How To Write Poems With Artificial Intelligence—Using Google's Verse by Verse
Hi readers and writerly friends!
Today in Artsy Things, we’re going to explore writing poetry using artificial intelligence (AI). I heard about this from an article a few years ago —I tried to find it, but so many others have come out discussing the same topic, I haven’t been able to. However, I have linked some particularly interesting articles at the end of this post for further reading. All other articles quoted in this post will be linked at the end as well.
Artificial intelligence
Before we can create poetry using artificial intelligence, we must first understand what the term means in definition as well as what it means for the future of humanity. Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the world in ways no one can yet fully predict.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) of Oxford University Press defines artificial intelligence as:
“Noun. The capacity of computers or other machines to exhibit or simulate intelligent behaviour; the field of study concerned with this. Abbreviated AI.” (OED 2008)
Artificial intelligence can also be described as the theory and development of computer systems that are able to perform tasks such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, translation between languages, and other tasks that normally require human intelligence. Initially, AI included search engines, recommendation algorithms such as those used by YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix, computer programs that could play games like chess with users. In the last decade, we have seen an emergence of AI applications that can complete a myriad of tasks that typically require human intelligence. These applications include understanding and responding to human speech (apps such as Siri and Alexa), self-driving cars (such as Tesla), and even art making and poetry writing programs (such as the infamous Lensa app and Verse by Verse by Google).
In his article, “Can AI Write Authentic Poetry?” cognitive psychologist and poet Keith Holyoak explores whether artificial intelligence could ever achieve poetic authenticity. In the article, he makes the comparison of AI to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein:
“On the hazier side of the present horizon, there may come a tipping point at which AI surpasses the general intelligence of humans. (In various specific domains, notably mathematical calculation, the intersection point was passed decades ago.) Many people anticipate this technological moment, dubbed the Singularity, as a kind of Second Coming—though whether of a savior or of Yeats’s rough beast is less clear. Perhaps by constructing an artificial human, computer scientists will finally realize Mary Shelley’s vision.” (Holyoak 2022, par.6)
Despite the bleak predictions of how AI may one day replace all human activity, the reality is that this technology is simply not there yet. While AI can simulate human intelligence successfully in many tasks, it is still lacking in the poetry writing department and requires humans to be the editors and final decision makers in the outcome of a poem. Holyoak explains this current iteration of poetry AI being a system that “operates using a generate-then-select method” (Holyoak 2022, par.10).
In his article, Keith Holyoak ponders the validity of AI poetry, functionalism, the Hard Problem of consciousness, and the critical essence or subjective experience within poetry. I have linked his article at the end of this blog post, and I highly encourage you to read it if you’re even remotely interested in these topics.
Users can select up to three poets to serve as their muses. They will provide suggestions as you write. Photo by Payton Hayes.
So, what is Verse by Verse?
Verse by Verse, is a powerful poetry writing AI created by Google, that produces suggestions line-by-line inspired by famed classical poets such as Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Walt Whitman, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The tool allows users to select up to three poets they want to mimic from a list of twenty-two classical poets.
Google’s about section on the Verse by Verse demo page says this of the software:
Verse by Verse is an experiment in human-AI collaboration for writing poetry. We have created a cadre of AI poets, trained on the poems of many of America's classical poets, to work alongside you in writing poetry.
Each poet will try to offer suggestions that they think would best continue a poem in the style of that given poet. As such, try working with different poets to see whose style best meshes with your own.
Explore what works best for you when composing the poem. You can try using the poets' suggestions (including editing them to better match your style!), or write your own inspired by what they suggest. (Google)
I conducted a little more research to gain a better understanding of how the AI operates and how best to use it for writing my own poetry. The article “Google’s ‘Verse by Verse’ can help you write poetry” by Aditya Saroha provides insight into how the muses provides suggestions based on classical poets. Saroha said, “Google explained that Verse by Verse's suggestions are not the original lines of verse the poets had written, but novel verses generated to sound like lines of verse the poets could have written. To build the tool, Google’s engineers trained models on a large collection of classic poetry. They fine-tuned the models on each individual poet’s body of work to try to capture their style of writing” (Saroha 2021, par.8-10). So, the poetry that the tool’s muses provide the user with were not actually lines crafted by classical poets, but rather inspired by their individual bodies of work.
