Judson Jerome still lives

In 1980, Judson Jerome's book, The Poet's Handbook, was published. It's still available today. It's lasted on store bookshelves for almost 40 years because, today, poets still use the same artistic tools that were used in 1980.

In the book's first section, titled How to Use This Book, Jerome wrote that "Good poetry ... is metrical writing."

Jerome elaborated: "Metrical means measured. A measure, or predetermined form, forces a poet to put his thoughts into a framework. The framework requires the poet to pick and choose, twist, to manage these contortions with grace. It is the tug-of-war between form and content that makes the art of the poem."

Writing poetry is challenging; it is a tug-of-war. But it's not just a battle between form and content. It's also a battle among the content. The framework alone is not the only thing forcing a poet to pick and choose, to weigh her words. The message the poet wishes to c0nvey also pushes and pulls words on and off the page.

Prose also imposes a framework.

When writing prose, its framework imposes two main restrictions upon you. First, write in sentences. Second, write in paragraphs. Prose writing is thus much less imposing than poetry writing, which can be viewed as an elevated form of prose writing. When writing a poem, its author is taking his prose to a higher level. He's willing to submit to a poetic form's constraints to gain its benefits.

Though poetry and prose differ in the framework they impose, they both depend on the same building material: words.

Given that words underlie all poetic forms, one way to begin a poem is by placing words on a page without attempting to impose any poetic framework upon them. The website textetc.com illustrates that technique by starting with a prose description.