Poetry Portfolio Day 1: Riddle Poem
Start Here: What is poetry?
Poetry makes us think about and see the world in a new way through words, patterns of sound,
and appealing to our emotions.
The following poem by Emily Dickinson is what we call a riddle poem. A riddle poem makes us think
about the world in a different way by describing something without explicitly identifying it. We have to
figure out what the poem is about!
A narrow fellow in the grass
A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him,--did you not,
His notice sudden is.
The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen;
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on.
He likes a boggy acre,
A floor too cool for corn.
Yet when a child, and barefoot,
I more than once, at morn,
Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash
Unbraiding in the sun,-When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone.
Several of nature's people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality;
But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.
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--Emily Dickinson
Did you figure out what the poem is about? ______________________
List three details from the poem that are descriptive:
1.
2.
3.
Now, you get to write your own riddle poem! It must have the following:
●
●
●
●
be about one specific thing
have at least 10 lines
be descriptive about how the thing looks, acts, smells like, etc.
not name the thing or give too much away!
Some things you might write your riddle poem about:
car
strawberry wave book elephant baby’s rattle umbrella boiling water kitten heartbeat
smoke rain music ring sneeze darkness mug moon clock cabinet
light bulb arrow whistle sunflower painting laughter river ribbon baseball kite
Share out:
1. Get into groups of 4 to share out your poem.
2. Take turns reading your poems and have your group members guess what the poem is about.
3. Pick one poem to share out with the whole class.
What is person 1’s poem about? ____________________
What is person 2’s poem about? ____________________
What is person 3’s poem about? ____________________
What is your favorite poem from today? Why?
Poetry Portfolio Day 2: Ways of Looking Poem
Start Here: What is something that you find beautiful? Why is it beautiful?
Yesterday you got practice describing things by writing a riddle poem. Today, you will get to write a poem
that describes something in many different ways.
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Read the following poem by Wallace Stevens that describes a blackbird in 13 different ways.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.
II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.
III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.
VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
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Of the women about you?
VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.
XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.
XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.
--Wallace Stevens
Now you get to write your own poem that describes something in many different ways. Keep your
sections short and descriptive. You may use what you wrote your riddle poem about yesterday, about
your beautiful thing in your Start Here, or anything else you can think of. Your poem must have:
●
●
at least 15 lines
at least 3 ways of “looking at” your thing
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Poetry Portfolio Day 3: Imagery
Start Here: If you could only have one of your five senses, which would it be and why?
By now you are an expert at writing description in poetry which means you are an expert at writing
imagery. Imagery in poetry appeals to our senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell.
Look back at your poems from the past few days and answer the following questions.
Did you have any appeals to sight? What is one example?
Did you have any appeals to hearing? What is one example?
Did you have any appeals to touch? What is one example?
Did you have any appeals to smell? What is one example?
Did you have any appeals to taste? What is one example?
Now, read the following poem by Gwendolyn Brooks and answer the questions about her poem.
Kitchenette Building
We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,
Grayed in, and gray. "Dream" makes a giddy sound, not strong
Like "rent", "feeding a wife", "satisfying a man".
But could a dream sent up through onion fumes
Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes
And yesterday's garbage ripening in the hall,
Flutter, or sing an aria down these rooms,
Even if we were willing to let it in,
Had time to warm it, keep it very clean,
Anticipate a message, let it begin?
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We wonder. But not well! not for a minute!
Since Number Five is out of the bathroom now,
We think of lukewarm water, hope to get in it.
--Gwendolyn Brooks
What is one image that appeals to your sight?
What is one image that appeals to your hearing?
What is one image that appeals to your smell?
What is one image that appeals to your taste?
What is one image that appeals to your touch?
Now you get a chance to write a new poem with imagery or revise a poem you wrote previously
by adding new imagery. Your poem may be on any topic you like. Your poem must have:
●
●
at least 15 lines
imagery that appeals to each of the 5 senses
Poetry Portfolio Day 4: Narrative Poetry
Start Here: List 3 stories from your childhood that you would like to tell in a poem.
1.
2.
3.
Narrative poetry is poetry that tells a story. The following poem by Gary Soto, about his first date, is an
excellent example of a narrative poem.
Oranges
The first time I walked
With a girl, I was twelve,
Cold, and weighted down
With two oranges in my jacket.
