Poetry Assignment due Apris 16/ 19

Assignment: You are to write a poem, or poems of at least fourteen lines long. You may write one poem that has fourteen lines if you wish, but you may also write seven couplets or three quatrains and a couplet which are about completely different topics.
Poetry Choices
1. Describe a place you knew in childhood that was important to you. Begin with any of the following: setting, a time, a metaphor, some comparison, a question, an exclamation, or an image.
2. Write a poem that is about a color.
3. Write about your sixth sense, your intuition, in writing about something hidden or mysterious or unspoken or hard to understand.
4. Make a list of things you are able to do. Is there something you do that is different or interesting? Write about it. It really does not have to be anything unusual. You could write about brushing your teeth in the morning.
5. Write a “how to” poem, giving instructions on how to do something or how to get somewhere. It does not have to make sense; use your imagination and have fun.
6. Try to see what you cannot see, in particular the inner life of a human being or another creature. Try to envision what it would be like to be that person or thing. How about the following: your desk in school, a blade of grass, your cell phone etc. . . .
7. Write about something you dislike: a person, place, thing or activity. You might think of something you would normally shun or exterminate, like a roach, or snake or a weed. Try and see what are its merits, does it have any purpose, and does it have any beauty, or simply write about how disgusting it is.
8. Write a poem in which you incorporate the following words: bruise, horse, milk, reason, and bride.
9. Make a list of things: subjects, objects, feelings, and images that you don’t think belong in a poem. Then write a poem about one of them.
10. If you think poems need to be pretty and about beautiful things, try writing one that rejects the conventionally beautiful things, try writing an anti-poem. Remember Shakespeare’s sonnet “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun.” You might write about a can opener, and use harsh words to convey a sense of gritty realism.
11. You may write a poem of your own choosing. I am requiring at least fourteen lines.