In the article, “Google’s ‘Verse by Verse’ Lets You Imitate Writing Style Of Your Favourite Classical Poet” by Rudrani Gupta, provided quotes from one of Google’s software engineers, Dave Uthus where he explained how the AI was trained to write like classical poets. She said, “The suggestions of the new verses are possible because the tool has been ‘trained to have a general semantic understanding of what lines of the verse would best follow a previous line of verse,’ said engineer Dave Uthus. ‘Even if you write on topics not commonly seen in classic poetry, the system will try its best to make suggestions that are relevant,’ he added” (Gupta 2020, par.4). By training the AI in this fashion, the tool allows modern poets to write about modern topics, themes, and concepts, while imitating classical style and voice.
While this software can prove to be a useful writing too, it isn’t intended to replace talented poets. Saroha concludes his article by noting that the tool is meant to aid poets rather than replacing them. He said, “Through the tool, Google aims to ‘augment’ the creative process of composing a poem. Google said Verse by Verse is a creative helper, an inspiration and not a replacement” (Saroha 2021, par.11 ).
Google’s Verse by Verse, an AI poetry-writing tool. Photo by Payton Hayes.
I first tried using Verse by Verse in 2020
I was first introduced to Verse by Verse in 2020 and I tried it just to see how effective it could be. At the time, I was really getting into my own religious deconstruction and exploring overt sexuality and expression. As a result, my writing at the time certainly reflected my interests and spiritual journey. I typed in words such as holy, prayer, pleasure, love, lust, sex, worship, devotion, god, and church. The poets I selected as my muses were Whitman, Emerson, and Poe and as I wrote each verse on the left, they provided me with inspiration from the column on the right.
I do not have the original poem the AI created when I first did this exercise in 2020 however, from that, I ended up with the following poem:
PRAYER
"Oh God," she says, hands clasped together, fingers entwined, knees bent.
He doesn't answer; he does.
he answers with earnest, continued, devoted worship
head bowed, eyes closed, his mind devoid of all else but this
—this soul-shaking, earth-shattering pleasure, this blessed communion between man and woman,
the Holy Spirit an undoubted voyeur through the candlelight,
this holy practice wherein they do some of their finest praying. (Hayes 2020)
Revisiting Verse by Verse in 2022
To show you how this AI writes poetry and how it’s suggestions can be effective for your own poetry writing, I decided to give it another go in 2022. Below is a gallery of screenshots from the tool as I entered each verse/line at a time. As you can see, my muses Emerson, Poe, and Whitman all provided me with interesting and unique suggestions to include in my poem.
I used words and phrases that came to mind, without rhyme or reason. I typed out ten verses and my chosen muses produced three lines each to help inspire my poem. Below are the twenty-seven lines from each poet in the right column (totaling eighty-one lines among my muses).
Ralph Waldo Emerson Muse
Tides of the hands of the bold,
Tides of the North wind, and to woods
Tides of the hands of the snow;
Hearing a weary weary voice at happy eve,
Hearing a happy poet recount
Hearing a weary poet high
Whilst upper wits, and for their memory ave
Dwarfed for thy harp to willing hand;
Victor over war’s enchanted lid
Spreading their scent through a ian gold;
House in for the blood of their delight,
Bright with homage to their well-known delight!
Wield these young honey wine for their delight:
Escort and beauty for their sick delight:
Their shining beauty to each youthful lamp
Knew that their roar and pulse of kindred air:
Wield these first tones that shine through speak;
Bright with homage to their well-known delight!
Soothes with their shining sorrow;
Mixed with sand by other true delight.
Scent with thy summer horn.
Spreading their scent through fancy and desire;
Stream through thy friendship to the upper air,--
Beer and cup from every cottage beams–
Freedom and beauty for a delicate beams.
Strewed the wide wave with their enchanted maids;
Mixed with sand by other true liberty.
