Pantoum Poetry Writing Exercises
Writing exercises are ideal for building wordcrafting muscles. Just like musicians practice and athletes train, so must writers stretch their voices and work out their vocabularies.
Poetry writing exercises are some of the best tools for building writerly strengths. Poetry is a condensed form of writing that focuses heavily on word choice, rhythm, imagery, and emotional content. If you regularly tackle poetry writing exercises, your writing will shine whether you write fiction, sales copy, or blog posts.
A fast and easy way to generate poetry writing exercises for yourself is to simply try writing in form.
Turning Form Into Poetry Writing Exercises
Working within a form gives you structure, a set of guidelines to follow so that you can concentrate on what matters — the content. You can also put new twists on established forms to keep your writing exercises fresh and fun. As you work through these types of poetry writing exercises, you don’t need to think about the structure at all because it’s already provided for you. Concentrate on rhythm, word choice, meaning, and emotional resonance.
When I took a poetry writing workshop many years ago, we did an entire session of poetry writing exercises that were built around the pantoum. At the time, I’d never heard of the form, but I found it to be mesmerizing and challenging in an engaging way.
Pantoum Poetry Writing Exercises
These exercises are progressive in the sense that they build upon one another. You need to do the first exercise before you do the the second one. Each consecutive exercise uses the previous one as a foundation.
To do these exercises, you’ll need a guide for the pantoum form, which you can find here.
First Exercise
This exercise is done with two or more writers. The first person writes the first verse of the pantoum (four lines with rhyming pattern ABAB).
If you’re working alone, start by simply writing a pantoum. If you want to shake it up, then write one verse a day for a few days. Allowing time between writing verses will help you disconnect from each verse so you can revisit it with fresh eyes.
The second person writes the second verse. Remember that in the pantoum form the first line of every verse (except the final verse) is line 2 from the previous verse and the third line of every verse (except the final verse) is line 4 from the previous verse. Therefore, the second writer only creates two new lines (the second and fourth lines).
Pass the paper (or email) back and forth until you have about ten or more stanzas. The more writers you have in your group, the more stanzas you should have. Try to allow each writer to compose two or three stanzas. Note that the pantoum has a special construction for its final verse:
Line 13 – repeat Line 10 from previous quatrain
Line 14 — repeat Line 3 from the first quatrain
Line 15 – repeat Line 12 from previous quatrain
Line 16 – repeat Line 1 from the first quatrain
You’ve just co-authored a pantoum. Congratulations!
Second Exercise
Now, each writer will need a copy of the final pantoum. Take your copy and start revising it. Forget about the pantoum form and get busy editing it into something else entirely. You can add new language to the piece, but try to keep it to a minimum and focus instead on the material you’ve been given.
- Cut words, phrases, and lines
- Move things around
- Add new bits and pieces
- Try reinterpreting the piece so it has new meaning
- Restructure the rhythm so it no longer resembles a pantoum
The question everyone asks: How do you know when it’s done? The answer: you don’t. There is, however, a point when a piece feels right, like everything is in place. That’s as good as done.
Third Exercise
Finally, everyone in the group passes their revised pieces to someone else in the group. For example, if you’re sitting in a circle, everybody passes their poem to the person on the left (or right — doesn’t matter). Now you have a copy of someone else’s interpretation and revision of the group pantoum. You get to revise that back to pantoum form.
- Do not revert back to the original pantoum
- Again, try to bring new meaning to the piece
- You can cut and add to the piece, but try to use most of the material you’ve been given
When all’s said and done, everyone should swap all the variations to see how the creative process worked differently for different people. The completed exercises are a good study in creative writing.
Bonus Exercise
If you want to go one step further, you can take the entire collection of the group project and create yet another poem using everyone’s various work as source material. A good idea is to make copies of the source material and use scissors to cut up the poems. Then, you can have fun rearranging the pieces into a new work of art. Use tape or glue to adhere the strips of paper to some surface (cardboard or construction paper works well). Create a free verse poem, another pantoum, or choose some other poem form. You may even find that you have enough source material to build several new poems. Be creative and have fun.
