I love to write. It is one of my passions and when I am overcome with strong emotions, I feel the urgency to express those feelings in words. Whatever comes to mind, I put down on paper, thoughts, feelings, ideas. Then I begin to create in free verse as I believe a poem encapsulates emotions better than plain narrative text.
When writing, you must write with someone in mind. Are you conveying a message for a particular person? Is he or she someone special? Or are you writing to release your pent-up emotions? To share with your loved one or a stranger your feelings, your state of mind as you put your thoughts into words? If this is the case, they you need to convey your mood and the situation.
To do so you would need to choose your words carefully so that they can convey your feelings clearly. Your reader has to experience what you are feeling. You have to paint through your words the picture you want him to see. An artist chooses colors to paint his picture. A writer uses words to give his picture color.
The words a writer chooses to use would depend on his preferences. Will he use symbols, imagery, similes or metaphors to dress his message? When I write, I like to use personifications and imagery.
A person who creates a poem does have poetic licence which means he does not have to adhere to a fixed structure. For example, if I were writing a story, I would have to abide by correct grammar rules and proper sentence structures. However in a poem, I need not do that. I can reverse the word order, for example, instead of saying "Do not fear me", I can say "Fear me not".
In a poem, the poet can write on very personal subjects, close to his heart or even share his own experiences. Or he can write on general truths and add his personal comments.
Writing a poem requires mental discipline. To write a love poem, your theme has to be about love. Which aspect of love are you going to focus on?
Unrequited love, professing your love, joys of love, lost love, writing about your lady love?
Then you need to decide the form in which you will create your poem. Will it be a ballad, a sonnet or just free verse?
A ballad has a definite form, comprising four rhyming lines in one stanza. A sonnet has fourteen lines, comprising three four-line stanzas and a final couplet. If I'm creating a narrative poem, I usually choose to write in ballad form.
Poems are usually very personal and a poet's skillful use of imagery can create a vision that is unparalleled in a narrative. For example, in Robert Burns' song "A Red, Red Rose" he describes love which he compares to a beautiful red rose and a sweet melody.
" My luve's like a red red rose
That's newly sprung in June
My luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly play'd in tune "
We know that a red rose is a symbol of love and being in love is truly like the strains of a beautiful melody to which our hearts dance.
Shakespeare's love sonnet reads:
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate"
Which young lady will remain untouched by the romantic words above?
A poem requires an economy of words which have to convey different shades of meaning. It should lend itself to interpretations when read by others. One way of doing this is to make allusions to myths that have relevance to your message. For example, a man can compare himself to Orpheus if he wants to assure his lady love of his devotion and faithfulness. Orpheus went to Hades in search of his wife Eurydice who had died, to bring her back.
Writing the perfect love poem for a special occasion will draw upon your cache of vocabulary to create unique descriptions that will appeal to the person you are writing for. Most important of all, your feelings must come from the heart and be sincere.
Your first draft will never be the perfect poem. You will need to read it and re-write it a few times. Write your first draft, read it aloud and see how you like it. Re-write making improvements. Keep it aside for a couple of days and then return to it. Read it again and make further improvements until you are happy with it. I would like to share my poem entitled "The Jade Bangle" with you. It is about love, lost and found and never to be. It was published by Noble House Publishers in 2003 in the collection "Theatre of the Mind" under my maiden name Lim Seong Ngor.
The Jade Bangle
Lost years fade away
As you slide my soapy wrist
Into the jade bangle,
Never to come off.
Its perfect circle,
Symbol of love everlasting,
Binds me to you.
Its green hues the spring song,
Reflections of the heart's melody.
My constant companion for all time,
Its lustre warms me, comforts me,
My wrist forever encircled, embraced,
It is you clasping me close,
Forever entwined, forever green.
My trouble heart quickens, then soars.
© Lim Seong Ngor
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