Walt Whitman Muse
Entering my feet over the prairies,
Wherein each stands or sweeps in the though,
Entering my feet upon the prairies
Splashing the waves with a yellow light,
Splashing the waves over the beach at night,
Splashing the river with a mystic midnight light,
Gave up the mighty and diverse hand
Rose the old drunkard, with a long side,
Making the young land tremble for the soul;
Wherein I feel so certain and happy,
Wherein all women pass from the world,
Encircled by a servant at hand;
Encircled by a servant at hand;
Making a song of a open air;
E’er lashes and clothes without wealth.
Thunder on stride on stride on lean words:
Rich greenish drift and the measureless light;
Wherein I understand each breath and the age;
Encircled by a delicate mouth and hand.
Mighty and perfect pour through the night.
Perfume the white arms of the summer night
Rich with ample forms and barbarian words,
Rich and perfect play for other globes!
Light the world with a mystic motion;
Encircled by a world in other bay;
Encircled by a perfect float in the air;
Encircled by a perfect float in the air:
Edgar Allen Poe Muse
Which fall’st into this world like rain
When in an happy Runic rhyme,
Wherein my youth and dreams and words,
Light as the lavas of summer air
Drowning a wild feeling with the sound
Tempting and dreaming in this passionate light
Filled with deep thoughts of thee.
Brought a silver, silken rest.
Brought a silver silken veil of light,
Beside the dames that gilded each bright noon,
Filled with light of life and light!
Brought down the world to me with their delight;
Put my own solace to a golden light,
Brought a silvery silken veil of light,
Hold about my fingers with their delight,
Divulge this secrets of that lovely isle!
To breathe those voice of thine. The lovely light
Nor ask the riches of the summer air;
To breathe those kisses of the summer air.
Sorrow with its own light eye.
Filled with light of many eyes.
A fountain of light. No living light
Hold about my fingers with their delight
Hold about my fingers as a crown.
Brought on a throne in their elysian air;
To breathe those kisses of the jewelled air;
To breathe those voice of thine.The lovely light
So, the muses definitely wrote…something. It’s not necessarily poetry —yet.
From those lines, I narrowed them down to my favorites in the following lines:
Wield these young honey wine for their delight:
Their shining beauty to each youthful lamp
Splashing the river with a mystic midnight light,
Wherein I feel so certain and happy,
Encircled by a delicate mouth and hand.
Light the world with a mystic motion;
Tempting and dreaming in this passionate light
Brought a silver silken veil of light,
Put my own solace to a golden light,
Brought a silvery silken veil of light,
Hold about my fingers with their delight,
To breathe those kisses of the summer air.
Here, you could put these lines back into the AI to see what you get. I decided to rework them myself to make them less abstract. The lines crossed out above, I ended up using below. I kept my first verse, “feminine beauty dressed in light” and used that as the first line for the poem.
Feminine being dressed in light
To breathe those kisses of the summer air
Held about her fingers my delight
Washed softly away my every care
Encircled by a delicate mouth and hand
Wherein I feel so happy and certain
Her shining beauty imprinted in the sand
She is most deserving of devotion
You don’t have to use all of the lines the muses provided you with. As you can see, I have only used a handful here. This poem isn’t complete, but you get the idea. I’m going to set these lines aside for use with another poem later. The suggestions from the muses in the tool may not have been completely sensible or eloquent, but its a great starting point for poets who may be stuck. It’s also a great way to practice mimicking your favorite classical poet’s writing style if you’d like. Although AI cannot yet write poetry that is indistinguishable from human poetry, it can certainly serve as a useful tool in your own poetry practice.
The next time you find yourself stuck on a line, try using AI to help you finish out your poem! If you try this, leave your work in the comments below! What was your favorite line the muses came up with? Let me know below!
Thank you for reading this blog post and if you’re interested in reading more about AI poetry or delving deeper into the sources I mentioned above, check out the bibliography and further reading sections below! Additionally, if you’d like to read similar posts, check out the related topics section. Lastly, if you want to read more posts from me, check out my recent blog posts.
Bibliography:
Further reading:
Hart, Matthew. “Google’s New AI Helps You Write Poetry Like Poe.” Nerdist article, November 24, 2020.
Related topics:
Recent blog posts:
—Payton
20 Poetry Projects Writing Exercise by Jim Simmerman
Hi readers and writerly friends!
