How to Write a Poem by Tania Runyan

Author:Tania Runyan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: poetry, poetry anthology, teaching english, how to write poems, how to write poetry, billy collins, teaching poetry, college poetry, college texts, poetry units
Publisher: T.S. Poetry Press

Verbs

3) Fortify the physical character of the piece by using strong action verbs instead of linking verbs and verbs in the passive voice. Because active verbs and concrete nouns are more visceral, dynamic and persuasive, they reduce the need for modifiers. Avoid overusing the -ing form of verbs because it dilutes and reduces their strength. It is like driving a speedboat without raising the anchor.

Loch Ness Sculpture, Wyoming

Chomping on your chain-link kelp,

you bleed rust at the bolts of your neck pipes.

Kids scamper past the entrance to tiptoe curbs

and flick shards of asphalt

at cars. The 100-degree sun

ignites your aluminum skin.

You’ve seen a new mom crumple

at the door of her Caravan,

an old man mutter into his taco,

stringy-hair tweens French-kiss

behind trees. But your face fades dissolves

in the summer fog.

In winter, your head barely shines shimmers

through the heaps of snow.

People slam car doors and skitter

over slabs of ice to their meetings.

I’ve lost your title, town, and sculptor’s name.

All legends are a grainy shot:

shadow shapes, a black lake,

the wish

to never know.

In this revision, I removed the ing from chomping in order to start the poem with more of a punch. The draft doesn’t have any linking verbs or passive voice, but fades can be changed to dissolves to better capture the image of the nature of fog, and shines can be changed to shimmers to capture a smaller sparkle of metal just peeking through the snow.

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