Adapting and Adjusting Poem Template
Directions: You may use this template to assist you in writing your poem based on the theme of Adapting and
Adjusting. Before writing your poem, think of a time or event that changed your situation and what you did to
adapt or adjust to that situation to make things better for yourself.
_______________________________________________________
(Give your poem an original title)
1st Stanza
(Describe the past/ recent past or what it was like before)
I remember _________________________, (describe an event from the past or recent past
using the sensory adjective of sight)
and __________________________ (name another event from the past or recent past using
sensory adjectives of sight and touch).
Those memories, like __________________________,(name your favorite fruit or food you
loved as a child)
______________________ . (describe that favorite fruit or food using adjectives of color, shape,
and size. Also describe it using sensory adjectives for smell and/or taste)
2nd Stanza
(Describe the event that changed things for you)
But then _______________________________ . (state the event that changed things for you)
Like________________________________ , (name a harsh or terrifying sound you don’t like to
hear)
____________________________, (describe the sound using adjectives of size, color and
sensory adjectives of sound)
________________________________ . (explain how the event changed things for you using
any adjectives)
3rd Stanza
(Describe how you adapted/adjusted to the change and made the situation is better)
But, like a ____________________________ (name a person or thing that adjust or adapts, to
survive in their situation or environment using any adjectives)
that ______________________________ (describe the situation that person or thing must
adapt or adjust to using any adjectives
I will _______________________________ (make a declaration about what you will do to adapt
or adjust to survive in your situation using adjectives)
___________________________________(describe how this will make the situation better
using any adjectives)
Phoning My Father
I remember a bright smile and wide, open arms as I run towards his embrace,
And the hot, August afternoons he hit baseballs to me in the outfield at Evergreen Park,
An imaginary crowd cheering in my head when I make the catch.
Those memories, like the sweet figs hanging in our backyard tree –fat, purple
teardrops, their heavy aroma inviting shiny, green June bugs and my old dog Blacky
To a shady, summer snack.
But then everything changed when we moved away and my father didn’t come with us.
Like the loud terrifying silence of a white, empty room in the big, empty house we
Moved into, there were no bright smiles and no cheering crowds when I, myself, threw
The ball into the air and caught in leather cracked glove. There was only chalky silence.
But like an outfielder, whose team needs just one more out, with the blinding,
August sun in his eyes, and the ball falling from a clear, blue sky,
I will fight through the glare of the burning sun and catch that ball inside my glove,
And phone my father to tell him all about it, and once again see his smile and hear the
Roaring cheers of the crowd, if only in my head.