Welcome back to my blog! I’m glad you stopped by! This week, I’ll be showing you how to write a poem from a bunch of nonsensical lines. 20 Poetry Projects is a creative writing exercise by Jim Simmerman, taken from The Practice of Poetry, Robin Behn and Chase Twitchell.
In my sophomore creative writing and poetry class, we did this activity and I had a lot of fun with it, so I figured I’d share it with you! Later in this post, I will do a second attempt at this writing exercise with a step-by-step look at my process.
My favorite example of this was “A Thousand and One Nights” written by Margo Roby for the literary journal, Lunarosity. I had this information in my files from school, and couldn’t find the webpage where Margo Roby posted the poem she wrote from this exercise, step-by-step. I did find it on her website so I’ll link that in my bibliography, but if anyone can find the other webpage, please link it in the comments!
20 Poetry Projects by Jim Simmerman
1. Begin the poem with a metaphor.
2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.
3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in
succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.
4. Use one example of synesthesia [mixing the senses].
5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
8. Use a word [slang?] you’ve never seen in a poem.
9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
10. Use a piece of talk you’ve heard [preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand].
11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: The [adjective] [concrete noun] of [abstract noun]…
12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.
13. Make the character in the poem do something he/she could not do in real life.
14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.
15. Write in the future tense such that part of the poem sounds like a prediction.
16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.
19. Personify an object.
20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that echoes an image from earlier in the poem. (Simmerman)
I will use these steps when my brain is not behaving, when I have an idea and don’t know where to go with it. There are steps I ignore, but not many. Below is the final draft as published in Lunarosity, a now defunct ezine. I was going nuts while typing the drafts from my old notes. I kept wanting to fix things and get rid of verbs of being. I also had to decipher the original below my first revisions.
I am a concrete person with my writing. When I first tried this, I was sitting on our bed, in Jakarta, because that was my work space. I was feeling downhearted with life — I wrote the first line. I had a small Persian carpet next to me I was staring at while trying to figure out how to do this prompt — I wrote the next line…
1. I am a prisoner without walls
2. among the flowers of my Persian carpet vines/weeds are beginning to sproutOnce I had a focus, a direction, I found the exercise much easier to carry out. I don’t think I can write this exercise without knowing where I am going. It would be interesting to try, though. Randomness has merit. (Roby)
Steps with my first draft
1. Begin the poem with a metaphor.
I am a prisoner without walls
2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.
among the flowers of my Persian carpet vines/weeds are beginning to sprout
3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.
They twine and curl reaching for me pulling me down into the fields of silk and wool; as I slide through warp and weft I hear the rustle of thread grasses. My nostrils fill with the pungency of sheep and goats and I taste the dryness of dust.
4. Use one example of synesthesia [mixing the senses].
The dampness of a blue silk river runs through my ears.
5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
Nearby, Omar Khayyam sits writing under a date palm, the white minarets of Nineveh on the horizon.
6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
If a carpet can have a horizon.
7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
The hunt was on; turbaned caliphs on Arabian steeds, bows and arrows slung across their backs, chased a leopard peering forever across his shoulder.
8. Use a word [slang?] you’ve never seen in a poem.
Tally ho and an arrow is loosed never hitting its mark,
9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
suspended eternally in mid-air by silken threads.
10. Use a piece of talk you’ve heard [preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand].
A thousand throats can be slit by one man running.
11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: The [adjective] [concrete noun] of [abstract noun]…
The towering trees of thought stand in an expectancy of silence
12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.
and I stand in the trap free of danger
13. Make the character in the poem do something he/she could not do in real life.
my arms sliding around the leopard’s golden ruff;
14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.
Ducky would have run
15. Write in the future tense such that part of the poem sounds like a prediction.
to be hunted forever through threads of colour,
16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
chased by frozen horses
17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
trapped by a web of patterns
18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.
another playmate in the Bokharan fields.
19. Personify an object.
The arrows hum through the staring trees
20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that echoes an image from earlier in the poem
and I am trapped in a web of patterns.
With a draft to go on, I stopped worrying about the steps. I listed nouns and verbs that fit with Persian carpets and Middle Eastern fairy tales, circled words I wanted to look up for other possible meanings, and started back through this draft, trimming, adding line breaks, making the story active rather than passive. I got rid of lines that I had in only because the exercise asked for them.
