Jim Henley writes some damned sensible advice on how to become a poet — advice that applies just as readily to becoming any kind of writer.
Start by slavishly imitating poets you admire. This is the opposite of
the standard advice that you need to concentrate on "finding your own
voice." Don't take this wrong, _____, but fuck your own
voice. Your own voice will take care of itself as your craft matures.
Your own voice will, if you're going to have one, insist on
emerging. In the meantime, learn the craft. Learn the vocabulary and
practice of meter. Learn rhyme schemes. Learn the ways that free verse
gets written that yet contains music. Reread poets you admire, read
about them and then read the poets they get compared to.
(via Electrolite)
