Sage Cohen's Tip A Day: Show, Don't Tell

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.

Show, don’t tell

Choose an object that has meaning to you and write a poem about it. Don’t explain what you think or feel about the object; describe it with imagery only. Let the language you choose to reveal this thing be so drenched with meaning that the reader has no choice but to be overtaken by – and share – your feelings about it. If there is an opportunity to use repetition – of sound, phrases, or words, take it.

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.