Lost in Translation

If you're going to put words together on a page and call it "poetry" -- well, that's not too hard nowadays, is it?

But if you're going to put lines together that rhyme and fit a set metrical pattern, that's different, isn't it?

I say this because I'm sure by now, dear readers, you've given it a try. And you've set that try aside, and then re-read it -- only to find the poem you were so proud of the day after you wrote it is now pretty embarrassing.

I don't say that to insult you or bring you down. It's just what happens. I know this, because too many of my attempts have hit the bottom of the trash can to suit me.

Where lies success? Rewriting? Maybe, but all I ever did was flog a dead horse. Revisions to a successful poem? Of course, but top-to-bottom rewrites (of an already bad poem) were a waste of time. They were for me, anyway.

So try this: Take a batch of your free-verse work that you feel good about, and choose one that you really liked but maybe didn't take off the way you wanted. Or maybe one that has kind of a shape to its structure, but its free-verse "dress" fits too loosely.

Now, take that poem and "translate" it into traditional verse. Your "translation" may be a sonnet or a ballad or something else. Just start from the top and see what happens.

When you're done, set the new version aside for a time. First for a day, then for a week, then for maybe a month. Ask yourself what your poem gained by the "translation" and then what it lost by the process.

Keep both the free and traditional versions in your poetry file. Then do another "translation," maybe from a fresh free-verse poem. Repeat the review process.

Be honest each time, but not brutally. Don't beat yourself up over it, in other words. Enjoy doing something few poets ever do (or admit to doing -- that I've heard, anyway!).

See where it takes you.