Poetry Writing Exercises
This series of exercises may sound like a lot of work, but it’s perfect for a workshop, writing group, or a rainy afternoon with the kids or some writerly and artistic friends. You can even get your non-writing friends and family members in on it — you’d be surprised at how many “non-artsy” people actually like to get creative. This is a great alternative for game night or movie night. Try it!
Do you have any favorite poetry writing exercises? Share yours by leaving a comment, and keep on writing!
All-Natural Poetry Prompts
Throughout the centuries, poets have composed meditations on seasons, landscapes, and constellations. Vegetation and animals have been the subjects of countless poems, and even when poetry is not centered around nature, it often makes reference to it.
In poetry, nature may function as the backdrop — the setting in which the action takes place. Nature, and various elements of nature, may also hold center stage. Why are so many poets compelled to write about nature?
Consider the closing stanza from “Crossings” by Ravi Shankar:
Suspended in this ephemeral moment
after leaving a forest, before entering
a field, the nature of reality is revealed.Source: poets.org
Word like “forest” and “field” indicate nature’s presence in this piece, but the closing line cleverly reminds us that nature is not present in individual words. Nature is reality, and it’s everywhere, all the time.
Poetry Prompts
Poetry prompts are a great way to start a writing session when you’re feeling uninspired or when you simply want to try something new. Maybe you’ve never written a poem before. Maybe you’ve never written about nature. Maybe you’ve never tackled a writing exercise. Whatever your reason, these poetry prompts are meant to provide loose guidelines for kick-starting your creativity and get you pushing your pen across the page.
Below, you’ll find a list of words that relate to nature. These words are your poetry prompts. You can use these prompts in several different ways. You could choose a single word and build a poem around it as a concept. You can choose a handful of words (about five would be good) and use those words to kick off different lines or verses. Or, you could challenge yourself to write a single poem with all of the words.
As you read through the list and choose which words will act as prompts for your poem, relax. Engage your imagination and visualize different images that these words might describe. Build actions with them. String them together with words from your own vocabulary. Put them in lines and verses. And make a poem.
lava
droplet
gazelle
bloom
nest
snake
moon
chirp
field
stream
grasshopper
hiss
seed
fur
forest
sunlight
energy
metamorphosis
prey
birth
Once you’ve written a poem, feel free to share it in the comments section, either by copying and pasting it or by posting a link to it. If you have any ideas or suggestions for poetry prompts, share your thoughts by leaving a comment. Happy poetry month, and keep on writing!
The Poetry Writing Lifestyle
Dictionary.com defines lifestyle as follows:
the habits, attitudes, tastes, moral standards, economic level, etc., that together constitute the mode of living of an individual or group.
A lifestyle is something you build for yourself from all the elements that make up your daily life: your thoughts, dreams, actions, routine, work, family, friends, food, hobbies, habits, and interests.
So, is poetry writing a lifestyle?
Examining the Writer’s Life
The writer’s life is unique. We spend a lot of time alone, with only our words and ideas to keep us company. We are immersed in word counts and submissions, manuscripts and notebooks. We work under tight deadlines and live in fear of typos. When other people are enjoying their favorite television shows or a day at the beach, we’re busy at our keyboards, doing our writerly work.
We are idea seekers — always looking for the next topic, poem, or plot. Every moment is an experience that could lead to a masterpiece, so every moment is a masterpiece. We live as observers, taking in the world around us so that we can share the best parts of it with our readers.
We are communicators, using words to forge connections. It’s not enough to tell a story. We want to show readers what it was like to be there, to live it.
And the most ambitious writers, those who are driven to make writing not just a way of life but a career, must also look at themselves in a way few other people do. We must see ourselves as authors and learn how to brand and market ourselves. We have to be self-promoters, and we have to be brave enough to put our work, which can be highly personal, out there for all the world to see.
Poetic Living
Writers are, in many ways, a subculture. That means poets are a subculture within a subculture. Poetry is not the most popular pastime (for readers or writers), so it’s a micro-niche. The downside of poetry’s lack of popularity is that poets don’t get a lot of accolades and it’s nearly impossible to be a career poet. The upside is that the poetry community is a tight one. Outside of literary circles, when two people who both read or write poetry bump into each other, they’re sure to forge an instant bond because such a person is a rare treasure.
