Whether just starting as a poet, or well-experienced, you can learn by imitation. Choose a poem by another poet, classic or modern, and write a poem in the same style. There’s a few ways you could approach this:
- Write a poem as a direct response to the subject.
- Write your own poem inspired by the topic.
- Follow the poetry form only.
Here’s an example of one of my early poems. I personalized Emily Dickinson’s “This is My Letter to the World.” I kept it in a similar style, and thought: What would I say to the world?
My Letter to the World
What do I have to say to the world
That all but deserted me?
Would anyone listen to a single soul
Through the unheard art of poetry?
Although surrounded by others,
Wanting my voice to be heard,
I’m often isolated
For no one will hear my words.
Can I make a difference in someone’s life,
As others did in mine?
Will anyone read the simple words
That I wrote in my spare time?
I may be a shy, quiet person
But I have a message of my own;
Won’t someone come and discover
The soul within my poems.
The message of my poem remains true today. I want my voice, my poems, to be heard. I’d love it if you shared your own poem based on the prompt.
annewestlund
feywriter
lin52
Margaret Fieland
Margaret
Michele
Poetic Muselings 
Comments on: "My Letter to the World: A Poem and a Prompt" (2)
Mary, lovely poem. It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the ones I’ve done are rhymed and silly: One modeled on “Three Blind Mice,” one on “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and a third a pastiche of several folk songs. I also have a haiku sequence with lines from folk songs
Amen to the idea, Mary, and the way you said it. Listening is a lost art, reading not far behind sometimes.
How we influence others, and they us, isn’t always known until a later time. I’ll share one of mine soon. Thanks for this reminder and nudge.