Where to Get Inspiration for Poetry?

When we were asked to write a poem for our English class back in high school, I don't know what to write. In fact, I dislike writing. I don't understand how some people enjoy writing. Then my English teacher told us that writing poetry is actually fun and personalised. It can be about anything from appreciation of nature to your own personal experiences! You just have to look around.

"Poems can be about absolutely anything. You can see a dusty window and mused about its history; maybe two lovers exchange their messages over there"

For beginners, what you can do is to just simply write. Have a sheet of paper in front of you (or laptop if you prefer) and just start writing (or typing). Write the first thing that comes to your mind. You don't have to filter it (we'll get to that later) It doesn't have to make very much sense either. The idea here is to just begin with the habit of writing and to be familiar with your train of thought.

This will get some time to get used to.

Now that you've get used to writing, it is time to write about a certain topic. Then write things you associate the topic with. You can have it in bullet form.

As an example, let's say my topic is stars.

My thoughts will look something like this:

Topic: Stars

*Little gas balls of light

*Sparkles

*Source of inspiration

*Reminder of abundance

After having a topic and a list of thoughts about the topic, you can then feel free to arrange and rearrange the topics so it can tell a story.

And lastly, you can choose the rhyming scheme you want to use as well as what type of form your poem would take. There's no correct answer here! It's your poem so your own rules. The idea is to put your thoughts in to words and share it with others.

Examples of Rhyming Schemes (for six liners):

• ABABCC
• ABBACC
• AABBCC

Examples of Forms:

• Iambic pentameter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter)
• Couplet
• Free verse

Now to go back to my topic of stars: I chose two stanzas, with a rhyming scheme of ABACC for the first stanza and ABACCD for the second. And here it goes:

Stars: Reminder of Peace and Abundance

In the busy city life,
With all its activities and interactions,
Inevitable is strife;
And so are complains about life being tough
And that resources are never enough.

In the quiet of the night,
Away from the city's hustle:
In the sky, the stars shine so bright;
Providing light and guidance,
Peace, clarity and abundance,
Amidst the vast darkness.

Note: As a side comment, this poem was written with a prompt (i.e. this means that a topic was given to me) and was requested by someone and can be found in my DeviantArt account. So I was just fortunate that it turned out great and I just love it!