A Few Tips on Writing Poetry – a craft post from Lisa Dordal

Reading is fundamental.

My number one piece of advice about writing poetry is to read poetry, lots of poetry. Writing is one part of a conversation—the speaking or sharing part; reading is the listening or receiving part. When I first started writing poetry (back in high school and college), I was reluctant to read poetry because I thought (erroneously) that doing so might cause me to lose touch with my own voice. In reality, though, it was only by reading other poets that I was able to ...