Poetry tries to communicate an idea in a way that strikes their reader as new or fresh. Good poetry draws your reader in as it brings them nearer to your truth by using vivid images, sharp explanation, story telling or metaphor.
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Good poetry says a lot with a little. As you write and rewrite your poem, search for more specific and more powerful wordings.
Don't be afraid to start over. You will know you have something good by the effect it has on you. There is a feeling that comes with sharing a deep truth. There is a story about michealangelo as he is carving a statue out of marble. As the story goes, Michealangelo becomes more and more desperate to chisel away the stone and to reveal the statue that he believes already lives inside the stone. Poetry can be like that, as you word and reword lines to try to get closer to the truth that you want to reveal. Don't be satisfied with something boring, bland, or not exactly what you want it to be.
Let your images talk for you. You don't need to explain much in a poem, in fact explanations tend to ruin good poetry. Instead, let your metaphor talk for you, like Judy Brown's poem, Fire. Just make sure that your audience can understand your metaphor... ask a friend (or friendly ELA teacher) if they get it without explaining it to them. If you do need to explain things, let your explanations hint instead of tell, like in Mary Oliver's "I Own a House."
Look through the poetry that we have gone over, and use theirs as templates. Totally ok, just don't let your poem seem like you copied them. It needs to be uniquely your own.
Rhyming Dictionaries? Fine... but be careful. They can really screw up a poem. Your truth, and the way that you want to say it should be the thing your after. If you are using a rhyming dictionary, sometimes you might be tempted to write a line for the word you found instead of a line that is narrowing in your truth. This can make you poem seem shallow, or disjointed. Always point your poem at your truth, not at a word that rhymes. If you can't seem to make that happen, consider using another form of structure, meter perhaps.
Rely strongly on the rubric (it is on your google classroom assignment. Ask questions if you don't understand a topic or grading criteria.
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