Slant Poetry #2

Choose one of these exercises.

1.        Thinking about a place or thing

·         Write down the name of a specific place or object that you know well and for which you have a fondness. (Please don’t write about the beach.)

·         Write a poem in which you include at least five sensory images (using at least three different senses).

·         The poem should end with a personal realization of some kind like “I have wasted my life” (from James Wright’s poem “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farmin Pine Island, Minnesota”).

2.        Using your subconscious

·         Stream of consciousness. Take five minutes to write everything that comes into your mind. Don’t stop writing for the entire five minutes.

·         Select ten words from the stream of consciousness.

·         In ten minutes write a ten line poem. At least one of the ten words must be used in each line and all ten words must be used.

3.        Recover product words

·         Take three minutes to write down product names that are also English words. “Joy,” “Dawn” “Tide,” “Mountain Dew,” etc.

·         Write a poem using at least ten of these words or phrases. Do not refer to the products, instead use the original meanings of the worlds.

4.        Inspiration from another poem

·         Pick a poem you like, that intrigues you. (Here you can search for poems by subject.) Read it several times.

·         Now write a poem in response to that poem. You may choose to write in a like style or use words/phrases from the poem in your response. Or you may answer "questions" that the poem poses (real ones or suggested ones).