December. Frost cracking
Beneath my steps, my breath
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Before me, then gone,
As I walked toward
Her house, the one whose
Porch light burned yellow
Night and day, in any weather.
A dog barked at me, until
She came out pulling
At her gloves, face bright
With rouge. I smiled,
Touched her shoulder, and led
Her down the street, across
A used car lot and a line
Of newly planted trees,
Until we were breathing
Before a drugstore. We
Entered, the tiny bell
Bringing a saleslady
Down a narrow aisle of goods.
I turned to the candies
Tiered like bleachers,
And asked what she wanted Light in her eyes, a smile
Starting at the corners
Of her mouth. I fingered
A nickel in my pocket,
And when she lifted a chocolate
That cost a dime,
I didn't say anything.
I took the nickel from
My pocket, then an orange,
And set them quietly on
The counter. When I looked up,
The lady's eyes met mine,
And held them, knowing
Very well what it was all
About.
Outside,
A few cars hissing past,
Fog hanging like old
Coats between the trees.
I took my girl's hand
in mine for two blocks,
Then released it to let
Her unwrap the chocolate.
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I peeled my orange
That was so bright against
The gray of December
That, from some distance,
Someone might have thought
I was making a fire in my hands.
--Gary Soto
Write down three examples of imagery from the poem that help to tell the story:
1.
2.
3.
Take one of the stories you thought about in your Start Here (or any other story you can think of) and
write a narrative poem in the style of Gary Soto’s: imitate his short lines and the way he adds imagery to
make the reader experience his story. Your poem must have:
● at least 20 lines
● a clear narrative (story)
● at least 5 pieces of imagery that illuminate the story
Partner share: Pair up with a friend and read your poems to each other. Listen carefully as your partner
reads. When he or she is done reading, tell the story back in your own words. Have your partner reread
any parts that you missed or details that you misunderstood.
Poetry Unit Day 5: Poems about Relationships
Start Here: What is a happy memory you have of something you a parent or parent-figure (aunt, uncle,
grandparent, foster parent, etc) do or used to do together?
The key to writing a good poem about your relationship with a person is to not say what your feelings are
for that person: rather, you must show the nature of the relationship through actions and imagery. For
example, this poem by Theodore Roethke explores his relationship with his father by describing how he
used to dance standing on his father’s feet.
My Papa’s Waltz
The whiskey on your breath
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Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
--Theodore Roethke
How do you think the speaker feels about his father?
What are 3 imagery details about the dad?
1.
2.
3.
You now get a chance to write a poem about an important adult in your life. Before you get writing,
complete the following brainstorm:
What are 3 imagery details you will use to describe your parent or parent-figure?
1.
2.
3.
What are 3 imagery details you will use to describe what you are doing together (see your Start Here)?
1.
2.
3.
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Your completed relationship poem must:
● have at least 10 lines
● have at least 6 imagery details as listed in the brainstorm above
● show the relationship and not tell about it
Poetry Portfolio Day 6: Poem about Food
Start Here: Describe a food that is important to your family.
Food is a popular topic for many poets because it involves so many of our senses (a great chance to use
imagery) and is an important part of all cultures. Read the following by William Matthews as an example.
Onions
How easily happiness begins by
dicing onions. A lump of sweet butter
slithers and swirls across the floor
of the sauté pan, especially if its
errant path crosses a tiny slick
of olive oil. Then a tumble of onions.
This could mean soup or risotto
or chutney (from the Sanskrit
chatni, to lick). Slowly the onions
go limp and then nacreous
and then what cookbooks call clear,
though if they were eyes you could see
clearly the cataracts in them.
It’s true it can make you weep
to peel them, to unfurl and to tease
from the taut ball first the brittle,
caramel-colored and decrepit
papery outside layer, the least
recent the reticent onion
wrapped around its growing body,
for there’s nothing to an onion
but skin, and it’s true you can go on
weeping as you go on in, through
the moist middle skins, the sweetest
and thickest, and you can go on
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in to the core, to the bud-like,
acrid, fibrous skins densely
clustered there, stalky and incomplete, and these are the most
pungent, like the nuggets of nightmare
and rage and murmury animal
comfort that infant humans secrete.
This is the best domestic perfume.
