@abetterjulie Maybe I should just grab a couple random words from a notebook, slap them on to poem, and let the readers try to figure it out.
@leepotts In my reading this morning, I came across a poem by Edgar Foxall titled, Poem.
So. There you go.
@leepotts That is a rare issue for me. It usually comes to me when I'm in the car, in a loose word association kind of way.
@TashPoetry Same here. It's just not happening this time.
@leepotts I'm like you, usually it's obvious. When it's not I truly struggle. Sometimes I fall back to the first or last line. Sometimes I let it lie fallow for a few days then read it fresh and write a stream of consciousness piece about it - possibly pulling a title from that. Sometimes I name it badly, submit it, regret it, rename it. Rinse repeat for a few cycles. Feeling crappy all the while 😂
@leepotts Sometimes resorting to thinking of the piece in somewhat meta terms can help me, rather than turning myself inside-out attempting to scrutinize the direct meaning for some readily conveyed kernel.
Another tac that’s served me well is to think of what I want to accomplish through the poem, and let its title be a reflection of that, however oblique or even downright cryptic.
It can be enough that a title is intriguing without needing to be a comprehensive bill of goods, like headlines.
@leepotts slap the first or last word on as a title. Sometimes it ends up working, sometimes it ends up being annoying enough for an actual title to materialise
@leepotts Do you associate the poem with a certain mood or mental state of being, PoV or attitude that might suggest something, even if it's not "part" of the poem?
@leepotts Never been (and still not) sure I even like titles. Didn't use many until I began submitting more and people seem to have a need.
Often it comes from a central idea that was the framework for the text but thengot scrapped.
Like, I started one based on wearing a bodycam but things evolved and while that's still referenced, the title became Bodyworn, because the text touches on personal discomfort, isolation and interaction.
Hope this adds to the question.
@leepotts much hairpulling and wailing, honestly. I whine and mope around for days muttering to myself. lol
I realize this doesn't help you out. Can you use a tangential reference somehow?