Aim: What creative approaches can be taken to find ideas for writing poetry?
Do Now: Starting off today’s lesson, my classmates and I contributed to a whole class discussion in which we talked about what activities we like to do during our free time outside of school.
As soon as I heard our do now I was filled with joy in that I was excited to learn more about my classmates. The class discussion began with Kelly, who enjoys drawing while listening to music. She added on to that saying how she participates in daily art challenges in which she draws things in her own particular style. Next, I chose to share one of my favourite things to do, play with my pets. In fact, I have five pets so you’ll never know what to expect when you take out a singular squeaky ball. Several other students contributed to the discussion. What I noticed was the constant themes of listening to music and playing sports. I took away a lot of things from this activity. Firstly, it allowed me to realize how unique each and everyone of us are, whether it's from our different music styles to our different interests in sports. Some of the students’ interests inspired me to try and take up this activity myself as I love trying new things. For example, Kelly’s bit of the discussion led me to the realization that maybe I should get into drawing and maybe I’ll have as much fun as Kelly makes it seem.
Spirit Reading: Shortly after the do now, my classmates and I collaboratively read a passage. By collaboratively I mean we practiced a type of reading process called spirit reading. In spirit reading, a student chooses to read a section of the text, the amount of so is up to them, and whenever they stop another student can decide to pick up from where they left off. I personally like this activity as it gets me engaged and represents an easy way to participate in class without being under the pressure of possibly getting something incorrect.
From Poemcrazy
by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
I take words from everywhere. I might steal steel, spelled both ways. Unscrupulous. I’ll toss in iron, metal and magnolias. Whatever flies into my mind. Haystack, surge, sidewinder. A sound, splash. A color, magenta. Here’s a chair. Velvet. Plush.
Dylan Thomas loved the words he heard and saw around him in Wales. “When I experience anything,” he once said, “I experience it as a thing and a word at the same time, both equally amazing.” Writing one ballad, he said, was like carrying around an armload of words to a table upstairs and wondering if he’d get there in time.
Words stand for feelings, ideas, mountains, bees. Listen to the sound of words. I line up words I like to hear, Nasturtiums buzz blue grass catnip catalpa catalog.
I borrow words from poems, books and conversations. Politely. Take polite. If I’m in a classroom, I just start chalking them onto the board. I don’t worry about spelling or meaning. Curdle. Cantankerous. Linoleum. Limousine. Listen. Malevolent. Sukulilli, the Maidu Indian word for silly. Magnet cat oven taste tilt titter.
I call gathering words this way creating a wordpool….
When I’m playing with words, I don’t worry about sounding dumb or crazy. And I don’t worry about whether or not I’m writing “a poem.” Word pool. World pool, wild pool, whipoorwill, swing. Words taken out of the laborious structures (like this sentence) where we normally place them take on a spinning life of their own.
Passage from Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge: The passage our class read was a wordpool from “Poemcrazy” by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge. Susan Wooldridge is a teacher of creative writing. From the text we can collect that she has extremely observant tendencies.She is inspired by numerous daily events and shares her stories using a unique writing style. She enjoys playing and exploring with words. The idea this passage is trying to put out is inspiration comes from all kinds of places. To write poems, one must do as she did and just explore, play around with the words around you. There isn’t a rulebook you must follow, it’s prominent to use your imagination. That’s what makes your writing yours. That’s what makes it unique.
Alphabet Aerobics: After collecting this useful information, we then watched Daniel Radcliffe Raps Blackalicious' "Alphabet Aerobics." This was a perfect example of what Susan Wolldridge was talking about. In the video Daniel Radcliffe, the person who plates Harry Potter, was shown in a new light. Daniel Radcliffe began to rap the lyrics to Alphabet Aerobics, a fast paced rap. The rap contains complex rhymes as well as puzzling lyrics as its high tempo makes some parts nearly impossible to understand. On top of that many uses of a particular piece of figurative language was used. More specifically, alliterations dominate most of the lyrics. It highlights a creative, unique writing style using all kinds of words. It is highly possible that the creators of the song used a word pool to put all these lyrics together. Personally, I loved the video as it was very entertaining seeing the man I associate with Harry Potter rapping a song, doing a pretty good job at it too.
Team Word Challenge: Once we had an idea on word pools and how they work we were given the challenge of creating our own. However, it wasn’t that easy. We were given the task of trying to find a synonym for the verb: “to walk or move.” We had to try and find one synonym for each letter of the alphabet in under 5 minutes. In the breakout room, every few seconds one of us would shout out a word that just came to mind and we would all simultaneously write it down. This exercise was particularly hard as some letters seemed impossible to have such a word exist. Examples of this would be letters like “x” or “q.” However, in the end we were able to come up with 14 words, which qualified for second place.
What I learned from this activity is that there really are so many words. So many opportunities to play around with and explore with all these words.
Spirit Reading: Our next task was to read the following passage and annotate anything that sticks out to you.
… Image is the root word of imagination. It’s from Latin imago, “picture,” how you see things. Images carry feelings. Saying, “I’m angry,” or “I’m sad,” has little impact. Creating images, I can make you feel how I feel.
When I read the words of a young student named Cari—“I’m a rose in the shape of a heart / with nineteen days of nothing / but the pouncing of shoes on my dead petals”—I experience desperation through her image. Cari doesn’t even have to name the feeling—nineteen days, a pale green sky, a pouch of seed held against a sower’s heart.
