Where do YOU find your muse for writing poetry?

Question

How do you begin writing a poem? Where do you get the subject?

Answer 1

Anywhere that I can be left alone to think is when I write my poetry. I get an idea from a fragment of truth, and then sit a while and think on it and wonder what I can make of it. Most of the time I cant think of anything useful. Sometimes though, it ends up not even with the original plan I had for it. For example, one of my most recent poems was inspired by when I went to visit my father, who lives near the beach. I went to the beach every single day, and so when I went back to where I live now, 5 hours away from the beach, I wanted to go to the sea again. So I originally wrote about that, but ended up twisting it into a metaphor instead. Other times I take my favourite line from a good book and use it and maybe some of the storyline to create a new poem again. It all depends on my mood really, for where I get inspiration.

Answer 2

Here are some inspiring poets and their works : -

These are some favourites ...

The Poetry of Guru Nanak

When the strong fall upon, there is no cause for regret;

But when a powerful tiger pounces upon a herd of meek cows,

the cowherd  must be answerable.

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England.

There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England's, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind,

no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

On Talking Kahlil Gibran

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;

And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart

you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.

And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.

For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words

may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.

There are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone.

The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape.

And there are those who talk, and without knowledge or forethought

reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand.

And there are those who have the truth within them, but they tell it not in words.

In the bosom of such as these the spirit dwells in rhythmic silence.

When you meet your friend on the roadside or in the market place,

let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue.

Let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear;

For his soul will keep the truth of your heart as the taste of the wine is remembered

When the colour is forgotten and the vessel is no more.

On Good and Evil Kahlil Gibran

Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.

For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?

Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves,

and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself.

Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.

For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.

And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles

yet sink not to the bottom.

Answer 3

Its cliche but its usually matter of the heart. Weither its from seeing a grandparent or a love intrest, to me everything I write comes from love.  

Answer 4

when I'm driving

Answer 5

I'm not a "true"poet so I usually find mine on the loo, or the toilet or whichever you choose to call it.  It is the only place I can find enough solace or privacy.  Everywhere else someone is calling my name or looking for me.  I write on whatever my heart or mind calls out to me.  I also sometimes get inspired in the middle of the night....or in the middle of cooking dinner...always at a very inconvient time to sit down and write the words.

Peace & Love  :)

Answer 6

They write themselves..My troubled left temporal lobe dissects the world around me and the end product sometimes makes it to paper..VOILA !!!

Answer 7

I usually write down all of the ideas floating around in my head and find meaning from one or a few. Then i draw from my experiences and those of others. It's very relaxing, you can get your muse from any and everything. Anyone can write it just takes patience and a passion for it.

Answer 8

I'VE STRUGGLED WITH SEVER DEPRESSION MOST MY LIFE. TO THIS DAY I CANT SIT DOWN AND WRITE A "HAPPY" POEM. ITS THE DEEP DARK HAUNTING EMOTIONS THAT RULED MY LIFE THAT INSPIRES ME. THAT'S WHAT IS REAL IN MY HEART AND WHAT I NEED TO GET OUT BY PUTTING IT ON PAPER.

Answer 9

It's a bit like composing a good photograph - you see an image, then twist it a little with your imagination, and give it a new perspective, and it converts prose to poetry. Well that's how it works for me, but I haven't written anything in English for a long time. Maybe after this question, I may just try my hand at it again...

But of course, never forget that the inspiration of all great poetry is always some kind of emotional upheaval - momentous or momentary...

Answer 10

my muse finds me...sometimes at inconvenient times

Answer 11

I never know what's going to inspire me to write a poem, until I see/hear/read/feel it for the first time! It could be anything!