How we choose to write.

[milo]

What influences how you choose to write? If the poem does't immediately choose it's form, what makes you lean one way or another?

My current dilemma: Tetrameter comes so easily while pentameter is a struggle. Why? It's often only one word difference. But that's not my question.

If one form comes easily and another is a struggle which do you choose (leaving aside for now, if possible, which suites the poem best)? Is it preferable to have the ideas rush out or to stretch and search and shuffle through your brain to satisfy the one that's harder for you? I'm thinking long run. Sure it's nicer to have 3 poems than one but what do you think might bring you to your goal of being a poet sooner?

If I am writing "prompted poetry" or occasional verse it is almost always a sonnet or a triolet.  The reason is because I am lazy and you can dash off any nonsense to a prompt in free verse and prompted free verse is almost always terrible.

If it is inspired verse - something that has been chewing away at me for a bit or something that just kind of hits me - it is almost exclusively free verse (with some exceptions) and after it is written i will often make a pass to smooth the rhythm which - being we are speaking of English poetry - frequently includes making many of the lines roughly iambic.

If you are not writing to forms, it is perfectly accetable to mix lines of different feet although the ear prefers to hear a declination so it makes sense to do a pass for sonics after you have written.

The toughest part with writing poetry is always the ideation - getting those original ideas down, the spark, the creative work.  After that, it is pretty trivial to put it into any form - and by trivial I don't mean fast, just that it is a mechanical process that is a forgone conclusion.  Even if I am writing a prompted poem or occasional verse, I first try to think of the turn.  Once you have that, you really have the poem.