I will use these steps when my brain is not behaving, when I have an idea and don’t know where to go with it. There are steps I ignore, but not many. Below is the final draft as published in Lunarosity, a now defunct ezine. (Roby)
A Thousand and One Nights
Among the flowers of my Persian carpet
vines sprout curl twine me into fields of silk
and wool. Sliding through warp and weft,
I hear the rustle of thread grasses, and
my nostrils fill with the pungency of feral cats,
I taste the dryness of dust, and the dampness
of a blue silk river runs through my ears.
A blend and blur of color mark the horizon
spots of russet and black resolving into a hunt
undisturbed by my addition to the scene.
Arabian steeds damp dark with silken sweat,
silent as Attic shapes, prance and wheel
through date palms and trees of fiery-fruited
pomegranate. Turbaned caliphs, bows slung
across their backs, chase a leopard forever
peering over his shoulder. An arrow loosed never
hits its mark eternally suspended by woven
threads. Trees stand in an expectancy of silence
as I move within zig-zags of light and shadow.
My arms slide round the leopard’s golden
ruff and I am bound by threads of color
to be hunted forever through fields of silk and
wool, chased by frozen horses, another
player in the weaving fields of Bokhara. (Roby 2014)
My 20 Poetry Projects poem from 2017
In 2017, my creative writing class did this writing exercise and below is my poem that resulted from it. In the next example further on, I’ve done this exercise again (2022) and I show you my writing process line-by-line like Margo Roby did with hers. This poem was published in Rose State College’s annual literary journal, Pegasus, 2017. It was inspired by Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. If you’ve read it, let me know if you catch all the references! (I have no idea who Caroline Janeway is, by the way.)
Angel
You were an angelbut feathers fall like bowling balls
when the air is missing from the room,
from your lungs.
You gasped when I called you out, a
baffled sound, surprised more so, only by
the startling sensation of your wings being torn off.
Though, that warranted bloodcurdling screams,
and rightfully received them.
You had us all fooled with silken lies,
but Caroline Janeway saw you in the back of Al’s
Pool Hall in Roseville, Minnesota, back in 1994.
And last I checked, heaven wasn’t in the back of Al’s Pool Hall.
She said that you were glued to the lips of some chick in a miniskirt,
that you looked like you’d had one hell of a time.
That’s when I put it all together: you weren’t an angel, you never were.
You’ve always been good at bending the truth, though.
Here I was thinking that you’d fallen from heaven,
but really, I’d just fallen for you.
Solitary walks through silent city streets seem to clear the air for me.
You needed to become a part of my past, but how
do I fix the damage that’s been done?
You had a broken halo and I, a broken heart.
I never knew you could be so savage.
The glittering look of endearment in your eyes was
lust and nothing more. I saw so much more.
You, Cupid, loose an arrow; though it sticks I can
no more than despise you, now.
I pluck it from my side, warm, sticky blood
running down in streams.
Janie would have fainted at such a sight.
I’d stand frozen, watching it all unfold before me.
Your bloodied, pristine, feathers litter the ground.
There I stood, trapped by a web of lies.
Yet, la mia anima è libera, my soul is free.
I feel more weightless, now, than any feather ever could.
Though, I suspect that they feel freed from you as well.
You were never an angel but you fell from grace.
I hand you the arrow, dried blood covering the silver tip.
(Hayes 2017, 61)
Revisiting 20 Poetry Projects in 2022
Steps with my first draft
1. Begin the poem with a metaphor.
My father is a rock. He is strong, stable, and enduring.
2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.
My family stands trapped, smiling behind the glass.
3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.
The jagged shards are sharp, threatening to cut me and the irony is not lost on me. Holding up the frame to my nose, it smells of old and the figures behind the cracks are quiet and stock-still.
4. Use one example of synesthesia [mixing the senses].
I could almost taste the film of dust around its edges.
5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
The Payton of San Antonio is not the Payton of Oklahoma City, though she takes their riverwalks with her.
6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
My father is crumbling.
