Wednesday, March 07, 2012

How To… Be a poet (seriously!)




Column by ANUSHA PARTHASARATHY

Good handwriting: Have you ever imagined poets as people who have bad handwriting (even if it is true)? So, it's time for you get to be all cursive in writing. about it. Take out those four-line notebooks (that you used when you were four) and practise ce those slants and curves. Soon, you'll be writing fancy lines with a quill!
An air of poetry: To be a successful poet, you need to have an air about you. This doesn't mean you write poems in scraps of paper and throw them around like confetti. It involves a more psychological and intellectual exercise. Read, eat and breathe poetry, and people will only have to look at you to know you're a poet.
Quote unquote: Learn to quote a line at any point of time, even if you are woken up at two in the morning. Memorise Mug up famous poems, read biographies of poets, and allow the information to settle. Then, its time to let your talent loose. Quote Browning, Wordsworth and Tennyson at every breath, with a dash of Neruda and Khalil Gibran. Before you know it, everyone will start quoting your quotes.
Rhyme scheme: Choose a rhyme scheme that will soon become your signature style. You can rhyme consecutive sentences, or every two sentences or break all those rules, and go freestyle. If you find even freestyle a bit constricting, invent your own style. That will immortalise you in the history of poets (even if it doesn't exactly immortalise your poetry). After all, not everyone understands poetry right?
The poet in you: Behave like a poet. Wear loose, unwashed clothes with coffee stains, have tousled hair, make sure your fingers have ink blotches all over them, and look like you haven't slept in days. You're room, on the other hand, must have crumpled paper, a writing desk with coffee stains, multiple half-full cups of (what is now) cold coffee and peeling wallpaper. There, the poet in you has been awakened.

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