Help writing and revising poetry, poetic devotionals, inspirational writings, poems for children and picture books

“My heart overflows with a goodly theme, and I will address my verses to the King,” Psalm 45:1.

Poetry Tip: Poems Have A Theme

Poems usually need some kind of theme to hold the lines together, yet most poets probably do not think about this theme while they're writing so much as while they’re revising a
poem. After writing about a childhood incident, for example, I spent a couple more weeks on revisions before noticing the theme of extraordinary generosity, similar to the Gospel story about the woman who gave away her last coin. The poem, later included in
Poetry: Taking Its Course, has four-beat lines with a variation to emphasize "I took."


Down Kinney Town
by Mary Harwell Sayler

Feet bare, the girls came up today,
and Mama gave them ouch grown shoes
that once belonged to me or Kay,
but, oh, I longed to give them too.

Two girls they were: soiled blonde, unkempt –
not like Mama's girls who shone
in new sewn clothes and often dreamt
of finer galaxies than home.

With clean hands bare, could I, a child,
share much with girls from a small shack, wild?
But one said, "Come," so I went down –
down the tangled path to Kinney Town.

Theirs was adventure I could play.
A cold potato rationed me –
eyeless, grown in soil, unbent. They
gave that last leftover. Free.

I took.
Then home I went with backward look.


Besides being aware of the underlying theme in your poem, you may find yourself repeatedly writing about life themes that are important to you. For instance, a solid acquaintance with the Judeo-Christian Bible, an interest in ecumenical themes and a strong belief in the need for peace among persons who believe in the Almighty God all contributed to this poem, which originally appeared in the Summer 2001 issue of Dovetail.


Entry Position
by Mary Harwell Sayler

Until you told me, I had no way of knowing
the word, “mezuzah,” although spell-check
on my computer recognized this place for
putting parchment on the door-post: a hallowed
marker to remind you where you came from
and how and where you go. The word I’d heard
from my Mezuzah told me, “I know just who
I am and how I came to where I’m going” –
a sorrowful word to me – apparently referring
to the cross. How could I know this also spoke
of a cross-guarded threshold through which I
can safely come and go toward the unknown? 
But now you’ve shown me this sacred Shema sign,
I know just where you’re coming from and who
you are and where we’re going – less alone.


Poetry Tip: Poems Can Have Many Layers Of Meaning

Peace among people doesn't always occur, even among those who believe in the same God. The following war poem describes thoughts, sights, and feelings about a night mission that could happen in any conflict, but this free verse poem from the chapbook, Winning The Wars is based on my father's letters during World War II. Obviously, the poem depicts a serious setting, theme and event, and yet it includes wordplays, innuendoes, and/or multiple meanings, each of which were provided by connotations associated with various words in the poem. Often, a quick read won’t give you the chance to notice those kinds of details that come to light in a second or third reading.


Night Flying In Uneven Lines
by Mary Harwell Sayler

Everywhere the night explodes
in darkness –
blank and black
like a deep hole cut
to accommodate a casket.

Some nights before a mission,
sleep exhumes me,
draws me
from disarming visions:
relics, recollections, and what still
remains.


Poetry Tip: Poems Need A New View

As you revise your poems, look for words with connotations that add extra layers of meaning. Also as you revise, look for a fresh perspective, such as found by walking around an object before taking a photograph. This poem, which first appeared in Windhover 2002 then the 2006 anthology, Textures, by Two Friends Publishing, came about because of an odd angle or view.


Odd Angles
by Mary Harwell Sayler

Lord, I can't begin to know
how much you suffer,
          suspended
there:
an artifact on my wall.

What do you detect in me,
as I reflect on this unlikely
fact of art
found
in a crucifix?

How can I keep you
elevated & not
just
          hanging

around
with nothing to do but

balance
the cross
points
of my life?


Poetry Tip: Poems Go Most Places

Besides looking for an odd angle, consider placing your poems in odd places. For instance, the following free verse poem appeared as the preface to my book, The Encyclopedia of Muscle & Skeletal Systems & Disorders, published in 2005 by Facts On File.


