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'Let the words take you where they will'

It's probably a safe bet that there's more poems about love than there are about the contents of a shed, but acclaimed poet Michael Symmons Roberts makes the point that no subject, or garden out-house, is off limits when it comes to finding a topic to put into verse.

And he should know. Winner of the Forward Prize, the Costa Poetry Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award, and a judge in 2015's Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, he has given ten pointers to penning poetry, including advice on not restricting yourself when it comes to subject matter.

Closing date for the competition, which is open to 11-17 year olds, is Friday 31 July, so still time to open the door on your poetry skills, you never know what might be lurking there.

1. A poem can be about anything (or nothing), so don’t restrict yourself. One of the most admired poems of the last 50 years, by the Irish poet Derek Mahon, is called ‘A Disused Shed in County Wexford’. At first, it seems to be just that - a poem about opening a shed door and finding mushrooms growing in the darkness - but by the end it’s talking about the ‘Lost people of Treblinka and Pompeii’. A poem can start, and finish, anywhere.

One of the most admired poems of the last 50 years, by the Irish poet Derek Mahon, is called ‘A Disused Shed in County Wexford’

2. Sometimes (often) poems don’t begin with an ‘idea’, but with a phrase, or a line, or an image. And it’s best not to map out the journey of a poem before you’ve written it. That sort of planning can work for fiction, but making a poem is an exploratory process. You find out what it’s about by writing it.

3. Making a poem is just that - an act of ‘making’. Some people think they can’t write because they don’t have good enough ideas or strong enough feelings. Don’t worry! Play with words and see where they take you.

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4. Poets often talk about writing ‘drafts’. All that means is that no poems (well, okay, very few poems) ever come out fully formed and ready to read. Most first attempts are scrappy and patchy and rough. Each time you go back to it and try to make lines better, or come up with a stronger phrase or image, you are making another draft. Keep redrafting until you’re happy with it.

It doesn’t have to rhyme, but sometimes using rhyme will push a poem in a new direction and surprise you

5. There are many ways of redrafting. Some poets alternate between printed and handwritten drafts, some poets work in notebooks until the poem is finished, some poets work entirely on screen. The golden rule is to keep all your drafts. If you keep them all then you can edit without risk or worry, because if you take a wrong turn you can always go back to a previous version.

6. It doesn’t have to rhyme, but sometimes using rhyme will push a poem in a new direction and surprise you.

7. Poets have choices that novelists don’t have. The main one is the choice to break a line before it reaches the end of the page. Where you choose to break the lines can change the pace and mood of a poem. Line-breaks are part of the making - experiment with them.

8. Poets don’t have to use special, poetic language. Some of the finest poems are made of very plain words. Look at the poems of Robert Frost as an example.

9. Read poems. All sorts of poems. Even better, listen to poets reading their poems, so you get a sense of the music of them. The Poetry Archive is a terrific place to do this.

10. Have fun with it. Be playful with it. Let the words take you where they will and if you’re lucky you will make a poem that surprises you as well as your readers.

Michael Symmons Roberts

Michael was born in 1963 in Preston, Lancashire, UK.

His poetry has won the Forward Prize, the Costa Poetry Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award, and been shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize. He has received major awards from the Arts Council and the Society of Authors. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and of the English Association.

His continuing collaboration with composer James MacMillan has led to two BBC Proms choral commissions, song cycles, music theatre works and operas for the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Welsh National Opera. Their WNO commission – ‘The Sacrifice’ – won the RPS Award for opera, and their Royal Opera House / Scottish Opera commission - 'Clemency' - was nominated for an Olivier Award.

His broadcast work includes ‘A Fearful Symmetry’ - for Radio 4 - which won the Sandford St Martin Prize, and ‘Last Words’ commissioned by Radio 4 to mark the first anniversary of 9/11.

He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

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