You sit down to eat with a rumor
of onions still on your twice-washed
hands and lift to your mouth a hint
of a story about loam and usual
endurance. It’s there when you clean up
and rinse the wine glasses and make
a joke, and you leave the minutest
whiff of it on the light switch,
later, when you climb the stairs.
--William Matthews
Matthews writes about how onions are prepared and eaten in addition to merely describing them. Think
about the food your wrote about in your Start Here:
What is the process of making the food?
When do you make the food? Why is it made?
What does the food look like, smell like, taste like? What does it sound like while it’s cooking?
Now, write a complete poem about your food. Your poem must include:
● at least 15 lines
● imagery about the preparation of the food
● imagery about the smell, taste, look, and sound of the food
Poetry Portfolio Day 7: Rhyming Poems
Start Here: What is one of your favorite places? List 3 details about the place.
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1.
2.
3.
The key to writing modern rhyming poetry is to deemphasize the rhymes as much as possible. Poems
that obviously rhyme often sound sing-songy and this can be contrary to the poet’s intended meaning.
Consider the following poem by Philip Larkin. His poetry sounds like ordinary speech, yet is it strictly
rhymed and metered. Larkin achieves this by rhyming words with varying numbers of syllables and using
a mix of slant and pure rhyme.
Church Going
Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence.
Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new Cleaned, or restored? Someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.
Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,
And always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,
When churches will fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases,
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?
Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But superstition, like belief, must die,
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And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,
A shape less recognisable each week,
A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
Will be the last, the very last, to seek
This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will he be my representative,
Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt
Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation - marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these - for which was built
This special shell? For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;
A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.
--Philip Larkin
What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
What words does Larkin rhyme that...
a. Have a variety of syllable lengths?
b. Are a pure rhyme?
c. Are a slant rhyme?
Now it’s your turn to write a rhyming poem in the style of Larkin’s, about an important place.
Your poem must include:
● at least 15 lines
● rhyming
● abundant imagery and details
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Poetry Portfolio Day 8: Poems about Tragedy
Start Here: Describe a significant, sad event in your life or the life of someone you know.
Now that you’ve had plenty of practice writing description, you’re ready to tackle some more difficult but
important material: a tragic event in your life or the life of someone you know. Read the following
example by Anne Sexton about the death of her mother and father and the example by Seamus Heaney
about the accidental death of his young brother.
The Truth the Dead Know
For my Mother, born March 1902, died March 1959
and my Father, born February 1900, died June 1959
Gone, I say and walk from church,
refusing the stiff procession to the grave,
letting the dead ride alone in the hearse.
It is June. I am tired of being brave.
We drive to the Cape. I cultivate
myself where the sun gutters from the sky,
where the sea swings in like an iron gate
and we touch. In another country people die.
My darling, the wind falls in like stones
from the whitehearted water and when we touch
we enter touch entirely. No one's alone.
Men kill for this, or for as much.
And what of the dead? They lie without shoes
in the stone boats. They are more like stone
than the sea would be if it stopped. They refuse
to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.
--Anne Sexton
Mid-term Break
I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
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At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.
In the porch I met my father crying-He had always taken funerals in his stride-And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
--Seamus Heaney
Which poem do you like better? Why?
The emotional weight of these poems is achieved through the imagery that the poets chose to represent.
What is the most powerful image in each of the poems for you?
Sexton:
Heaney:
A major difference between the two poems is that Sexton chooses to focus on her own emotions, while
Heaney avoids his own emotions and focuses on the feelings of the people around him. Think about your
own tragic event. What details could you show to express how you felt?
1.
2.
3.
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What details could you show to portray how other people felt?
1.
2.
3.
Now it’s time to write about your tragic event. Your poem must include:
● at least 15 lines
● imagery to show how you felt
● imagery to show how other people felt
Poetry Portfolio Day 9: The Haiku
Start Here: What is something about nature you love? Why does it appeal to you?
A haiku is a traditional Japanese poetic form that is characterized by very short lines and dense imagery.
The key to a good haiku is to not waste as single syllable: pick every word with care, choosing words that
are both accurate in meaning and evoke the images you want through sound and connotation. Haikus
are often written about nature, but can potentially be about anything. Consider the haikus below. Notice
that they are not all arranged in lines of 5-7-5 syllables and the poems are not always limited to one
tercet.
