Michael Rosen Poetry Tips

[Lenora Rademacher]

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Writing poetry seems quite easy, but it's often extremely tough to achieve that childlike simplicity. Those effortless rhymes. Even short poems can take ages to compose. Fleeting feelings constantly evade capture. That mot juste, disappears. But fret not: here are some top tips to help!

To write effective poetry, you need to read poetry. Regularly. Read or study at least one poem a day, sometimes more, depending on length / complexity. Reading poems before writing can help to get you in the right frame of mind. It doesn't even matter whether you like the poem or not. If you do, try and analyse why. If you don't - why might that be. How could it be improved. How can it help with your own writing. Take inspiration from poetry's varying subject matters, forms and emotions. And make them your own.

Many poets tend to stick to what they know. They write in the same way, over and over. And their poems came be samey. To break out of that, experiment with different media. Not just typing. A return to pen and ink in particular can work wonders. That tactile quality of pen and paper, can help bring things alive. Knowing that you can't erase or repeat, forces you to concentrate; to choose your words more carefully. Dictating a poem orally, recording it, then transcribing it into text can help massively with the flow of the writing. Bringing things to life. You'll almost certainly choose different words when speaking than if you'd written them down. Experiment, push yourself beyond your comfort zone once in a while.

It's not just reading poems that matters, it's taking them apart. Working out hidden meanings, layers. The rhyme, the rhythm, the context of the writing. What is the poem really about? Analysing poems may seem hard work at first, but it's a necessary labour. And with time, as your experience increases, you'll start to notice things more easily. Take joy in discovering things. Make connections quicker. If you find after a while you still hate studying poems, then perhaps poetry isn't for you. Analysing is not just an advantage, it's essential.

When writing poetry, it can be all too easy to meander, lose focus. To drift into some void where nothingness dwells. If so, you need to instil some urgency. In your time management, your writing. Give direction and force. Compel yourself to write within a particular deadline. Write a certain number of poems before the timer runs out. Force yourself to press through, even with less than perfect work; it can deliver great results. Compel yourself to focus, at all costs.

I believe in quantity not quality, at least to begin with. It's ok to write mediocre poetry, to produce something less than stellar. For by doing so, you'll develop your voice and your style. You can go back later and edit and you'll have a better idea why it didn't work. By writing copiously, sometimes greatness just spills out.

A lot of poets always choose lofty subjects, trying to sound desperately clever or grandiose. Or they stick to timeless issues like love or despair. They wallow about in them and explore little else. But there's great wealth to found in the everyday. In that packet of crisps rustling. In a dead leaf. Try thinking back on your day. What touched you or moved you. Perhaps it was the sad smile of that Granny. Perhaps it was the dog's wagging tail. Perhaps the postman's hello. Writing poems about small occurrences can often be more direct and honest. Inspiration springs out from the strangest of catalysts, and by doing so, real emotion and poetry shines through. Don't be afraid of writing about silly little things; they're often the best.

It can help to write poems about stressful events during the day. Traumatic life events. Try to capture why you felt so furious about that remark. That person who let you down. Try and make a joke out of it. I find poetry written about things that annoyed me often have great emotion behind them. They can often be funny. Or tragic. You can feel better writing about it and look back and laugh. Not just ranting and raving at great length though, it has to be focused, condensed.

Leaving things unsaid can give poetry a whole new dimension. Not stating the obvious, always. That said, some poets take things too far. A lot of poetry is far too inaccessible. Trying to be clever, it's far too subtle, and misses its mark. It leaves the reader disengaged and bored. There's a balance between being cryptic and still giving meaning. Leave things unsaid, but give just enough to make sense.

I find poems often work best when there are levels. You can enjoy it perfectly at surface value, for the form and words that it uses, but if you stop, you might realise it might also carry a deeper meaning, waiting to be discovered. A poem about something mundane, that captures the spirit of that thing, may be a metaphor for something darker, deeper.

A lot of great poetry brings emotions to the fore. Anger, joy, sorrow. Much of poor poetry doesn't. It leaves you thinking - so what? Why are you writing this? You should aim to move the reader somehow. Impart the emotion behind the writing. Write with renewed passion. Invoke lost memories. Write whilst imagining some kind of emotion, even if imagined. Bring something more to your words. Aim to leave your readers smiling and in tears, and wondering why.

Search over 500 videos of children's poets performing their poems and interviews providing insight into their poetry inspirations and their tips for writing poetry. Watch videos from Roger McGough, Grace Nichols, Michael Rosen, Joseph Coelho, Kate Wakeling, Karl Nova and many more.

