question on writing poetry?

[Juliet]

if someone can produce a nice poem copying someone else's style but can't do the same thing on his/her own, it probably means s/he doesn't have what it takes - the real talent, right?

[InspiredWritingResearch]

Not necessarily - we absorb style and personality in our writing like osmosis!

The best poets are those that read the most poetry.

Absorbing new styles isn't the same as plagiarism - everyone should write their own original thoughts in their own way as a first draft - we are all unique and each has something to offer.

[LJ K]

I've read about a zillion (okay, maybe not that) poems who took the style of great, innovative poets, long dead usually, but just as often not too long, like e.e. cummings.
For a while he never used upper case, and now I'm trying to say I've read a zillion poems that never used upper case, by now, in my life.
I like to read poetry and have read a lot, and a lot about them/poets/poetry. There aren't really all that many different styles, if you define that word as construction of the poem, as I do, like cadence and rhyme patterns...
We all write in and out of each other's style when we write any poem, and maybe that's why at least one friend will be very glad you shared that poem with him/her, if not a room-full of people who simply gathered to share, or just to hear you... because the style is familiar to them, and makes them moved or otherwise touched in some way, like made happy, to hear similar styles.

[leonid_mara]

Yes that's .