10 SECRETS OF GOOD POETRY

Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that there are ten secrets to good poetry. That person is more likely to be a salesperson than a poet. There are in fact eleven.

Good poems resist time
Language is a fluid
Your idealised inner poetic space may be quite irrelevant in the end
Even free verse is a form
Speech and punctuation and grammar imply rhythm
Randomness creates rhythm and harmony
Irony is not always funny
Remain auto-conscious
Poetics
Community
One word is enough to summarise an entire generation

St Kilda Writers Festival, Saturday February 5 2005

Davey Dreamnation
Davey Dreamnation

Davey Dreamnation (1972–?) is an Australalian musician, vocalist, pirate and record-label owner who now lives 'in the third person'.

View his full biography.

Articles: 1201

3 Comments

  1. this isn’t meant to be provocative – would you consider expanding on these points? I’d be well interested. Trying to get back into poetry writing, and this would be a help, i think.

    adam

  2. Hey Adam,

    no problems – I’ll try to elaborate on each secret in turn over the coming days – please feel free to add to the discussion (that goes for everyone, obviously, except the person who keyed in “discussion on private sex orgies in sydney” to get here).

Express yourself