Preface
by Mary Harwell Sayler

These bones are mine.
I cling to them.

In the heart of bone,
the marrow
deepens.
Humors flow,
and blood cells
breed.

But how
will I circumvent
those times the joints
articulate
no movement?

Who best can
answer
the spine’s
ongoing question
as an aching back
finally finds
its rest?


Poetry Tip: Poems Can Play!

This children's poem, which originally appeared in the August 1981 issue of Living With Children and later in the book, Poetry: Taking Its Course, has a one-beat line (monometer) with two-beat variation (dimeter) in the third and final lines. More importantly, perhaps, it reflects the common childhood perspective of a picky eater.


Beans
by Mary Harwell Sayler

Green beans,
string beans,
lumpy, long,
and skinny.
Pole beans,
ole beans,
no, thanks,
I won't have any.
 

Poetry Tip: Poems Use Technique

Poetry lets you express your beliefs. The stronger those beliefs are, the more poetic devices will work well. This poem, from the poetry chapbook Winning The Wars, includes the poetic technique of figurative language, such as simile (this is like that) and metaphor (this is that.) Another poetic device here is the sound echo of alliteration where words in close proximity begin with the same letter of the alphabet (for example, bullies, bombs, and bullets.) For the Christian poet, however, a more important device may be the way a poem faces problems realistically, asks hard questions, yet ends on an upbeat note of hope. In this poem, that hopeful ending includes the biblical symbol of an olive branch as a sign of peace.


Rummaging Through The Rubble
by Mary Harwell Sayler

How did it begin – this invading
terror where people did not stop
their bullies until bombs dropped
and bullets seeded ill-will and
despair? How will it now end?

If I did not believe we could set
a few things right, I would not
be here, fighting to maintain some
sense of order when fretful thoughts
troop in like tattered soldiers and
emotions dull or die. What survives
becomes a secret memoir to hide or
an open chronicle to keep with living
symbols to draw from and decode: 

See how that casement window,
tilting toward a pure perspective,
remains intact, and how the live-
stock leaves the basement rubble
to breathe and breathe and breed,
and how the blood-tiled rooftops
of these ancient buildings gape
open, looking up, and how those
wrought-iron gates, unhinged, now
stand aside, unhindered, their fret-
work black-laced and unlocked
beneath the graceful branches of
that olive tree.


Poetry Tip: Traditional Forms Use Measure

In classical poetry, each couplet (i.e., pair of lines) traditionally uses iambic pentameter (five feet of iambs where an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed ___ / ) and where true rhymes occur in end-line position. However, variations occasionally occur as shown in this contemporary poem from Winning The Wars. Notice, for example, the slant rhymes in the first two couplets and the irregular line lengths throughout the poem.


Couplets From A Broken Window
by Mary Harwell Sayler

In an Italian home, a picture of Jesus
has a nimbus

around His head, facing the top
arch of the window, looking up,

as though He cannot believe
the fiery rain received

a few weary months ago. The pane
of glass reveals little trace of the pain

in His face at this distressing sight,
lit by an artist’s touch and such sharp shards of light.


Poetry Tip: Traditional Forms Have Options

Another poem from Winning The Wars offers an example of the 19-line villanelle. If you try this traditional form, stay true to form by alternatively repeating lines 1 and 2 of the first verse throughout the poem until both lines come together again in the last verse. Notice, too, how the middle line of each verse has the same end-line rhyme as line 2. As you can imagine, you will need words with a lot of rhyming choices. Also, your first and third lines need to be something that bears repeating.


Trying To Get The Story Straight
by Mary Harwell Sayler

We come along and tell them what to do
and pay their workers in a different way,
but who knows what is right for them or true?

Demands made on the rich are rare and few,
but the poor have little choice in what we say
when we come along and tell them what to do

about living their own lives, but tell me. Who
can speak for another or even know how to pray
for what’s best for them – or right or true?

With food scarce, black market prices are too
high for anyone but the very wealthy to pay
unless we come along and tell them what to do

with their own money, capping costs, so you
and I can afford things too, if we have our say,
but who knows what is right for them or true?