Poets breathe language. It’s the most essential component to poetry writing. Language is the poet’s musical instrument, paintbrush, camera, and voice. Poets must find ways to make language achieve acrobatic feats. When a poet learns a new word, discover a new way to use an old word, or figures out how to string words together in unexpected ways that still make sense, it’s like she’s just sprouted wings and flown.
Poets get excited over things that put regular people to sleep — an unusual rhyme, a passionate reading, a book of poetry. We go through life the way other writers do — living each moment as an experience that could become a masterpiece. But the poet’s masterpiece is somewhere between a short story and a song. It’s not enough to simply tell a tale. A poet has to make a story sing and dance. And while all creative writers strive to make their readers feel and engage on an emotional level, poets must accomplish this in a very short space, usually less than one page.
Poetry Writing as a Lifestyle
It’s National Poetry Month, and for my part, I’m working on two projects. The first one is watching and listening to performance poetry. I have a big archive of performances to get through, and I’ve been chipping away at it for about an hour a day since the end of March.
The other big project is going through my own poetry archives and organizing my work. I have folders for drafts and discards, work in progress, and completed poems. Once I get those folders straightened out, I’ll dig into about a decade worth of journals and freewrites that have been piling up.
I don’t think this is the way the average human being spends her free time, so I’ve come to view poetry writing as a lifestyle. The more you engage with poetry by reading or listening to it and the more you write poetry, the more it becomes ingrained in your daily thoughts, actions, and reactions. A moment that would otherwise become a lost memory is instead shaped into a work of art — a poem. When people speak, I listen to what they’re saying, but I find myself paying closer attention to their words and cadence. The same is true with my reading.
In short, poetry writing becomes an adventure in word craft, and it’s an adventure that is threaded throughout every minute of a poet’s day. That’s my experience, anyway. How does poetry writing affect your daily life? Do you consider it a lifestyle? A hobby? A habit?
April News & Announcements
You know what they say about April showers? Well, I’m sitting here writing this to the sound of spring showers pattering against the window panes. Looks like May will be full of blooming flowers!
Spring may be the most inspiring season of all; many poets throughout the centuries have captured the glory of spring with carefully crafted language:
“Early Spring” by Rainer Maria Rilke
Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows’ wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water changed
their singing accents. Tendernesses,hesitantly, reach toward the earth
from space, and country lanes are showing
these unexpected subtle risings
that find expression in the empty trees.Source: Famous Poets and Poems
National Poetry Month
One of my goals this year is to get back to poetry writing in a serious way. There was a time when I wrote poetry every single day, but that was a long time ago. Since April is National Poetry Month, it’s a perfect time to attack my goal with total abandon, and I’ll be kicking it off with some momentum since I’ve already been making headway by reading, writing, and listening to poetry almost every day for several weeks.
Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.
Now is the time time to engage with poetry. Here are a few ways you can get started:
- Great writing is rooted in good reading. Sign up to receive a poem a day for the month of April.
- Want to dive right in to poetry writing? Sign up for NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). You’ll notice that many other sites are promoting NaPoWriMo — be sure to go to napowrimo.net, because that’s the source that truly started the movement.
- Head over to Read Write Poem, which is packed with awesome resources for poetry writing, including a forum, poetry challenges, and regular articles that are relevant to the poetry community.
- My favorite poetry resource in the world, where you can listen to some of the most creative talents perform their work: IndieFeed: Performance Poetry. If you use iTunes, be sure to subscribe.
Most importantly, have fun. Poetry is meant to be enjoyed and appreciated. Get out your old books (yes, even nursery rhymes and children’s poetry) and revel in the magic. This month, I’m working my way through Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words
This Month at Writing Forward
In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ll be focusing exclusively on poetry here at Writing Forward throughout April. I want to touch on a little bit of everything regarding poetry and poetry writing, so we’ll look at form, feature a poet, and try a couple of poetry writing exercises. So stay tuned, and keep your pencils sharpened for a month packed with delightful antics in poetry.
