Craft

The key to creative success.

“What makes you a poet is a gift for language, an ability to see into the heart of things, and an ability to deal with important unconscious material. When all these things come together, you’re a poet. But there isn’t one little gimmick that makes you a poet. There isn’t any formula for it.”

–Erica Jong

Featured Essay

The Importance of Line Breaks: Enjambment as Creating Tension and Additional Meaning in Poetry

This usage of enjambment seems deceptively easy. All we have to do is pay attention to our line breaks and use them more intentionally. Unfortunately, there is a little more to it than that. As poets, we always have to keep in mind how additional meaning changes what a poem does. Sometimes creating an interesting double meaning can do damage in a poem if it makes the aboutness of the poem too difficult for the audience to find. There is also the issue of having multiple options for line breaking. Some phrases will have three or even four good places to break a line, and it is important to spend time with all the options even when one of them seems immediately appealing.

“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”

— T. S. Eliot