Poems Shmoems: My thoughts on writing poetry

Elena Hailwood

I don’t know the rules or conventions of poetry. I’ve never studied poetry, really, and I never paid attention to the functional aspects of the poems we read in in school. To me, poetry’s about rhythm and meaning – about ‘putting into words’ things you'd could never just say and about using the abstract to make things vivid. To me, rules seem unpoetic.

So this is a sort of overly-embellished caveat to say: I’m sure my poems are technically pretty shit. And, I’m sure there are plenty of literature professors who’d be horrified by them. But luckily, I don’t know any.