I want no big deal poetry

I'm a big fan of Peter Elbow. More than any other person, he's helped me to embrace the writing process. Until now I've never tried his suggestions for writing poetry, though. So, here's my hand at "Poetry as No Big Deal."

I want to strike these words from the page

I want to leave the document Untitled 2

I want to be better at whatever this is

I want to create something meaningful

I want to know what that is

I want to hear someone say, "Good job"

And I want to be as careless as a kid

Why not include some clippings from the chapter "Poetry as No Big Deal" (1998, 102, 119):

What you need for writing poems then is some interesting games to play, that is, some interesting rules you must obey... Allen Tate once described a poet as someone "willing to come under the bondage of limitations—if he can find them."

In short, by not making too big a deal of poetry—letting it be play-within-rules, letting it be about what it turns out to be about—you can write poems which please but don't try too hard. You will sometimes get a poem that is terrific or could be made so. This is a bonus."

If you don't have a copy of this book, get one.

Citations

Elbow, Peter. 1998. Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process. 2nd edition. Oxford University Press.