Sage Cohen's Tip A Day: Obsess. Obsess. Obsess. (Repeat)

Editor’s Note: Throughout the month of April, Reading Local and Portland poet Sage Cohen will celebrate National Poetry Month by featuring a new tip each day.

Obsess. Obsess. Obsess. (Repeat)

Write a poem describing something (or experience or person) you want, something you take great pleasure in or something that is quite distasteful to you. Write a poem that explores every facet of this topic. Find a refrain – a repeating word or phrase – that you use as a kind of engine to move the poem forward.

Sage Cohen is the author of WRITING THE LIFE POETIC: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (Writers Digest Books, 2009), THE PRODUCTIVE WRITER: Tips & Tools for Writing More, Stressing Less and Creating success (Writer’s Digest Books, forthcoming in 2010) and the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World. Learn more at www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com.

Image credit Poets.org.