Took the reins from Chris and steered us in to an honest account of her school staff room. Seeing the system we put young people through from the other way here are some tips on how to not be a dick to young people, people in general.

Mr Hegley was born in Newington Green, North London, and was educated in Luton, Bristol and Bradford University. His first public performance monies came from busking his songs, initially outside a shoeshop in Hull, in the late Seventies. He performed on the streets of London in the early Eighties, fronting the Popticians, with whom he also recorded two sessions for John Peel, and has since been a frequent performer of his words, sung and spoken, on both local and national radio.

The Fugitives are an indie folk-poetry collective based out of Vancouver, Canada. They have released three full-length LPs and toured multiple times through Canada, Europe, and the UK. They have been nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award for Pushing the Boundaries, and have toured as a supporting act for folk legends Dan Bern and Buffy Sainte-Marie. They are signed to Light Organ Records.

Paula Varjack (U.K./U.S) is a writer and performance maker. She has been making and touring her work since 2008. She is particularly drawn to true stories, and is often intrigued by the unspoken subtext that lingers underneath what we say. Her work has taken shape in a variety of forms; spoken word, devised performance, documentaries, audio pieces, stories and poems. She was one of nine artists in residence for the E.U. funded Poetry Slam Days project, creating a multilingual show: Smoke and Mirrors, that toured to twenty European cities. In 2009 she represented the U.K. in the Berlin International Literature Festival. She is also the creator and co-producer of the Anti-Slam, a satirical take on poetry slams where the worst poet wins. This event, a comedy-poetry hybrid, launched in Berlin and has since happened in Warsaw, Cologne, London, Turin, Sydney, Sheffield, Oxford and Newcastle, with a national event in London planned late this summer.

She was one of the thirty-six storytellers in the critically acclaimed London Stories Festival, at the Battersea Arts Centre last autumn. Her first solo show, Kiss and Tell, premiered at the Berlin 100 Degrees Theatre festival. Her second solo show The antiSocial Network, made in collaboration with director/dramaturge/designer Lesley Ewen, was performed at the Notes From The Upstream Festival, The PBH Free Fringe Festival, and The Vault Festival. Her third solo show: How I became myself (by becoming someone else) premiered at Chelsea Theatre, as part of Fresh Blood, a programme of emerging artists, last February. This is her third time at Glastonbury ,and her second time as a compere in the poetry tent. Get varjacked at www.paulavarjack.com

Andy Craven-Griffiths is a writer, rapper, musician and educator from Leicester who now calls Leeds home. He has performed poetry across the UK including at festivals such as Latitude and Glastonbury, where he won the Slam in 2005, his first ever festival. He has performed on Radio 1, Radio 4, and BBC 2, and had work commissioned by the Arts Council and Rethink mental health charity. He has worked and performed abroad for The British Council, run poetry workshops for over 15,000 young people, and has a chapter in the forthcoming book Making Poetry Happen.

Aisling Fahey has been writing and performing her poetry since the age of 13. She has performed in various locations across England and America, including the Barbican, the Southbank Centre and the Houses of Parliament. She won the London Teenage Senior Slam in 2009 and SLAMbassadors UK, run in association with the Poetry Society, in 2010. She is a member of the Burn After Reading collective who hold monthly poetry nights at The Gallery Caf in Bethnal Green. Earlier this year, she was short listed to become the first Young Poet Laureate of London. You can follow her on Twitter @_AislingF and see some of her work on her blog: getyourheadtogether.wordpress.com

Porky The Poet emerged as part of the ranting poetry scene in 1983. Inspired by performers like John Cooper-Clarke and Linton Kwesi Johnson, he followed their example and started gigging with bands. It was here he met Billy Bragg, who took him on tour as a support act in 1985. This led to a fruitful period opening for The Housemartins, The Style Council, The Pogues, Gil Scott-Heron and many others. On the poetry scene, Porky became a London circuit regular for Apples & Snakes and Cast New Variety. Around about this time Porky lost all his poems in Newcastle, decided to quit, changed his name back to Phill Jupitus and did other stuff. In 2007, Phill was cajoled by fellow ranting luminary Tim Wells to start writing again and return to the performance poetry scene. In 2012 at The Edinburgh Fringe he did his first full-length show Twenty Seven Years On, followed that up in 2013 with Zeitgeist Limbo and this year debuts the all-new Juplicity as part of the PBH Free Fringe.

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