something to work on

often when i write poems, it starts with just one or two lines that i really like and then i decide to expand on them...sometimes i get stuck though.

 

Sometimes a couple lines stick in your head, but you don't really have anywhere to go with them at the time. Just set them aside in a notebook or (or a computer file), and take a look when you're seeking inspiration.

If you do any computer programming, consider putting snippets like that into a "fortune cookie" program, to deliver one at random when you log on, or on some kind of regular schedule.

 

im sorry but those lines are corny. Do you read much in the way of poetry?
My advice would be to write the poem and see for yourself how unoriginal the opening couplet is.

 

That's pretty harsh, especially considering it isn't even a work in progress yet. Dismissive much?

 

nah, just being honest. Its called tough love. If i wrote those lines i would surely hope to snap out of the dull mood i was in

 

The problem with such a request is that it falls into the same fold as those threads asking for story ideas.

It breaks down like this:

1) You've mentioned that you have other parts of this poem thought out, but you've not told us what these things are.

2) Two lines of a poem really are not enough to even tell us what the form or meter or rhyme scheme of the poem is.

3) The opening lines are a bit vague. These lines could start an iloveyou poem or just as easily an ihateyou poem.

There is simply not enough.

I understand your request only too well and what makes you ask it. You want a kick start. Something to get your motor going on this piece. Only you can provide that.

If the opening lines are hanging you up, maybe they are the wrong opening lines.

This happens to all of us. Poems, stories, novels, doesn't matter. For some reason the opening is romanticized and we hold it close to our bosom and are willing to edit pretty much everything else, but those first lines are subject to a different kind of writer's logic. They are untouchable and sacrosanct.

And... just as often they are the thing most needful of a pruning.

 

They need not be opening lines, for that matter. You could prepend, as well as append.

It's also very possible they will seed a poem, and yet be edited out of the final piece, as a catalyst participates in a chemical reaction without being incorporated in the final product.

 

i've no idea what they're going on about, since you took the lines down before i got here, but if you want some help with it, i'm a full-time poet and i mentor many aspiring ones, so would be glad to give you a hand... just drop me an email...

love and hugs, maia
maia3maia@hotmail.com