Autumn moonlight –
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.
Snow in my shoe.
Abandoned
sparrows nest.
Jack Kerouac
Old pond
a frog jumps
the sound of water.
Matsuo Basho
Whitecaps on the bay:
a broken signboard banging
in the April wind.
Autumn wind –
mountain’s shadow
wavers.
Richard Wright
Don’t weep, insects –
Lovers, stars themselves,
Must part.
Kobayashi Issa
What is the primary image and the corresponding emotion conveyed by each of the haikus?
1. Basho2. Issa3. Kerouac4. Wright-
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Now it’s your turn to write a haiku. You may choose to stick with the 5-7-5 format or not. You must write
in short groups of 3 lines. You can choose to write about nature or something else.
Start with a single image:
What emotions do you feel when you imagine this image?
Your haiku must include:
● at least 3 and no more than 6 lines
● accurate, powerful language
● an implied emotion
Poetry Portfolio Day 10: Speaking in Another Voice
Start Here: If you could be someone or something else, who or what would you be?
In a poem, the voice of the person talking does not have to be the voice of the poet--in fact it rarely is!
Sometimes though, the poet writes in a voice that is clearly not their own. For example, “The Kitchen
Shears Speak” by Christine Balk.
The Kitchen Shears Speak
This division must end.
Again I'm forced to amputate
the chicken's limb; slit the joint,
clip the heart, snip wing from back,
strip fat from flesh, separate
everything from itself. I'm used,
thrown down by unknown hands,
by cowards who can't bear to do
the constant severing. Open and close!
Open and close. I work and never tell.
Though mostly made of mouth, I have no voice,
no legs. My arms are bent, immobile
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pinions gripped by strangers. I fear
the grudge things must hold.
I slice rose from bush, skin from muscle,
head from carrot, root from lettuce,
tail from fish. I break the bone.
What if they join against me,
uncouple me, throw away one-half,
or hide my slashed eye? Or worse,
what if I never die? What I fear
most is being caught, then rusted rigid,
punished like a prehistoric
bird, fossilized, and changed
into a winged lizard, trapped while clawing
air, stuck in stone with open beak.
--Christine Balk
Answer the following to get yourself started on writing a poem in another voice:
Who or what are you?
List 3 details about what your world is like:
1.
2.
3.
What is important to you?
What are you afraid of?
What do you want to tell everyone about what it’s like to be you?
Your poem must include:
● at least 10 lines
● written in the voice of another person or thing
● imagery about what life is like for that person or thing
● a title that gives us a hint about the speaker of the poem
Poetry Portfolio Day 11: Retelling a Story
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Start Here: What is one of your favorite myths or one of your favorite nursery stories as a child?
Poets often retell myths or other common stories in our culture to draw a comparison between the original
story and the retelling. Take the following retelling of Hansel and Gretel which examines female
stereotypes.
Gretel
A woman is born to this:
sift, measure, mix, roll thin.
She learns the dough until
it folds into her skin and there is
no difference. Much later
she tries to lose it. Makes bets
with herself and wins enough
to keep trying. One day she begins
that long walk in unfamiliar woods.
She means to lose everything
she is. She empties her dark pockets,
dropping enough crumbs
to feed all the men who have ever
touched her or wished.
When she reaches the clearing
she is almost transparent—
so thin
the old woman in the house seizes
only the brother. You know the rest:
She won’t escape that oven. She’ll eat
the crumbs meant for him, remember
something of his touch, reach
for the sifter and the cup.
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--Andrea Hollander Budy
Think about your favorite myth or childhood story. Many of these stories have morals: how can retell this
story in a way that questions this moral? Or, you can simply bring an adult perspective to the story.
What story are you going to retell?
How are you going to change or mature the moral of this story?
Your poem must include:
● at least 10 lines
● clear references to the story you are retelling
● a changed moral or message
● as always: imagery!
Poetry Portfolio Day 12: Holiday Poem
Start Here: What is your favorite holiday? What is your favorite activity on that holiday?
After reading the poem “Halloween” by Mac Hammond, write your own poem about your favorite activity
of your favorite holiday.
Halloween
The butcher knife goes in, first, at the top
And carves out the round stemmed lid,
The hole of which allows the hand to go
In to pull the gooey mess inside, out The walls scooped clean with a spoon.
