Dear Poets,
The voice of the poets has spoken and we’re enthusiastic to finally roll out the end results for our recent poll posted on the Realistic Poetry International Twitter platform!
We asked our audience of poets: Which attribute/element is MOST important to you when writing poetry?
With regard to each word’s typical or common dictionary definition, creativity meaning; ‘the use of the imagination or original ideas,’ knowledge meaning; ‘facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject,’ imagination meaning; ‘the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses,’ and lastly, word choice, meaning ‘Choice and use of words in speech or writing,’ this includes a person’s vocabulary.
While all of these constituents are nearly essential to the basic recipe of creating/producing a poem, when considering this question, it might also be wise to take into account the fact that we are all individual and unique.
While someone’s main writing strength may bud from the wild seed of imagination, in another person’s world, the technique and strategy of word choice may simply be the key to their best poetry writing sessions and work, in other words to say, there is really no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer to the question.
When it comes to writing poetry, it’s safe to assume our techniques and processes naturally differ and vary based upon an assortment of different factors. This can include our thought processes and/or knowledge capacity. Our emotions and personal experiences. A person’s will for complexity and challenges compared to another’s need for comfortableness and simplicity. The targeted audience a person is considering can play a role in how a person views these hierarchy of components. Even a person’s mind or mindset can affect the capacity of these different specific areas when it comes to creating poetry!
We’re glad to say that a whopping 1,105 votes came in with majority poets choosing the element of ‘imagination’ as the most important when it comes to writing a poem.
‘Creativity’ and ‘word choice’ nearly tied with 29% choosing ‘creativity,’ and 23% saying ‘word choice.’ ‘Knowledge’ came in with the least number of votes with only 7% of poets feeling it is most significant when it comes to writing poetry.
This poll speaks loud and clear, magnifying the element of imagination as one of the most powerful sources and tools useful to a poet when creating a poem above all the others and also reminds us of a very interesting quote concerning our minds eye that says;
“The ability to imagine things pervades our entire existence. It influences everything we do, think about and create. It leads to elaborate theories, dreams and inventions in any profession from the realms of academia to engineering and the arts.”
In addition to this, one of the most renown and well-respected men in many societies around the world, Albert Einstein, once spoke of imagination’s dynamic vitality saying,
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution," furthermore endorsing the human imagination as the gateway to new dimensions and essentially the propelling force to sustainability of all life and creation.
Even so, regardless of which attribute is most important to you when it comes to writing a poem, the key is to never stop writing and always continue to be inspired, no matter how or where the inspiration flows from.
You may be a poet who enjoys research and learning, inspired to educate, teach and share facts and information about different academic subjects through writing poetry. Or you might be someone drawn to and inclined to fine art who uses poetry as a gigantic canvas to illustrate and paint the diver’s colors and shades of life.
Either way, each poem birthed takes on its own character, form, personality and attributes just as we do as human beings! And in the end, poetry embodies and puts to use parts of us we never even knew existed while simultaneously testing a diverse range of mental and creative assets and aspects valuable to us and the actual art of poetry from a multitude of angles.
The key is to pour all of your heart, soul and mind into every poem and let all other details naturally fall into alignment. A genuine, sincere and passionate drive to write, read and learn about the art of poetry for yourself and others will always be the best, most long-lasting incentive!
Thank you to all those who took time to participate and share feedback on this poll! We appreciate your votes and thoughts.
You can view the poll results and feedback by clicking on the following link:
https://twitter.com/RealisticPoetry/status/1013152946526146563
It would be hard to choose which is most important. All of them are. How can you choose words if you do not know what you are going to write? An idea strikes. That is creativity. Then you have to imagine being in the place or time. That is when the words come in. If you are in the 20th century and the poem takes place in the 18th century would you use words like wow, amazing, restroom, etc.? Knowledge is least important. Unless you are writing a biography in poem form you do not need knowledge. Your creativity and imagination also word choice are important. Your soul and faith added to the mix. So you see there is not…
Hello all,
For me this poll gave me a hard choice but I ultimately chose word choice. Though as you said each component are needed in order for a poem to be created I believe that word choice makes or breaks the work. I’ve rewritten poems from years ago with words I’ve learned over the years to create a stronger piece of work. Though the subject matter is the same the words used changed the tone. What was about one thing now reads about another which is dependent on word usage.
Poems needs to show not tell and that boils down to words, from specific to the vague, and how the poet uses them to tell their story. Even mundane…