v

poetry

MEMORY

To make language memorable, poets or singers…

• REPEAT SOUNDS

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• CREATE VIVID IMAGES

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(*vivid = something exciting or surprising)

Written poetry….

To remember…..

• Your history, your family’s history, or the history of your community…

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• BUT ALSO……..

Written poetry….

• EXCITES….
• SURPRISES…..
• MAKES THE WORLD NEW….

Poetry….

• Ancient world
• Memory (story-telling)

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• Modern world
• Memory (story-telling)
• Language that surprises and excites us

B O R I N G

Poetry takes us by surprise…

Sad 🡪

strange

🡨VIVID

Strange!

Some useful terms for poets…

• A line of poetry is called a verse.

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• Several verses together make a stanza

How many verses in this stanza?

I fell asleep in class today, as I was awfully bored.

I laid my head on my desk and closed my eyes and snored

I woke to find a piece of paper sticking to my face.

I'd slobbered on my textbooks and my hair was a disgrace.

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(from poetryforkids.com)

Stanza = Unit (like a paragraph)

• A stanza is held together as a unit with similar or related
• SOUNDS

and/or

• IMAGES

SOUND

• Some poems have end-rhymes—rhyming words at the end of verses:

I woke to find a piece of paper sticking to my face.

I'd slobbered on my textbooks and my hair was a disgrace.

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But sometimes poems do NOT have

end-rhymes. This kind of poetry is called:

free verse

IMAGE

• While some poems make repetitive sounds, ALL poems offer us surprising, exciting images

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• An image = word picture; it can be made using
• simple description
• or metaphor

IMAGE

• SIMPLE DESCRIPTION:

the bird sings beautifully

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METAPHOR:

the bird sings a blue ribbon of air

METAPHOR = Comparison

• A metaphor compares two things:

=

La la..

Today’s Writing Project

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A one-stanza poem of free verse

To make your stanza hold together…

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• We’re going to begin and end the poem with the same verse (the same line of poetry)

Langston Hughes

“Poem”

I loved my friend

He went away from me

That’s all there is to say

The poem ends

Soft as it began

I loved my friend

10 EASY STEPS

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• This is a “recipe” approach to poetry writing.

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• It is helpful for getting the hang of poetry-writing, but most poets don’t follow a recipe….

ONE

• Close your eyes and quiet your body and just let some images of SUMMER float up inside your head…..
• Maybe you think of a FAVORITE moment you remember from a vacation long ago…or maybe you think of a person or activity that you always do during the summer break …

TWO

• Open your eyes and write a simple sentence that describes what floated into your head. You can help yourself get going by finishing one of these sentences:
• I like…..
• I remember…..

What I wrote…

I like driving down the highway

because you can see all the

lights…

THREE

• Now, you’re going to turn your sentence into a verse.

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• First, draw a line under your sentence

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• Then, DROP OUT anything in your sentence that isn’t essential.

For example….

I like driving down the highway because you can see the lights.

• ----------------------------------------------------
• What could I drop out?

Just focus on one image…

I like driving down the highway because you can see the lights.

______________________________________

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• Driving down the highway

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( or )

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• See the lights

You have a verse!

• Actually, you’ve got 2 verses: your first and last. Mine is:

Driving down the highway

********************

*****************

****************

Driving down the highway

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• Now, we’ve got to fill in the middle verses.

FOUR

• Come up with 3 NOUNS related to your special memory

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• DON’T REPEAT ANY NOUN you already have in your first verse….

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• Remember: noun = name, place, thing, activity….

What I wrote down…

• Street
• House
• Lights

Ask a Friend

• If you draw a blank—and you can’t come up with any nouns—ask your pen pal or someone else at your table to help you brainstorm a little bit….

FIVE

• Add a TOUCH or SOUND word to the front of your noun (or nouns):
• Slick Street
• Quiet House
• Liquid Lights

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It doesn’t have to make sense!

SIX

• ADD a SIGHT or FEELING word to what you’ve written already:
• Black Slick Street
• Kind Quiet Houses
• Rolling Liquid Lights

SEVEN

• Put those middle verses inside our opening/closing verses:

Driving down the highway

Black Slick Street

Kind Quiet Houses

Rolling Liquid Lights

Driving down the highway

EIGHT

• OPTIONAL: ADD some ACTION WORDS (VERBS) to your middle verses. They are written on PINK slips of paper.

Driving down the highway

Black Slick Streets JUMP

Kind Quiet Houses SLIDE

Rolling Liquid Lights FLICKER

Driving down the highway

NINE: Let’s Add a Little Zing

• We’re going to ADD A METAPHOR (actually a “similie” which is a metaphor introduced by the word LIKE or AS…..)

• First TAKE AWAY the ACTION WORD in one of your middle verses…
• Add the word LIKE to the end of the verse
• For example:

Kind Quiet Houses Like…

The metaphor I made…

Kind quiet houses like snow falling on snow

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Remember: a metaphor is a comparison.

My metaphor suggests that the kind, quiet houses are LIKE snow falling on snow

TEN: YOU’RE DONE!

• PUT IT ALL TOGETHER (add / delete as you desire):

Driving down the highway

black slick streets jump by

kind, quiet houses like snow

falling on snow--

Rolling liquid lights flicker

Driving down the highway

Holiday Greeting Card

• Write your poem on the INSIDE flap of the card.

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• Decorate the front of the card.

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• Address the outside of the envelope to someone you want to make happy!! ☺

Olvier’s poem

Climbing in the presents

Jolly, huge Christmas tree

Pretty soft stockings

Little oval gameboy

Climbing in the presents

Bibliography

Some of the ideas presented in this seminar were adapted from:

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Any Child Can Write

Harvey S Weiner

Oxford University Press 4^th ed. 2003

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Poem-making: ways to begin writing poetry

Myra Cohn Livingston

Harper Collins 1991

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A Celebration of Bees: Helping Children Write Poetry

Barbara Juster Esbensen

Henry Holt 1995

Assignment….

• Keep a word book….

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• Fill it with interesting……
• ACTION words
• TOUCH words
• FEELING words
• SOUND words
• SIGHT words