes time, it takes practice, it takes reading, it takes a lot of experimenting and getting out of your comfort zone. You have thousands of words to play with, a million ways to express them...so the odds are in your favor believe it or not. What I did to overcome my confidence barrier is setting the bar higher for myself each time I sat down to write just to see if I can reach it.
Don't worry about what your friends think or say about your poems because you're not doing it for them you're doing it for you. Confidence in writing happens when you don't give up. There aren't any good poems, there are poems that are good to you or to someone else but it might not be good to me. Poetry isn't about being good, it's about learning, it's about workshopping (improving), it's about finding your voice through the poem that can be heard clearly, it's about the words, connection from reader to writer, the emotions and their impact. That's what you want, it's better than being good. Don't ever be discouraged or give it up because what ever you write and what ever you may think it is, it's yours and it means something to you.
My best advice to you is keep everything you write then in 5 months come back to your first poem you have ever written with the last poem you wrote and they'll be entirely different. Keep everything and keep looking at your old poems and you'll see what poetry is truly about. I'll guarantee you that having a good poem won't mean as much because it's about improving and reaching that next level and trying to get there then move on to the next. Keep practicing, do some reading, and don't listen to your friends who say your poems are lame because you saying that you've been wanting to write poetry tells me that you have an idea of what you want out of your poems which leads me to believe that there is talent, you just got to find it because it's there and build on your confidence.