Month: August 2008

Step1
Develop and keep your own style. Trust your instincts about what sounds best with your education, theories, influences and place in the poetry hierarchy.

Step2
Adopt what you truly like, but recognize that it may not be the last word forever.

Step3
Understand the process. Be aware of why, as well as when, a poetry trend is cooling. Poetry trends and fads can happen because a style is cool (spontaneous bop prosody) or fun (flarf) or even shocking (the gurlesque).

Step4
Adapt the style you want to adopt. For example, is everyone writing short short poems but you just can’t? Add an extra stanza to your poems so you can write them short but not as short as everyone else.

Step5
Mix trendy words with classic ones.

Step6
Break some rules; bend others. If the poetry fashion is proceduralism, try writing eight poems of eight lines each instead of retyping the whole goddamn newspaper. If slow poetry is in, use long vowels and dying metaphors before you actually opt to O.D. on barbituates.

Step7
Develop confidence: Take a class, read poetry magazines, get a poetics lesson, get your MFA done.

Step8
Learn about poetry, style, tips and tricks, then go out and make your own poetry news.