How do you choose the words that go into your poetry? What are the right words? You as poet should be the judge, but they shouldn’t be just those words you first toss onto the paper when you feel the need to write a poem.

According to the critic Coleridge,” prose is words in their best order,while poetry is the best words in their best order.”

CERTAIN WORDS rock the ground, they startle, intoxicate, beckon, electrify. They reverberate with excitement and shimmer with emotion. They poke you in the rib cage and entice your tongue. They arouse the senses. These special words, collected like jewels by wordsmiths and poets, enliven writing with their astonishing beauty and power. They instill in readers a sense of place rooted in the physical world, and they command attention and respect.Poetry demands precision. The novelist can get away with less than precise expression from time to time because the story will pull the reader along. The job of the poet is to create a picture in the mind and an emotion in the heart.

Every single word counts. The wrong choice–a word with the wrong connotation or the wrong number of syllables or an unlovely combination of consonant sounds–spoils all.Strong word choice uses vocabulary and language to maximum effect, creating clear moods and images and making your stories and poems more powerful and vivid.The meaning of “word choice” may seem self-explanatory, but to truly transform your style and writing, we need to dissect the elements of choosing the right word.

Strong word choice means that every word you write packs a punch every word should earn its place.It’s worth saying that this does not mean your writing becomes clipped or terse or similar to a text message, but simply that “every word counts.” As our word choice improves—as we omit needless words and express ourselves more precisely—our writing becomes richer, whether we write in long or short sentences or lines.

Let’s look at some lines

The night was dark and filled with stars.

Here you have a dark night and lots of stars and I am sure you have a picture of the night but if the poet thought harder they could add some imagery and make the picture more vivid.

The night black as pitch, peppered with bright pinpoints in varied patterns sprinkled like sugar candy on a cake.

In this example, the experience of the night sky is described in depth with colour (black as pitch, ( comparison to pitch),bright), shape (varied patterns)and a comparison ( like sugar candy on a cake)

They sat on the sand as the sun set watching the changing colours.

Here again we have people sitting on sand watching a sunset. This could also be made more evocative by choosing different words and images

As they sat on the soft, sugary, sand , the sinking sun threw golden shafts onto the water and the sky transformed into a kaleidescope of purple, pink and burnished gold.

Here you have visual imagery but also touch and kinaesthetic sense using the feel of the sand and the colour.

Check this out it’s a stanza it’s poetic but what does it truly mean? It’s full of abstraction. It has lots of alliteration and the sort of poetry often read.

Flinging it’s bright rays could be the crux

Of feelings that inebriation confounds

Flustered thoughts predestined, profound

Made impatient under the strain of fortitude.

To me this is too abstract it sounds poetic but it’s froth and doesn’t go inspire me as a reader.

Here is a simpler version

Throwing out bright rays could be the key

To feelings that drunkenness blurs.

Rushed thoughts, deep and meant to be,

Grow restless under the weight of strength.

A further edit begins to give the poem they can relate too.

Holding on to brightness, could be the core

To steady feelings that blur like drunkenness.

As my flustered thoughts, swirl as water in a plug

As I grow anxious under the strain of courage.

So changing and simplifying is starting to make a more coherent image and a couple more lines and some more tweaking should make something meaningful.

What would you do with it?