I...I...I,I..*dances*...the occasional danger of I..

[Beth A., Head Hostess]

Okay,yes of course putting yourself in a poem is often needed and repeated for a purpose.
But when is it too much? Or when is it too little? I often see poems floating around that seem to more have a problem with the former. Not here per se but among the masses of new writers. I think we're all okay here,just a reminder it's good to take yourself out of the poem once in a while. Even the he,she,you and so forth if possible and if the poem would be overly repetitive otherwise. Sometimes I actually have a problem with the latter and try too hard to do so. It's okay, if grammactically needed or intended its fine as long as repetitive usage is considered.

Of course poems only ever intended for you or practice can be full of all the I you want!

[Katy]

Yes, repetition is dangerous and can be said of any pronoun. Once the subject or storyteller is identified, there are other ways to describe their adventures, emotions, and words. I've seen lots of "you" used in a general term or "one" as in, "One must always..." I think that's even worse than the overuse of "I!"

[MizziQ]

It is fine to use it yes, but I've always enjoyed poems that just go straight out and describe an experience or a thing without you neccecarily knowing who's doing the describing or even what they're describing until the end...just a thought.

[Beth A., Head Hostess]

As long as it isn't overused I kinda like "one" as a substitute for a person.
But I imagine it can be as overused as anything. Actually even better is to test yourself,look over your notebook and see what are your own personal clichés. Not that the poems are boring or anything but just as an exercise to push yourself as a poet. Are there perfectly good words that you favor? Is there a way to expand your poetic vocabulary?

Stuff like that...I may do it again one of these days...

[Katy]

The best way to improve your vocabulary is to READ! lol Read anything! Blogs, newspapers, books, magazines, anything at all. The more you read and the wider your variety, the more words you'll pick up. Look up the ones you don't know in the dictionary as well as the thesaurus. If you use a thesaurus to look up a word you can find synonyms, homonyms and other words that rhyme with it. It's really handy! I think a fun exercise would be an expansion on what you said, Beth. Write an extremely simple rhyming poem then try to replace the easy words with more difficult ones and still make it rhyme. It sounds like a really good exercise.

[Beth A., Head Hostess]

That's a good idea I may put it up as a challenge. Of course reading is definately a need for writing well and expanding your vocabulary. I was just mentioning looking over the words you use a lot since it was an exercise I was taught in a past poetry class.

Just as much they always say you can't be a good writer without being a good
reader. There are a number of things to do.

[Beth A., Head Hostess]

Whew..just writing the simple version was a brain exercise....I'm going to wait to do the second step. I just don't write simple or even traditional rhymes much these days so it was quick enough but harder than I thought.