Writing poems using images can create an experience allowing others to feel what we feel. Perhaps more important, poems can put us in touch with our own often buried or unexpected feelings.
Shoua discovered her frustration by using the image of a man shooting pool,
I hear bang, click, shoosh
feeling like the white ball
that does all the work.
Tori used images from a landscape to indicate hopelessness,
the clouds collapsed,
they’re touching the ground
trying to come alive,
but they can’t.
Sometimes word tickets magically fit with the images in the paintings. One of Tori’s words was jingle. It helped her convey her developing feeling of hope,
the glowing water shows shadow
till we all hear
the jingle of dawn.
Images we create in our poem can not only help us discover our feelings, but can help us begin to
transform them.
I think the author is saying that the images we create in our poems help us come to terms with our feelings, especially those feelings which are buried deep within us. The images that we are referring to here are not only pictures but words that evoke imagery. Often images help us get in touch with our emotions more so than the verbal words that we speak. They convey feelings of happiness, sadness, turmoil, despair, despondency and hope just to name a few. The wonderful thing about images just like our emotions is that they are ours for us to see in our own unique ways. Through these images we can empathize with our others in sharing common emotions. These images humanize us and bond us through our emotions.
Connections: I was able to make a lot of connections to what the author was saying as I remember many times in which images were able to evoke my emotions. Examples of this could be in movie posters, in scrap books, and more. Whether they’re able to bring me to a whimsical/playful mood or a regretful/sorrowful mood, images always find a way to spark something in me.
Teamwork: An array of images were given to us.
Each team was given the task of choosing an image and writing a description based on the image as well as the emotions it sparks. Initially, there was nothing but silence as we weren't sure exactly which image to choose. We then came to the conclusion of picking a random image which happened to be the first image, the Spiderman themed one. In the image a hero known as Spiderman is hanging off the side of a building. Looking at the picture, I was faced with a duality of emotions. On one hand it’s exhilarating and makes me a little anxious as Peter is hanging off the side of a building. The fact that he’s relying on only his one hand to hold him up and keep him from getting injured or even dying makes me uneasy. However, the image also makes me amazed at his unique ability to do so. One must have a huge amount of strength and confidence to be put in that position. In addition, I was pleasantly surprised with the astonishing view of the city and it just highlights the beautiful, unique architecture. After sharing out my thoughts, my fellow team members agreed with me. They agreed with me on the fact that this image evokes a sense of fear. However, no one seemed to share the same ideas in that it also evoked a sense of amazement. In addition, this other group chose the second picture, featuring what looks like a carnival at night. They said that after looking at the image it made them feel nostalgic, it made them think of the times when they were little. Another team picked the third picture, the one with the kitten. They said it made them feel sad and full of dread as the kitten was lonely. It doesn’t have anyone.
Then the second part of this task was to have a group discussion about where we can find creative inspiration from that we can use to create our own form of poetry. My group and I came to the agreement that they’re many places to find inspiration for our poems. There are many possibilities. Most common ones include sources from the internet or the library. The web is extremely helpful as they’re so many things accessible on there.
Personally, my biggest source of inspiration is from nature as I have a passion for plants and animals. Nature is beautiful and majestic and when you explore it you’ll never know just what you can find. After sharing out it seemed nature was a common theme among the groups.I remember a vivid memory of my ten year old self taking a nature stroll with my parents. However, at one point I decided to pause as I was astonished by these bright, intricate flowers I came across. I enjoyed them so much that I needed to capture them on my phone to remember this very time that brought me so much joy. A few hours later when we returned home I remembered journaling about how beautiful these flowers were and how much of a fun and playful mood it brought about to me. The picture I used in this example is shown below.
Homework: The homework assignment was to create a pool of words and images that we’ll use as a source of inspiration when it comes time to create our own poetry. I think the reason why it’s just as important to include images as to words is because images evoke so much of our emotions. As the text was saying, images help us get in touch with our emotions more so than the verbal words. When people look at images many many ideas and feelings come about.
Reflection: Today’s lesson allowed me to take away a lot of ideas when it comes to poetry writing. First off, there are many different places to find inspiration. We just can’t be afraid to explore and play around with the words around us. Different words awaken us to new possibilities by allowing us to surpass our ordinary experiences and limitations. As I said before there isn’t some kind of rulebook one must follow, it’s our imagination that plays the biggest role when it comes to writing. There are so many words, so many opportunities to take. Sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zones and just explore. In addition, images evoke a variety of feelings. They often bring to the surface hidden emotions both positive and negative. They create an experience that allows us to unearth our feelings and put them towards our writing. We learned these ideas of images, feelings, and inspiration to generate ideas not only when it comes to our poem writing but writing in general. These ideas teach us what kind of things evoke emotions and how we can implement them into our writing. For example, several groups discussed how a nature scroll can evoke many emotions such as amazement, relaxation, and sometimes even nostalgia. We can use these emotions and put them into words. In addition, we can use word pools as to what comes to mind when taking these strolls which gives you a variety of possibilities to choose from when it comes to poem writing. Now that I’ve learned this I’ll take advantage of the world around me. Whenever I have writer's block, I’ll make an effort to try and surf the internet, go outside, pay a visit to the library, and more. I’ll note the emotions that I experience as I do these things and put them into my writing. I’ll explore words that I haven’t yet used. I’ll take advantage of them rather than limiting myself.
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