I'm grappling with my abilities and my ambition at the moment. I know the kind of poetry I want to write but don't know how to actually write it!

I can write a chatty poem that tells a story about an incident. I feel really comfortable with this style but it feels stale. I want to push my limits and see what else I can do. 

So I'm trying to teach myself how to use descriptive language and imagery in my poems. The dream is to eventually be able to create incredible metaphors that strike a chord and leave the reader gasping or nodding their head. 

I've been playing with words and the way they sound. Using alliteration to build up images. It's been lots of fun. But the poems end up being what Melbourne poet, Jennifer Compton calls a still life. There's a heart beat missing from the poem. They're not relatable, just a pretty picture like a still life painting. Wallpaper for the soul if you like.

My challenge now is to somehow combine the chatty style poems with the imagery poems and create something new. But I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. At the moment my brain seems to have two separate poetry modes - descriptive and story - and I don't know how to smoosh them together.

Hmmm, perhaps I could write a chatty poem. The rewrite it as a descriptive poem. Then take lines from one poem and add then to the other poem, edit heavily and see what happens. That sounds like a plan. Off to try it now.