I just can't understand how to get into writing poetry. I've been told to "just write what I feel" but whatever I do ends up looking like a fucking pompous LinkedIn post. In fact, it looks and sounds better when I write it in prose but I don't want to write prose. What's the magic formula you, poets, use? I don't plan on making the next Don Juan. Fuck, I don't even want to publish anything, I just don't want to cringe at my own writing. Aiming for something simple that tells a story.

>>24570939 (OP)
Death is the end.
But first, round the bend,
There are cherry blossoms.

You must fight, dear,
Them goons sent by fear.
And reach before autumn.

>>24570939 (OP)
>I just can't understand how to get into writing poetry
By reading poetry.

Honestly the best thing you can do is to start looking for poetry in life. Try to notice lyric stances and situations that you or other people are in. When you see a significant one, sketch it out a little bit in your notes. And also keep a little log of poetic language that catches your attention. It's best if you can notice things that are like half-finished or incomplete, and then you can fill in the other half when it's time to seriously write.
After you've accumulated stuff, just do low-stakes sessions where you try recombining them and think about if there's anything worth expressing in any of the arrangements you can pull together. Make some new notes on what is working and what you still need. Then search a bit for it and take more notes.

read a bunch of poetry craft books, you can steal them from annas archive.

I have been obsessed with poetry for years now and i came up with my own definition of it.

"poetry is the art of being subtle or indirect through the use of poetic devices"

The books will tell you you need to use the senses, the sights, the sounds, the smells, also metaphors are very important

I tell you to look up the books cause they usually give it to you straight on how to write poetry, lit is filled with morons and trolls, they either dont know anything or are coming from a bias

one book suggestion i have for you is a book of poetry essays called "best words, best order, essays on poetry"

i used to be like you, i write in free verse, but i kept getting this feeling that there has to still be some structure to it even though its free verse. What i discovered were the senses, the poetic devices like metaphor, hyperbole, personification, symbolism, etc

another thing i have discovered is that free verse is the art of the surprise, there is something called a "volta" which is a fancy way of saying poetic turn. this can be a turn in the tone, narrative, etc this can be placed anywhere in the poem, but people usually put it near the ending, a poem starts out sad, then at the end its happy.
gives it much depth, start one way end it another.

Also poems are more than emotions, they are ideas on the human condition. you take an idea from direct experience. like "no woman will ever love me", then you add the emotion "sadness", then add a turn at the end.

bam, poem

>>24570939 (OP)
If you prefer prose, then write in prose.

>tfw much better writer in verse than prose

we've got the opposite problem

>>24571678
>>24571715
>>24571739
Thanks for the insight anons. I'll investigate more about free verse and narrative poetry (which is more or less the way I'm aiming for, I feel like I don't have the gift of rhymes and I don't want to write stuff that looks like lyrics of a song). I will also read more varied poetry and books on the topic. Guess practice makes the master, though my self-perception also has a huge impact.
>>24571754
I've considered just sticking to prose, but after reading a piece of Charles Baudelaire I liked the way it told a small story and wanted to apply it to my own

Read more poetry, and more importantly, read more modern poetry. Don’t go further back than William Carlos Williams.
You will always be cringe if you sound archaic. You are alive now, not in 1858

>>24572573
Any recs of modern authors? I'm usually reluctant of contemporary stuff but I might be missing some gems

>>24570939 (OP)
Learn music.

>>24572573
He said he wants to write poetry, not glowieslop

>>24572606
Go for anthologies: Norton Modern I & II, Norton Postmodern, Oxford Modern, The New Poetry, Poetry of the Thirties, The New American Poetry, American Poetry since 1950, From the Other Side of the Century
Not reading contemporary stuff is the biggest mistake many poets on /lit/ make. Like trying to write a pop song when you’ve not listened to anything since Bing Crosby

>>24572573
>Don’t go further back than William Carlos Williams.
yankeest shit ive read today
is wallace stevens still allowed?

>>24572636
He said he wanted to stop cringing. He’ll only do that if he learns to write in his personal authentic voice as someone alive in the present moment, and the best way to do that is to check out how other poets are managing that.
>>24572640
Of course. WCW published before Stevens anyway

>>24572662
>find your authentic voice
>well no, not that voice, but you may choose from the following voices

>>24572573
what an awful opinion
one should absolutely study their predecessors, especially the greats

>>24572682
>my authentic voice is the bad fugazi of 19th century diction that every amateur poet uses

>>24572743
>you should write poetry how you talk for some reason
>yes I speak in metaphors, themes, and flowery language
>but meter? rhyme? that's too far

>>24570939 (OP)
Embrace the pompous sublimity of the tryhardianistic aproach to wordening

Reading this thread made me wonder, is there such thing as "Good" or "Bad" poetry or is entirely subjective?

My current verstack is Swinburne, Donne, Milton, Marvell, and Shakespeare

Poetry is about compression. You try to take lofty and vast concepts and emotions and fit them into a few simple words. Thats how a verse gets weight. It becomes cringe if you use known metaphors because there is no art in doing so, it will sound like greeting cards and fb posts. It will also always be cringe if you try to fit small and mundane feelings and concepts into it, like tfw no gf/ mom would be sad or other self pitying bullshit.
Good poetry often sounds mundane, simple and humble but if you engage with it a bit you suddenly find more and more hidden substance until you realize what enormous value has been stuffed into these few lines.
Trying to use lots of pretentious words also makes it cringe. You can use uncommon words, but use them sparingly and wisely.

>>24570939 (OP)
poetry is for memorizing things easier. it does sound nice as a byproduct (or rather it's easy to remember because it sounds nice) so if you want to get into poetry why not start by writing something that sounds nice when read out loud. maybe even something you want to remember but keep forgetting. if you succeed in making it memorable you probably have made decent poetry

>>24572710
Classic n00b error.

>>24572710
Then all your poetry will sound stupid because you force end rhyme schemes without having the cultural milieu to learn the grammar that supports or appreciates careful meter. It's an easier trap to fall into than crappy modern styles, because the well defined structures let new poets convince themselves they are making somthing as good by mimicking them