I find that there are two ways in which you can approach a blank sheet of paper and start writing poetry, albeit that this view is a bit bipolar but it captures the essence of what I’m trying to convey:
- decide on the type of poem – e.g. sonnet, ode, heroic couplet, etc – which involves determining the rhyming scheme (not the actual words that’ll rhyme) as well as the metrical layout, then try and fit your meanings, metaphors, similes, and all that jazz into that scheme
- write down what you feel, then mold it into a poem
Like I said, any poet is somewhere on a spectrum with these two as extremes. But what I find is that if you lean towards the second approach more than the first, this will yield much richer and more beautiful verses.