A grim design decided on, that afternoon,
The eyes are the first to go,
Isosceles or trapezoid, the square nose,
The down-turned mouth with three
Hideous teeth and, sometimes,
Round ears. At dusk it's
Lighted, the room behind it dark.
Outside, looking in, it looks like a
Pumpkin, it looks like ripeness
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Is all. Kids come, beckoned by
Fingers of shadows on leaf-strewn lawns
To trick or treat. Standing at the open
Door, the sculptor, a warlock, drops
Penny candies into their bags, knowing
The message of winter: only the children,
Pretending to be ghosts, are real.
--Mac Hammond
When you’re writing your poem, go deep into the detail of the event you’re describing like Hammond does
with carving the pumpkin. Zoom in on the event and give us all the details. Describe it step by step.
Your poem must include:
● at least 15 lines
● descriptions of an important event
Poetry Portfolio Day 13: Simile Poem
Start Here: Who is a person you would like to write a poem for? What would you say to them in that
poem?
A simile is a comparison using “like” or “as.” Poets use similes to create images, suggest ideas, and
evoke emotions. Many poems have at least one simile, but the poem “Sweet like a Crow” by Michael
Ondaatje is made entirely of similes!
Sweet Like a Crow
Your voice sounds like a scorpion being pushed
through a glass tube
like someone has just trod on a peacock
like wind howling in a coconut
like a rusty bible, like someone pulling barbed wire
across a stone courtyard, like a pig drowning,
a vattacka being fried
a bone shaking hands
a frog singing at Carnegie Hall.
Like a crow swimming in milk,
like a nose being hit by a mango
like the crowd at the Royal-Thomian match,
a womb full of twins, a pariah dog
with a magpie in its mouth
like the midnight jet from Casablanca
like Air Pakistan curry,
a typewriter on fire, like a hundred
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pappadans being crunched, like someone
trying to light matches in a dark room,
the clicking sound of a reef when you put your head into the sea,
a dolphin reciting epic poetry to a sleepy audience,
the sound of a fan when someone throws brinjals at it,
like pineapples being sliced in the Pettah market
like betel juice hitting a butterfly in mid-air
like a whole village running naked onto the street
and tearing their sarongs, like an angry family
pushing a jeep out of the mud, like dirt on the needle,
like 8 sharks being carried on the back of a bicycle
like 3 old ladies locked in the lavatory
like the sound I heard when having an afternoon sleep
and someone walked through my room in ankle bracelets.
--Michael Ondaatje
Think of that person you wrote about in your Start Here and what you want to say to them. Here is your
chance to say it, but you must say it entirely with similes! Your poem must include:
● at least 10 lines
● have only similes
● begin with the phrase “Your _______ is like...”
Just as Ondaatje uses similes that are funny, strange, beautiful, mysterious, and ridiculous, you too
should vary the meaning of your similes.
Poetry Portfolio Day 14: How-To Poem
Start Here: What is something that you do well?
Poems can take on any form of language, including the imperative, which is how we give directions (ex.
“Stop there” is imperative, an order). A “how-to” poem is a poem that gives instructions for something,
usually in a fantastical way. Take Eve Merriam’s “How to Eat a Poem” for example.
How to Eat a Poem
Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that
may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.
You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.
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For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.
--Eve Merriam
Today you will write your own how to poem describing something that you can do well in a way that mixes
the ordinary and realistic with the creative and unfamiliar. Your poem must include:
● at least 15 lines
● directions on how to do something
● “How To” in the title
● a mixture of practical directions and fanciful advice
Poetry Portfolio Day 15: Poems about Poems
Start Here: Has your definition of poetry changed at all since the first day? Why or why not?
By now you’re quite good at the process of writing poems. The nature and process of writing is
something poets often write about. For example, our poem from yesterday “How to Eat a Poem,” and
today’s poem, “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins, both are about reading poetry.
Introduction to Poetry
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
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across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
--Billy Collins
Collins wants his students to enjoy poems but they are only worried about what the poem “means.” Think
about your experiences with poetry over the last few weeks. Write a poem in which you explore the
meaning of poetry. You may write about writing, reading, or write another how-to poem about poetry.
Your poem must have at least 15 lines--no other restrictions.
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