What got you started as a poet?

I think everyone writes some of their first poetry at school, but some people just enjoy it a lot more than others.

The only problem with writing school/college poems is that you are very limited as to what topics you can write about, in case you offend someone.

Poetry only improves with time if you keep working on it.

Nici

I started writing poetry when I was trying to get over self harm. My friends suggested writing poetry or song lyrics would help let me feelings out but in a way which didnt hurt me or them. So far im happy to say its working! :D

origionally it started by school, like 5th grade but then i didnt write for some many years, and actually started in 8th grade, just because i had thought up something, and there was a poetry contest at my school. and then when i got to high school everything got harder and started building up more and more so i started writing more as an exit for my emotions.. and ya

Curiousity was my first passion. I was challenged too by other poems my friends wrote. The hymn was the last but amazing pointer to poem writing

~Edited out!~

i was inspired by my friends because they all wrote them and they were really good so sometimes we write some together or to eachother or about whatever.. it is just a way for me to get how i feel out and to express myself more than words in person or whatever..
it's one of my ways of dealing with stress and crap other than attempting suicide.. if i want to then i don't so instead i write poems or sometimes stories.. depends on my mood and if i really want to write a lot or not.. so it depends..
i've only been writing for about a year and a half now so i have a lot of feelings and a lot pf my poems are not even on here..

Nightmares. I kept dreaming of all these things that I just had to put down somewhere becauseit got too much for my head to handle. Then I started thinking about it during the day and I sorta thought "Why not write it down?". And there came my first poem.

i felt i needed to write all my emotions and feelings down instead of keeping them bottled up inside me and since i find it hard to share my problems with people through talking i turned to poetry instead.

erm... i guess i started riting to relieve stress and it jst turned into poetry.... im a beginer with poems n stuff so bleh... :| but... yer as sum1 up there said.. i never thought i wld rite a poem.. i wasnt even interested in them until i started riting.. its strange how our interests change....

xx emz

Nice i started writing poetry because well after my parents died i didnt know what to do so i sat down and started writing to releave my sttress and thoughts

Well, we all have to start out somehow.
And that somehow for me was the fact that when i was younger my teachers would always compliment how well i wrote, and how unique it was. Then some things in my life took a turn for the worse, and i didnt know what else to do. So i turned to the only thing that popped up in my mind that i was good at. the only thing that then, made me feel free. And that something turned out to be poetry. And writting is what i now do. Besides from the technology part of my life, Writing is always there for me when the power goes out.

-courtney-

i dnt knw wut got me strated as writting i just did when me and my ex-boyfriend broke up ans everything

Curiosity, other great poems i read about, hymns, and an inner yen to just pen myself down.
These gave the push to tag along.

I Love To Read It So One Day i Start Writing Because I Was Boered My Mom (Being Nosy) Read It And Realized i Had Talent I Was Unaware Of And Encouraged Me To Continue Writing xoxo-Nikki-xoxo

for me it started in 2002 when my friend moved away and i hadnt written any for about a year till i was with this great guy who turned out to be a jerk.... a waste of 6 months afta that i felt so many new feelings and my life became a rollercoaster or events so ive been writting non stop for a while a lot of my poems gte lost tho lol!

I can say pain/happiness got me started. I have always been a secretive person in when ever i feel some type of way about anything i just write it down. But what really got me started was when my 1st boyfriend got locked up, and the letters started then poems just followed up. But now I realize everything i wrote in those poems, I never felt that way about that person , it was everything i wanted but never received.

My friend persuaded me to write

Well, I always enjoyed reading it, and last year my friends were writing poems on this site so I thought I would give it a go :)

Hmm what started poetry for me was that my friend wrote this really amazing poem that made me cry.
From then on, I wanted to write poetry that touched people like his poem touched me.
He no longer writes poems, but I dedicate my poems to my friends that inspire me.

