{"id":85771,"date":"2025-04-03T09:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T14:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=85771"},"modified":"2025-04-03T09:02:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T14:02:18","slug":"poet-laureate-presents-writing-techniques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=85771","title":{"rendered":"Poet Laureate presents writing techniques"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By RORY MOORE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forsyth Library, the Department of English and Modern Languages, and Hays Public Library hosted a How-To-Series lecture featuring FHSU Poet Laureate and author Eileen Veatch inside the Memorial Union Trail Room on Tuesday to celebrate National Poetry Month. Veatch shared her foray into literature and taught the stylistic craft and techniques of writing poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The laureate\u2019s journey into poetry began when she was 16 years old and inspired by nature.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Veatch<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI was laying in bed one night, couldn\u2019t sleep, and looked at the moon out my window,\u201d she said. \u201cI was thinking about unconditional things we find that are unattractive, like pale skin, chubbiness, more roundness in our faces, or acne. You can equate those to the moon because it\u2019s pale and has a lot of craters, and I was like, \u2018That could be a good poem.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veatch\u2019s idea inspired her to write her first poem at three in the morning, which she details in her book \u20183 A.M. Notes.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI often write a lot of my poems at night,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s mostly when I feel my emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A misconception she noted was that all poems must rhyme, but she selectively employs it in her writing to convey emotions based on life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to do in English,\u201d Veatch said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to rhyme in Latin, but it\u2019s not meant to happen in English.  In one poem, I rhymed intentionally because I wrote about a guy I was talking to, and he played me over and over again. I came back to the same rhyme every other line until the very end, where I put the same rhyme two times in one line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her writing style relies on the beginning of her poems and her feelings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way I write my poems depends on my first line,\u201d Veatch said. \u201cI don\u2019t usually rhyme it, but sometimes, it feels right in my heart, so I\u2019ll go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key craft to poetry is repetition, which Veatch utilizes heavily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easier than rhyming, and it goes with alliteration as well,\u201d she said. \u201cRepetition is an easy thing you can put in your poems because it drives a meaning. Like \u2018I gave him my food\u2019 or \u2018I gave him my water.\u2019 That isn\u2019t an exact repetition, but it gives the same vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She prefers using pronouns in her writing to communicate with her readers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI give a little picture, and I go, \u2018That\u2019s me!\u2019,\u201d Veatch said. \u201cI give another picture, and I go, \u2018Now it\u2019s you!\u2019 Using \u2018you\u2019 as a pronoun when addressing a reader is common and fun to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the process of writing Poetry is editing, and Veatch noted that it can change the emotional impact of a poem and used Edgar Allen Poe\u2019s \u2018Timberlane\u2019 as an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe first wrote when he was 18,\u201d she said. \u201cHis first version was four lines, but he edited it about 20 years later and it went to 243 lines. When you read the four-line version, it is emotional. You can tell he was a teenage boy who lost his girlfriend, and he was very upset about it. Then, when you read the 243-line one, you go, \u2018Where\u2019s all the emotion?\u2019 It was like he was embarrassed of his emotions and cut it all out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veatch discourages writers from editing out material in a poem but encourages them to do what they think is best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying your editing should involve cutting all your emotions out,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it can be handy when you write something emotional, you read it, and you think it was a lot. I do that all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally, her writing is dependent on setting, emotion and surroundings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI write a lot of my poetry at night,\u201d Veatch said. \u201cUsually, it\u2019s because it\u2019s the end of the day. I\u2019m not around anyone, scrolling through my phone reading, and then I contemplate all my emotions. I will cry at almost anything, so I need to write it out and not let it sit in my brain. I\u2019ll write five or six poems about the same thing. It\u2019s just whether my words hit harder in a certain way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veatch\u2019s work, including \u20183 A.M. Notes,\u2019 is available on Amazon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By RORY MOORE Tiger Media Network Forsyth Library, the Department of English and Modern Languages, and Hays Public Library hosted a How-To-Series lecture featuring FHSU… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":85772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3397,3398,11],"tags":[15903,14110,5724,14331,15700],"class_list":["post-85771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-news","category-campus-news","category-news","tag-eileen-veatch","tag-fhsu-poet-laureate","tag-poet-laureate","tag-poetry","tag-rory-moore"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/4-of-4-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1167&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85771"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85777,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85771\/revisions\/85777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}