Transcript Writing Workshop: Creating Word Pictures and Other

Writing Workshop: Creating
Word Pictures and Other
Poetry Forms
Prof. Myrna Monllor Jiménez
Prof. Helen Domenech
June 12, 2007
Poetry
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Is essential to our lives
Celebrates language
Can be therapeutic
Can express social concerns
Can be humorous or sad
Can now be interactive
They said I had a head for business
They said to get ahead
I had to lose my head.
They said
be concrete
& I became
concrete.
They said,
go my son.
multiply,
divide, conquer.
Corporate Head 1991
Philip Levine (poet)
Terry Allen (sculptor)
Unfortunate Coincidence
Dorothy Parker
By the time you swear you’re his
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undyingLady, make note of this:
One of you is lying.
Expression of Social Problems
It’s the Law: A Rap Poem
by Saundra Sharp
Word/Sentence Pictures
Procedure for Writing Shape
Poems
• Read several children’s poems which
use shapes to form the poem
• As a practice exercise have students
draw an object using words, phrases or
thoughts related to the object
• Show several examples of words that draw a
picture, sentences that create word pictures
and drawings that represent words or sayings
• For our example, show pictures of musical
instruments to guide students in their drawing
• Have students draw their poems in the shape
of instruments
• Then have the students write shape poems
Exercise
Draw a musical instrument
Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart. Pablo Casals
Where words fail, music speaks. - Hans Christian Andersen
All the sounds of the earth are like music. - Oscar Hammerstein
Without music, life is a journey through a desert. Pat Conroy
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is
impossible to
be silent.- Victor Hugo
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
- Berthold Auerbach
• There is always music amongst the trees in
the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet
to hear it.” ~ M. Aumonier
• Music is the speech of angels.
• Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the
space between the notes and curl my back to
loneliness. - Maya Angelou
• If music be the food of love, play on.
- Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Musical Instruments
Poetic Formulas
• Provide a guide
• Help students think about language
Choosing words
Understanding their meaning
Exploring the power of words
Playing with words
Arranging them to create a message
Understanding similes and metaphors
Poetic Formulas: Color Poems
A Colorful World by Georgie Adams
Sea swirling,
Waves curling
BLUE
Wind blowing,
clouds growing
BLACK
…
Seeds sowing,
….
Sun setting,
grass mowing
GREEN
sky getting
RED.
Fire Burning,
flames turning
ORANGE
The child may use
the same color or
different colors.
Colorful Moods by Georgie Adams
When grown-ups say “I’m feeling BLUE”,
It really means they’re sad.
Or if they say, “I’m in the PINK”,
They’re healthy, bright and glad.
It’s strange the things that people say
Like, envy turns you GREEN.
Or someone’s turned a ghostly WHITE
At frightening things they’ve seen.
It’s odd the colors grown-ups go
Or say that they have been.
I stay the color of my skin
Whatever mood I’m in.
Poetic Formulas:
Five-Senses Poems
Children write about a topic by describing it
with each of the five senses:
Valentine’s Day
Smells like chocolate candy
Looks like a flower garden
Tastes like sugar
Feels like silk
Sounds like a symphony orchestra
Too bad it comes once a year!
(child’s poem taken from Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and
Product. Gail E. Tompkins. Prentice Hall,2004)
Poetic Formulas:
If I were… Poems
If I were a giant
I would drink up the seas
And I would touch the sun.
I would eat the world
And stick my head in space.
(child’s poem taken from Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and
Product. Gail E. Tompkins. Prentice Hall,2004)
Poetic Formulas:
____ Is Poems
Happiness is greetings in the morning.
Happiness is having sisters and brothers.
Happiness is having fun with friends.
Poetic Formulas:
Poems for Two Voices
• These are poems written by two
different people
• Initially the lines are written separately
by the two writers
• When the poems are ready, they are
combined into one
Example: Ending Poem
Poetic Formulas:
Diamantes
Contrast poem in the shape of a diamond
Line 1: one noun as the subject
Line 2: two adjectives describing the subject
Line 3: three -ing forms telling about the subject
Line 4: four nouns (the first two related to the subject
and the second two related to the opposite)
Line 5: three participles telling about the opposite
Line 6: two adjectives describing the opposite
Line 7: one noun that is the opposite of the subject
HEAVEN
happy, love
laughing, singing, everlasting
pearly gates, Zion, Satan, netherworld
burning, blazing, yelling
pain, fire
HELL
(child’s poem taken from Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and
Product. Gail E. Tompkins. Prentice Hall,2004)
Found Poems
• A Found Poem is made with words and
phrases from something you read or heard. It
uses someone else's words, but the poet
combines them in a new way.
• They are a good way to review a difficult
poem or reading, or to work with similes and
metaphors
Suggested Procedure
• Bring lots of magazines or newspapers
to the class.
• Have scissors, glue, construction paper
available.
• If possible, provide examples before
beginning.
Procedure
• Select interesting words or short phrases to
create a poem.
• Organize the words in a meaningful and
pleasing way.
• You may also use illustrations.
• The poems created are original. Its theme
and its order invented.
Found Poems from "I Have
a Dream" Speech
• Example One:
Today...tomorrow
a dream
content:
deeply rooted
freedom
• Example Two:
Friends I have
together
brotherhood
will rise up
true
transformed by freedom
• http://www.courtneysmusicsite.net/comments
2.html
• Teaching Writing:Balancing Process and
Product. Gail Tompkins. Prentice Hall, 2004
• Currents form the Dancing River:
Contemporary Latino Fiction, Nonfiction and
Poetry. Edited by Ray González. Harcourt
Brace,1994
• The Compact Bedford Introduction to
Literature. Michael Meyer. Bedford St.
Martin’s Press,2006
Poetry Sites
• http://www.poetry.net/
• p://libraries.mit.edu/guides/subjects/literature/
poetry.html
• http://www.poetryclass.net/kids.htm
• http://www.hphoward.demon.co.uk/poetry/hot
sites.htm
• http://www.gigglepotz.com/kidspoetry.htm