7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
My mother is fluid like a river. Fluid, taking up the shape of any container she occupies
8. Use a word [slang?] you’ve never seen in a poem.
Some would call her flexible, others call her flakey.
9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
I’ve made it this far without a mother, I must be fine without her.
10. Use a piece of talk you’ve heard [preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand].
She was just ‘round the corner. Just ‘round the corner.
11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: The [adjective] [concrete noun] of [abstract noun]…
The fathomless abyss of my childhood trauma gapes before me.
12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.
I stand at the precipice, intrigued by its enormity and dreadfulness.
13. Make the character in the poem do something he/she could not do in real life.
I dive like a heron, fishing in its depths for the panacea that will restore my soul.
14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.
Peaches desires more —ambrosia.
15. Write in the future tense such that part of the poem sounds like a prediction.
And the soul food she will soon get, but it’s not what she expects.
16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
Her just desserts have the gall to be simultaneously acidic and sweet. The second time around, the tequila feels more like a prison than an escape.
17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
Atlas reborn, she carries a burden that is far too heavy for her to bear.
18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.
Mi familia es mi fuerza y mi debilidad -my family is my strength and my weakness.
19. Personify an object.
The bottle gazes up at her from the floor.
20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that echoes an image from earlier in the poem.
Rough draft, assembled
My father is a rock. He is strong, stable, and enduring.
My family stands trapped, smiling behind the glass.
The jagged shards are sharp, threatening to cut me and the irony is not lost on me. Holding up the frame to my nose, it smells of old and the figures behind the cracks are quiet and stock-still.
I could almost taste the film of dust around its edges.
The Payton of San Antonio is not the Payton of Oklahoma City, though she takes their riverwalks with her.
My father is crumbling.
My mother is fluid like a river, taking up the shape of any container she occupies.
Some would call her flexible, others call her flakey.
I’ve made it this far without a mother, I must be fine without her.
She was just ‘round the corner. Just ‘round the corner.
The fathomless abyss of my childhood trauma gapes before me.
I stand at the precipice, intrigued by its enormity and dreadfulness.
I dive like a heron, fishing in its depths for the panacea that will restore my soul.
Peaches desires more —ambrosia.
And the soul food she will soon get, but it’s not what she expects.
Her just desserts have the gall to be simultaneously acidic and sweet. The second time around, the tequila feels more like a prison than an escape.
Atlas reborn, she carries a burden that is far too heavy for her to bear.
Her family watches her, sip after sip, frozen behind the glass.
Mi familia es mi fuerza y mi debilidad -my family is my strength and my weakness.
The bottle gazes up at her from the floor.
Final draft
Trypophobia (Working Title)
My father is my rock. He is strong, stable, and enduring —a stone statue against the dawn.
I stare at the relic of a bygone family — shattered, they stand trapped, smiling behind the glass.
The jagged shards are sharp, threatening to cut me open and the irony is palpable.
Holding up the frame to my nose, it smells of old and the figures peering through the cracks are motionless, silent.
I could almost taste the film of dust around its edges.
The Payton of San Antonio is not the Payton of Oklahoma City, though she takes their riverwalks with her.
And now, my father is crumbling.
My mother is fluid like a river, taking up the shape of any container she occupies.
Some would call her flexible.
Others call her flakey.
I’ve made it this far without a mother, I must be fine without her.
She was always just ‘round the corner. Just ‘round the corner.
The fathomless abyss of my childhood trauma gapes before me.
I stand at the precipice, intrigued by its enormity and dreadfulness.
The liquid gold calls out to me, inviting me in with a false sense of courage.
I dive like a heron, fishing in its depths for the panacea that will restore my soul.
Peaches desires more —ambrosia even.
And the soul food she will soon get, but it’s not what she expects.
Her just desserts have the gall to be simultaneously acidic and sweet.
The second time around, the tequila feels more like a prison than an escape.
Atlas reborn, she carries a burden that is far too heavy for her to bear.
Her family watches her, sip after sip, frozen behind the glass.
She is swallowed up by the pit.
Mi familia es mi fuerza y mi debilidad —my family is my strength and my weakness.
The bottle gazes up at her from the floor.
