“But K. L., I’m not a poet,” you protest.
Can you hit the return key? Then you’re halfway there.
Before I get a revery of poets coming after me with pitchforks and torches, I am mostly joking. Obviously much more goes into the creation of a poem: rhythm, imagery, structure, internal and external rhyme…
I’m just saying that if you wanted to start playing around with poetry, you could do a lot worse than starting with a micro and deconstructing it.
So let’s see this theory in action
As an example, we’ll take my poem “We Will Not Lower Our Voice,” which was published in Metphrastics, a journal of ekphrastic poetry inspired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This poem started life as a drabble by the same name, written for a Viking call:
The clang of steel echoed across the blood-soaked battlefield, the stench of sweat and spilled entrails hanging thick in the air.
Amid the mayhem, two warriors dueled, their broadswords clashing with thunderous blows. Every thrust by the Anglo-Saxon was parried perfectly by the Viking, their blades locked in a deadly dance.
In a lucky arc, the Saxon’s weapon hooked his adversary’s helmet, knocking it to the ground. Fiery tresses spilled forth.
As the man’s eyes widened, the shield-maiden severed his head in one powerful swing. Enemy blood dripping from her cheeks, she howled with the fury of a thousand Valkyries.
Not bad. Lyrical in places, but pretty straight-forward: this happened, then this happened.
So, first, I took the drabble and restructured it into stanzas (read: I used the return key):
The clang of steel echoed across the blood-soaked battlefield, the stench of sweat and spilled entrails hanging thick in the air. Amid the mayhem, two warriors dueled, their broadswords clashing with thunderous blows. Every thrust by the Anglo-Saxon was parried perfectly by the Viking, their blades locked in a deadly dance. In a lucky arc, the Saxon’s weapon hooked his adversary’s helmet, knocking it to the ground. Fiery tresses spilled forth. As the man’s eyes widened, the shield-maiden severed his head in one powerful swing. Enemy blood dripping from her cheeks, she howled with the fury of a thousand Valkyries.
Well, it definitely looks more like a poem. Still pretty basic, though, so I tried some things:
I removed all the capital letters, just because I sometimes like the way that looks.
I removed some needless articles and pronouns to strengthen the nouns.
I started playing with word choice, like changing ‘echoed’ to ‘sang’ to rhyme with ‘clang,’ using ‘breathing’ with ‘broadsword,’ etc.
the clang of steel sang across blood-soaked field, battle-sweat and spilled entrails hanging thick in the air. amid the mayhem, two warriors dueled, broadswords breathing thunder. with every Saxon thrust, the Viking parried, blades locked in a deadly dance. one lucky arc — the Saxon’s weapon hooked adversary’s helmet, knocking it to earth. fiery tresses spilled free. his eyes flashed wide at the sun-burst of hair — the shield-maiden severed his head in one powerful swing. enemy blood dripping from her cheeks, she howled with the fury of a thousand Valkyries.
Better. Definitely better. Then I made another pass to heighten the imagery:
the clang of steel sang across blood-soaked field, battle-sweat and spilled entrails hanging thick in the air. amid the mayhem, two warriors dueled, broadswords breathing thunder, spiraling in their death-dance. with every Saxon thrust, the Viking parried, blades locked, destiny’s thread stretched taut. one lucky arc — the Saxon’s weapon hooked adversary’s helmet, knocking it to earth. fiery tresses spilled free. his eyes flashed wide at the sun-burst of hair— the shield-maiden severed his shock in one powerful swing. gore-crowned, god-wild, she howled with the fury of a thousand Valkyries.
This felt right to me. Too flowery? Eh, maybe, but I liked it, and that’s all that matters. I submitted it, and at least one other person liked it, too, because they published it.
Other ways to play with poetry
Visual Structure: try prose poems, or stanzas that don’t break at a convenient place, or center-justifying all or some of it
Sentence Structure: play with fragments, and run-ons, or stack your adjectives
Imagery: look for ways to make sentences less straight-forward. “The cat sat on the mat” is a perfectly good sentence. “A warm weight settled into wool, tiny toe-beans pressed flat against the weave” is also a sentence (the good part debatable…)
Sound: you should always be reading your works aloud for readability (#TipsFromAVoiceActor), but this is especially true for poetry. Listen for the assonance and alliteration, intended or accidental, and the rhythm of the stressed and unstressed syllables.
The point of this?
Oh, yeah — a fun prompted poetry market!
Eye to the Telescope
Word Count: not specified
Genre: speculative
Theme: Aliens
Due: 7/15
Rate: $.07/wd up to $30
No Reprints
What they want:
From close encounters to first contact to space operas to UFO Earth visits, stories about aliens or extraterrestrials proliferate in our diverse cultures and communities. Aliens can take on many forms: humanoid, animal-like, plant-like, virus-like or completely divergent from species on Earth. They can be hive-minded or individualistic, coming from other worlds or dimensions. Their presence can be metaphors for migrations, conflict, cooperation, friendship, anxieties, the unknown, the familiar or obstacles. They can live in egalitarian societies or hierarchies of power. They can be serious and scary, as well as whimsical, expressive, cute, cordial or funny. What do they look like? What do they do for fun, for work? What do they eat? What do they wear? What do they want? Why are they here? Why are we there—in their homeworlds or at some mutual location? Looking to weave a vibrant issue on ETs and their interactions with humans or species of various experiences and backgrounds! Open to free verse, scifaiku, humor, rhyme, concrete poetry and more!
My take: I’ve rejiggered four micros into poems for this market, garnering three rejections and one short list. I’m pretty sure I have something about aliens lying around that could use some sprucing up…
What you can look forward to from Micro Markets: themed and unthemed calls, monthly micro contests, micro-lit mags that are always open, micro-focused anthologies... maybe even some craft essays about writing microfiction and a place to feature YOUR published micros.
So dust off some of your tiny treasures, and let’s send them out into the world!
Neat idea! I'll have to try this. (The extent of my poetry experience is mostly limericks and the occasional haiku, though...)