If you guys wanna give your opinion on my poems, plz answer honestly. I accept critism gratefully =)
Shirlz

I fell in love with writing in elementary school. In my 4th and 5th grade years I was voted best writer from the whole grade. (Not because I was so good or anything but just because I wrote so much and enjoyed it more than anything) I always had a dream to write professionally but it wasn't until I came to this site that I actually started writing. I write ALL the time now. Before I'd pick up paper and a pen every now and then. I didn't write much becuase I didn't feel as though I was any good and I kind of felt like I was wasting my time. But after coming on this site and seeing how much my writing has changed and in MY EYES improved I am in love with writing. I will not write professionally, ever, I don't think I am that good but I will never stop. Its become a passion that I truly enjoy. I love writing and sharing even more....

Very good topic. I loved reading how everyone got started.

I have been writing stories and poetry ever since I could pick up a pencil. It started off with my first diary. I can't even remember writing my first poem, but I know I have been writing for what seems like forever. Sometimes I could swear that I feel emotion deeper than everybody else and writing has always been my outlet for these intense feelings. It just kind of went from there, I suppose.

i got started from reading poems, then i just started to write and thats how i got there

middle school.

my teacher made us all write a poem about something (I forget what it was) and my friend told me that what I had written was really good. After that I started writing more about just random things and I realised that I liked it and I wasn't all that bad, and ever since then I've just always been writing something in some shape or form.

I loved writing... and whatever I was feeling it always made me feel better to get it out of my system in poetry

Hurt Pain And Boredness xoxo-Nikki-xoxo (I Don't Think The Last One Was a Word)

Heartache? Or was it heartburn, can't remember?

In my group of friend, this girl, who I will not say for reasons, showed me a dark poem called "The Jabberwocky." She said that with all of my frightening dreams, I should make a poem. I did and every1 loved it. So here I am today.

Well, it's kind of a funny story...
My friends and I were playing school when I was in fourth grade. One of my friends was the teacher and she had everyone write poems. After a while I realized I liked writing them just for fun and have just continued writing them to this day!

That's probably not exactly the answer you were looking for but ohh well.. thats my answer! lol

Well this has been posted many a time, but I'll answer anyway:

I was on msn and I was sad that night and one of my friends noticed. Because I wouldn't talk about it he told me I should write. With no intention of what I was going to write, I managed to write my poem 'Goodbye' which is one of my favourite poems I've written.

-Lyd

P.S Thanks A.B

Honestly, this is the lamest one out of all of them, I started poetry because we had a english writing. When I wrote my first ballad, I really liked poetry, it just went from there.. Yes, stupid, I know, but whatever.. The only reason I do it now is because its a better way of venting than what I'm accustomed to.

/: Shadow--Stalker :\

One year when everything that could go wrong...went wrong...lol...read my 'the doctors say they felt no pain' that was the start of everything

I started writing as a release and a way to vent. School was horrible for me, because I was that girl who was always made fun of - the loner. I always felt so lonely and sad... Writing poetry is about the only thing that kept me sane, and still is.

"Those living for death will die by their own hands."

-- Maharani of Angels

I got started simply beacuse I love to write and read other compositions of other poets.

Steve

i started to write poems, when a lot of my friends were depressed and it made me sad so i need to express how i felt. it made me feel better.
xx

I honestly don't remember what exactly got me started as a poet persay.

But alot of it had to do with bottled up emotions, I was a "cutter". Then one day something hit me in the forehead and knocked some sense into me. That I needed a better way to express my pain, and I was sitting at a desk with a piece of paper and a pencil...I just began writting. Now its part of who I am, not only a release of emotional pain and buildup. But something I found that I enjoy doing and I can work at. Not to mention I've found millions of poetry sites, read poetry from all sorts of people, got views of wonderful poets and have made many friends doing something I have come to love alot.

Fallen

Everything around me. Broken heart, friends, love, family, death, etc etc.

Things I feel strong for makes me write.

My friend started writing poetry cuz her friend wrote poetry:) And i got really into it and i started to love poetry. Then i found that it was a great way to express myself. And my poetry comes from pain, love and memories... Well, my memories cause pain so it's the same thing lol

~Jessica

For me it was my friend Morgan. i just started not even a month ago and i already have two awards on this site. Im so glad she got me into them. I love that girl so much.