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by Jay O'Toole

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A place for discussion on poetry, reviews, contests, etc.

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Jul 15, 2019 at 4:56pm

#3281531

DISCUSSION: Cliches

by Dave

The first snow dazzles people with its pure white duvet that sparkles with the clarity of a fine diamond. However, it loses its luster after it has been around a while--trampled, plowed and churned into dirty sludge.

Language suffers the same fate. Original phrasing and figures of speech appeal to readers like the aroma of Grandma's fresh-baked pies cooling on her windowsill, but stale, overused clichés disengage an audience faster than Leatherface dismembered victims with his chainsaw. Poets often use the most familiar terms to capture ideas and get them down on paper before they flitter away like fireflies in the night, but those hackneyed phrases must be weeded out before the work is presented for public consumption, just as Grandma would cull overripe fruit before baking her pies.

Always working within our comfort zone of familiarity is a sign of laziness, or fear. Just because "Once upon a midnight dreary..." worked just fine for Mr. Poe, does not mean it will work for us. The cliché is nothing more than an expression of truth, once fresh and vibrant, which has lost its power, resonance and depth and become lifeless through excessive repetition. As poets, we take our work seriously, even if we don't take ourselves seriously, by making the effort to approach each moment or experience from a different angle, one that may catch us completely off guard, through the use of the basic artistic tool: imagination.

Here are a few ways to avoid the trap of musty platitudes:

1. Many clichés involve poor or lazy use of modifiers. The diligent poet can dodge that trap by tracking down fresher adjectives, or combinations. Instead of referring to "dark shadows," use something like "liquid shadows" or "the shadow chained to my foot."

2. Similes often present weak, predictable comparisons, which can be strengthened with unanticipated metaphors. Replace "My love is like a red rose" with "The breath of love tattoos your name across my heart."

3. We can learn more about what is cliché and what is not by reading--good, bad, indifferent, old, and new. The more we read, the more clichés we will encounter, and, thus, be able to recognize them in our own work.

4. While imitation may be a good way to learn the craft, sooner or later we must step out from the shadow of the masters and create a unique voice of our own. So, heist that log blocking entrance to the secret tunnel of your imagination and find an extraordinary way to express the ordinary, as Ted Kooser does in his poem Dishwater .

Assignment: Write a poem about some every day object or action in a different way.

Let the creativity flow from your soul!