How to Write a Poem in 15 Minutes

"words are so small" animated gif by Jacqueline Peveto

How fast you can write the poem isn't really the issue, is it?!  What I am saying is sometimes writing doesn't get done unless you schedule yourself.  By putting yourself in a habit of writing, a practice of writing, you can make the good stuff happen more frequently.  A famous technique is to time yourself in each sitting, and extend the time every couple of weeks.   PoetryBones unique approach is to free write for 10 minutes, and write the poem for 15 minutes.  I know, I know, this makes it 25 minutes.  So what--go write!

Try these strategies in making that poem happen -- on the spot:

1. Start with free-write exercise.  Write for ten minutes on a topic.  Keep your hand moving, don't judge, don't stop to correct  or proofread or evaluate.  Just write. WRITE!  And write some more. Then, use select material from the free-write  in your poem. This is the PoetryBones unique approach to a poetry writing practice.  Check the writing practice blog  and the archives (in the right panel) for prompts.  
2. Pick what's PERcoLAting  in your free-write. Where is the tension? Where is the energy?  Where are the most provocative phrases?  Highlight them and weave them together in a poem.  A l l o w them to be used differently in the poem form than they were first used in prose form.  
3. Purposefully Edit.  In the free-write, keeping the hand moving (ala Natalie Goldberg instructions) is the goal.  But in the poem-write, take time to revisit and edit.  Purposefully experiment with arrangements of phrases and line breaks and stanza-building.  Differentiate from the flow of free-write to the “editing” or slowing down for the poem-write.
4. Try a classic structure.  If you've got the words and images on flow but are stuck with structural questions, employ my favorite go-to: Let stanza 1 establish the setting, stanza 2 relay the event itself, let stanza 3 be the processing of the event.   For example, see the writing prompts for  Stopped You in Your Tracks.  
5. Try elements of poem types.  For example, knowing some qualities of an ode can influence what you keep in your ode poem and what you trim away.  Likewise with the elements of the ghazal, the cinquain, the epic -- I know!  So many poem forms, so little time. 
6. Practice writing across genres.  One of my favorite writing instructors, Sterling Plumpp,  once said if you can write your story in each genre, then you know you're a writer. Whether or not you agree with the sentiment,  it is a  great writing exercise, which is why I participated in a NaNoWriMo event this past weekend.  So, take that prose of your free write and make it a poem, then take the story of the poem and make it a script, re-write a section of the story as non fiction, a scene in a short story, a chapter in a novel.  This experiment helps you also discover the best genre for the story you're trying to tell -- or a whole new focus  may emerge because you're working in a different genre.  

What are your strategies for getting a poem written!