Workmen stand around like there’s nothing to do!
And standing in rubble, they laze the day away
until we come along and tell them what to do,
but who knows what is right for us – or true?


Poetry Tip: Traditional Poems Include Syllabic Verse

Traditionally, poems in English or other European languages step into line with the same number of beats per line, or they use meter to measure lines of feet. In Asian countries, however, traditional verse forms often depend on the numbers of syllables per line. For example, the traditional haiku has five syllables on line 1, seven on line 2, and five on line 3. So the haiku "formula" would be 5, 7, 5. Classical haiku traditionally has a reference to the season of the year too. You'll also find light humor, a light scene, and an occasional end-line dash, such as occurs in this haiku from Poetry: Taking Its Course.


With Coffee At A Sidewalk Cafe
by Mary Harwell Sayler

Almond slivers, pear
slices with a bit of Brie –
Spring! Taste buds blossom.


Poetry Tip: You Can Create A Poetic Form

If you don't find a form you like, make up one! I thought I did for this poem from Winning The Wars, but I've since discovered that other poets devise end-line words that they also reverse then reverse again like a zigzag. Notice that, of course, but especially notice how the poem presents a realistic and not glamorous view of war.


Zigzagging With Supplies
by Mary Harwell Sayler

We confiscated cots from a neighboring tent
this morning but, needing more blankets, went
to Supply to get them. Our little fire helped some,
but wearing our flight jackets doesn’t keep us warm.
Coal in pasteboard boxes and some kindling come
at a certain time each afternoon. They’re rationed.

Drinking water is prepared for us. We’re cautioned
about pollution in the nearest city system, so come
hell or high water, we'll slake our thirst and get warm
enough, I guess. Giving us pure water from some
fabricated bag with a spigot on the bottom went
way above the call of duty. We’re in our tent

now, and oh, I meant to say, the adjacent tent
is standing empty since some of the guys went
home or died. I’m not sure which, but some
days, things like that happen. We have a warm
fire going, but whirls of smoke have begun to come
into our tent from burning the coal we've been rationed.


Poetry Tip: Free Verse Rests On Line Break

In writing free verse, you don't have to follow a specific count of poetic feet or syllables. You can break the lines wherever you like. Experiment! Play! And, as you revise, see what happens. In revising this poem, first published in a 1998 issue of Writer To Writer and later in my chapbook, Speaking Peach, I broke words on the internal rhymes. Notice, too, the theme of enduring faith that can occur despite the lack of logic.


Suspended Belief
by Mary Harwell Sayler
 
I thought I had upgiven childhood fan-
tasies: toys from San-
ta Claus, bunny baskets, and monstrous mounds of can-
dy on All Saints Hallowed Eve.

But sipping my morning cup of Columbian
coffee with Christmas-like pleasure, I saw a man
named Juan
and his nameless donkey, bean-laden, on TV,
and I believed.

I believed in the goodness of coffee
for those who grow and pick and drink.

I believed in the kind-eyed man
and his mule -- actors both,
bean-dropping on my reality.

And God?
Such belief comes so much harder than
the coffee man's assuring nod.

The One I cannot seem to see
is not so easy to believe,
and, therefore, as I live and deeply breathe,

I believe.

 

For more tips on writing and revising poems, Poetry: Taking Its Course is the book version of the poetry home study course Mary Sayler wrote and used for years in working with poetry students. That one-on-one option is still available for you to submit practice assignments by mail or email through the critique service. Mary also has some copies of chapbooks mentioned above, so contact her to order an autographed copy.

Poetry Writing Tips!

Themes & Subjects In Poems, Poetic Technique, Traditional Form, Line Breaks, Free Verse, Syllabic Poetry, Word Plays, & Other Tips To Help You Write & Skillfully Revise Your Poems.

All of the poems, articles, and photo art on this website are the (c) 2009 property of Mary Harwell Sayler. Please do not use without her permission. Thank you and God bless.

“Saints Alive, Now & Then” poems by Mary Harwell Sayler are now available for purchase through the new Christian syndicate on the Internet - Churchmouse.