How to Write About Change Without Writing a Corny Poem

Change is the most clichéd subject in poetry and the most likely to be corny. A judge on the three moves that turn a change poem into a real one, the test that tells you if the poem is about the change or about you, and the one image that always works.

Change is the most clichéd subject in poetry, and it is the most likely to be corny. Every contest pile has a stack of change poems that are about new beginnings and fresh starts and the turning of the page, and the corniness is the thing that makes the poem a greeting card instead of a poem.

The change poem that works is not about the change. It is about the person who is changing.

The corny trap

The corny poem is the one that tells you how good the change is. The new job, the new city, the new love, the new self. It is accurate and it is flat, because the change is the subject and the subject is the one thing the reader can see for themselves.

A poem about change should not describe the change. It should describe what the change does to the person who is in it.

The three moves that turn a change poem into a real one

Move one: put a person in it. The change poem that works has a person in it, a friend, a lover, a self. The change is the stage; the person is the play. The poem is about the person in the change, not the change itself.

Move two: give the change a body. The change should be doing something to the body, the hands that are packing, the feet that are moving, the eyes that are looking back. If the change is just sitting there, it is a backdrop. If it is doing something to the body, it is a subject.

Move three: let the change change you. The best change poems are the ones where the speaker is different at the end than they were at the beginning, and the change is the thing that changed them. The change is the agent; the poem is the change.

The question that decides

Here is the question I ask when I am judging a change poem: is this poem about the change, or is it about the person in the change? If the answer is the change, it is a corny poem. If the answer is the person, it is a poem.

The corny poem says 'this is how good it is'. The real change poem says 'this is what the change did to me'. The difference is the difference between a greeting card and a life.

A worked example

Bad: 'I moved to a new city and everything is new and exciting and I am starting fresh.' The change is the subject; the speaker is absent.

Better: 'I have learned to buy groceries in a language I do not speak, and I have become the person who knows the word for 'bread' in a place I did not know existed.' The change is the agent; the speaker is the person who is changed by it. The poem is about the person who has been changed by the change, not the change itself.

Where it goes wrong

The trap is the poem that is a celebration of the change. The celebration is not a poem; it is a thank-you note. The poem is the thing that the change did to the person who was in it, and the doing is the work.

If you want to see a change poem that is about the person, the prompts library has a set on new beginnings and the self, and the contest window is open when the draft is ready. The change is the stage. The person is the play.

Keep reading

For the craft side, the change collection covers the deeper method. The volta module is the page to read next, and the contest is where the work goes when it is done.

By Writory Editorial, for Writory.

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