How to Write Dhamma Poems
1. Overall View
Any literature consists of prose and prosody. In Pāli or Buddhist Literature, the prose is called Cunniya, and verse or prosody is called Ghāhtā. Dhammapada is one of the verses anyone can see in Buddhist Literature. Learned monks and scholars compose Ghāhtā or Pāli poems, in ancient times as well as in modern days.
In some of the Buddhist Original Pāli Texts as in Sagāthā vagga saṁyutta pāli is composed of prose and verses which one can study it. Especially in Myanmar Literature, the contributions of learned monks like Shin Mahārathasāra and Shin Mahāsīlavaṁsa of Innwa Period are immense that up to nowadays people have to read and discern the true meaning of the teachings of the Buddha. Their benefaction is priceless for Myanmar Literature.
Because of them, it can be said that Myanmar Literature became matured and perfect in its own way. They are great poets. In modern times, scholars or learned monks have tried their hands at poetry which can be called Buddhist Poetry to educate and to share their knowledge with others. Writing poems has become a way to spread messages. They use it as a medium to convey their messages or Buddha's Teachings.
Like Arnold who wrote the poem named "Light of Asia" is one of the best examples of that kind. Everyone shows a surprise to that.
2. What the poem is
A poem consists of form and content. The form may be varied according to the type one writes. Some want to write narrative poems, some epic poems, some sonnets, some lyrics, etc. According to their intention, the form they choose may differ.
A poem has a stanza or stanzas. A stanza has composed of two lines, or three lines, or four lines. A two-line stanza is a couplet, and a quatrain means a four-line stanza.The choice of stanzas depends on you. Sometimes, you want to write a two-line stanza poem, sometimes a three-line stanza, or sometimes a four-line stanza. It does not matter because the choice depends on your intention. It is important to know the iambic or meter scheme.
Each line consists of words that have accented and unaccented on them, based on that rhythm appear. Because of this rhythm, when one reads the poem, one can feel or experience the cadence of the poem. There is one type of poems called "Blank Verse" which is used by William Shakespeare in his sonnet which is a sixteen -line poem. This kind of blank verse you can use in writing Buddhist poems. This is a suggestion for you.
3. How to choose the subject
The subject or theme or content depends totally on you. You can choose everything concerning Dhamma or Dhamma's experience or a single moment of thought or a single moment of experience. You can express one of them in your own words in a poem whose shape or numbers of stanzas do not matter as long as you want to write it at first because you can modify or edit it later.
Suppose you choose the theme "Impermanence" when you see the leaves falling down from the trees. You feel sad or feel nostalgia or you realize it is impermanent in this world. You want to write down and share your experience with others.
This is your subject or theme you cope with. You can write it down everything you feel inside your mind or heart. It will drift into some words to some stanzas until there are no other feelings left in you. You just unleash your feeling into the poem which becomes existed because of your inspiration. You got inspired by the sight of falling leaves. You describe the scene and your feeling in the poem.
Next, you adjust the words, the lines, and the stanzas. You choose the meter scheme or rhyme scheme. You edit it for its improvement. Your poem will become good to read.
4. Meter Scheme and Rhyme Scheme
Meter or foot is a single rhythmical unit. The following are the popular ones:
Iambic duh DAH inDEED
Trochee DAH duh THOUGHTless
Anapest duh duh DAH in a TREE
Dactyl DAH duh duh SPECimen
The most well-known one is iambic pentameter which contains five iambs. One foot is called a monometer, two-foot is dimeter, three is trimeter, four is tetrameters, five is pentameter, six hexameter. As for forms, there are couplet, heroic couplet, haiku, sonnet, free verse, etc. As for the rhyme scheme, there are internal rhyme and external rhyme. For the external rhyme scheme, in heroic couplet is "aabb".
Rhyme royal is a stanza composed of seven five-stress lines rhyming "ababbcc".
Ottava rima is an eight-line stanza whose first six lines rhyme alternately but which ends in a couplet; perhaps the most versatile stanza form in English.
There are also two types which are the quatrain (abab) and the couplet (aa). As for Sonnet's poem, three quatrains, abab, cdcd, efef, followed by a couplet, gg.
5. The Poets to be discussed
The poet to be discussed here is Ven. Sujiva who has written several Buddhist poems and also published the anthologies of them. His poems are pleasant to read. He is one of the leading icons in Buddhism nowadays. He is well-known for his writings on Buddhism. He resides and teaches meditation at his hermitage, Santisukharama, in Kota Tinggi, Johor. His first poetry collection is "Voices from the Heart". Here, I would like to excerpt some of his poems to understand or to appreciate and also to learn how he writes his poems.
6. Appreciating and writing poems
When appreciating a poem, one should ask these questions: (1) what kind of diction used? (2)What kind of imagery, positive or negative? (3) What kind of figures of speech, e.g, similes, metaphors, hyperbole, etc..? (4) What the rhyme scheme is? (5) What kind of meter? etc.
When writing a poem, these steps are essential: (1) Imagination (Inspiration) (As mental image) (2) Choosing Themes (3) Choosing Forms (4) Writing It Down (5) Drafting (6) Re-writing (7) Editing (8) Publishing. One should equip oneself with the necessary skills needed for a poet. Knowledge of poetry is helpful for writing poems. One should know the elements of poetry.
7. Applicable Way
It is applicable that writing Buddhist poems is a means of propagating or teaching or educating Buddha's sāsanā. The influence of Buddhism on American Beat Generation Poets is seen in American literature. It can be seen starting from Ezra Pound to Robert Kelly, Jack Kerouac follow this tradition. Buddhism affects them. They compose Buddhist poems.
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In conclusion, writing Buddhist poems will serve as a way of missionary works, as well as a way of practicing Buddhism at the same time. It can also bring about unity and peace among people. They can understand one another. Because of that, unity and harmony can prevail in this world in which there will be never devoid of peaceful songs on earth.
(Extract from my graphic poem)
Written by San Lin Tun
