Restrictions Boost Creativity
- A chapter from How To Write Evocative Poetry -
I don’t often adhere to the traditional poetic rules and structures. I prefer to write what comes as it comes. However, there is something to be said about writing with restrictions. Restrictions, be they self-imposed, or derived because of the kind of poetry that you are writing, can boost creativity. I think that one of the largest factors causing ‘writers block’ is having too much choice. When faced with a blank page and no prompts or guidance, most newer writers stumble and become overwhelmed. But when they are told to write a haiku on the topic of a cloudy sunrise, suddenly they get some inspiration – the result may or may not be ‘good’ but something is infinitely better than nothing.
I like to add my own restrictions. As a poem is forming, I start to discover what kind of poem it is. Perhaps it has an ABAB rhyme structure, or maybe it’s a monorhyme, or perhaps it wants to have a certain number or lines, or specific symbolism, or perhaps each line needs to have an alliteration, or begin with a certain letter or sound. These restrictions, even though they are self-imposed, help the rest of the poem to form. The restrictions guide ‘Writer-Zac’ to keep the words coming and later enable ‘Editor-Zac’ to correct and tweak the wording and structure after the fact.
Once the poem is almost complete, I always consider breaking the self-imposed restrictions. I ask myself the question, ‘could this poem be better if?’ - I will always preference expression and readability over strict adherence to structure and restriction.
In Your Absence comes from the epic mono-rhyming poem Can’t Quite Express – the format dictates that the ending word of each line has the same rhyme sound. I wanted to discuss the loss of a friend and all the emotionality that such a loss held. Given the length of the overall project, I didn’t restrict this section’s length. The restriction of end rhyme, and the topic, enabled the words to flow. That said, I didn’t strictly adhere to the mono-rhyme - preferencing flow and meaning. Half rhymes and line breaks are used to emphasize certain points that I couldn’t have otherwise accomplished.
In Your Absence
I can’t quite express
The confusion and the mess
That’s been left
In your absence
Why didn’t you confess
The demons that had you possessed?
Why couldn’t you
Escape the thoughts that had you depressed?
Why was this the only way you could address
The aspects of life that you detest
that had you dispossessed?
Perhaps if you got some of it off your chest
The world wouldn’t be one man less
One man that blessed it with his presence
Now all who knew you are left to digest
News of the death’s caress via a self-inflicted process
We can’t protest
We can only attest
To the pain and existential unrest
Of the hole your life has left
In Would You I start each line with the words ‘would you’. This restriction forces the poem to become a series of questions. With these restrictions, I tell a story by first asking the reader a series of questions, and then flip it on its head with the last question, asking them if, given the contemplation that the prior questions evoked, they would forgive me (ostensibly for acting as they themselves had).
Would You?
Would you forsake
A lifetime
Of love
For a moment
Of perfection?Would you forestall
Happiness
For a promise
A hope
And a shared dream?Would you forgo
A chance
To feel
More alive
Than you’ve ever thought possible?Would you forgive
Me
For trying
To be more
Than I was destined
To be?
Finally, Maya is a haiku, and thus it is very strict on the formatting of each line. That said, the topic of ‘traditional’ haikus is nature, so my choice to use this structure to discuss mindfulness meditation both follows and breaks with restriction.
Maya
Silence is broken
Thoughts diverting my focus
Maya wins again
Summary
Boost your creativity by setting a restriction upon the type of poem you are going to write. This could be in the form of a traditional structure, or one that is entirely of your choosing.
This chapter is from the book How To Write Evocative Poetry