As you can see from all the examples above, Jim Simmerman’s 20 Poetry Projects Writing Exercise provides an excellent framework for writing poetry. When you follow this process step-by-step, you end up with at least twenty lines to work from.
You may not necessarily keep them all or keep them in order. But surprisingly, this structured writing exercise allows creativity to flow freely. Once you have the rough draft, you can rearrange lines and edit the poem to your liking.
I always enjoy working with this exercise and I’m proud of both poems I’ve written using it.If you try this exercise, please let me know what you think of it in the comments! Thanks for reading this post and if you want to be notified when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter!
If anyone can find the webpage with Margo Roby’s post with her process on the exercise and poem, A Thousand and One Nights in Lunarosity, or information on the 2004 edition of Lunarosity, please let me know!
Bibliography:
Hayes, Payton. “Angel” Pegasus. Midwest City: Rose State College, 2017. (61)
Krukov, Yan . "A Man in Long Sleeves Writing on a Notebook while Sitting on a Chair." Pexels photo, Feburary 13, 2021. (Thumbnail photo).
Roby, Margo. “A Thousand And One Nights” Lunarosity, 2004.
Roby, Margo. “A Thousand And One Nights” Margo: Roby: Wordgathering. (Blog).
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—Payton
Know The Rules So You Can Break The Rules
“Know the rules well, so you can break them, effectively.” -Dalai Lama XIV
“Know the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist” -Pablo Picasso
These are just two quotes that touch on the subject and since they’re from world renowned individuals, I think they must hold some weight. I think this notion of knowing the rules so you can break them holds especially true for the art of writing. Good writers who break the rules well are like the little blades of grass that peek up through the cracks in concrete—they shouldn’t be able to grow, they shouldn’t have the strength on their own to push through concrete—but they do, and sometimes, those weeds become flowers.
Whenever one of my writer friends says “You shouldn’t use adjectives” or “You shouldn’t waste too much time on mundane activities” what always comes to mind are two of the greatest fantasy writers of all time—J.R.R Tolkien and George R.R. Martin. They constantly break these two rules and many more in their work and not only do they get away with it, the are celebrated for it, which makes most writing advice out there, somewhat invalid. If they can do it and become world-class writers despite these common writing mistakes, why can’t I?
This is where knowing the rules comes in. If you know the rule, why it’s a rule, and why so many people tell you to steer clear of it, you then know how to use it to your advantage. The reason is, by knowing the rule inside and out, and knowing your writing is good, simultaneously, you know that you’re breaking the rule effectively.
Tweet from @PageTurner on Twitter.
If you break the rule in a bad way, like opening a scene with someone waking up and the following scene being predictable, then knowing the rule is pointless. But if you know the way you’re breaking it is interesting, unique, effective, and enhances or enriches the story, then not only are you breaking it well, you doing it in a way that will make other writers wonder how you got away with such a writing crime.
James Patterson opened up his bestselling novel, Maximum Ride with the main protagonist waking up, but he jumped right into the action in a fast-paced, and tense scene immediately after that kept readers engaged, enthralled, and made other writers wonder how he managed it.
Likewise, Tolkien went on for several chapters in the Lord of the Rings before the adventure ever began. One whole chapter even describe the dealings between the Bag-End Baggins hobbits and the Sackville Baggins hobbits, and spent another chapter describing a wordy, convoluted scene where Frodo and his friends enjoyed tea from and spent time with Farmer Maggot. Many writing coaches would say to avoid these lengthy scenes and cut them out since they didn’t drive the story or add to the plot in any way.
However, they’ve remained in every edition since publication and the novels are still celebrated today. It just goes to show if you know the rule like the back of your hand, you know you can break the rule and not only get away with it but be recognized for your writing when it’s done effectively.
For further reading on this topic, check out Steven Jame’s “Story Trumps Structure: “How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking The Rules” to:
Ditch your outline and learn to write organically.
Set up promises for readers—and deliver on them.
Discover how to craft a satisfying climax.
Master the subtleties of characterization.
Add mind-blowing twists to your fiction.
And that’s it for my hot take on how you can break the writerly rules by knowing them inside and out! What do you think about breaking the best-known rules in the writing world? Let me know in the comments below!
Thumbnail photo by Payton Hayes.