When I started writing poetry at age six or seven, it was more observational than emotional. I wrote what I saw and that was it. Once I hit my teen years and my hormones surged, a flood of emotions would deluge the page every time I wrote.

The hardest thing I had to learn as a poet was to take a step back. To step back and word my poem so that instead of reliving that moment again, I needed to allow the reader to see it, to feel it and perhaps identify with it.

So, how exactly can a person show emotion on the written page? The same way you show your reader the setting of your poem. Give them a visual to hold on to.

Here are two examples from lyrics:

(Piano Man, artist – Billy Joel)

(She Will Be Loved, artist – Maroon 5)

These two examples focus on a smile, but you certainly aren't limited by that particular body part. You can show emotions through eyes, hands and more.

You can also show emotion, for example love, in your poem by depicting a special moment. People do little things for the ones they love. By showing one of these special moments you can show that love without beating your reader over the head with it.

I was a judge in a poetry contest once that had entries that ran the whole gamut of emotions. The piece that won was one that was about something as simple as breakfast. In this poem I could see this couple having breakfast and I could see how much they loved one another.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not easy, especially when you work with emotional material. If you were to look through my work you’d find horrible attempts, some angst, a decent amount of passable/good work, and the occasional gem that I cut just right.

© 2006 Holly Bliss. All Rights Reserved. This document may be freely redistributed in its unedited form and on the condition that all copyright references are kept intact along with the hyperlinked URLs.

About the Author: Using her writing as paint on the canvas of her life, Holly Bliss is an eclectic writer, newsletter editor and an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Poetry.

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