Off the Wall Poetry Prompts : Weird Ways to Find a Poem

1. Off the Wall Poetry Prompts:Weird Ways to Find a Poem Off the Wall Poetry Prompts: Weird Ways to Find a Poem 2014 OWP Youth Writing Conference Presentation 2014 Youth Writing Conference Poetry Presentation

2. “It’s impossible to teach anyone to write a poem. But we can set up circumstances in which poems are likely to happen…Playing with words, we can get to the place where poems come from. We can write and make discoveries about who we are and who we might become….” --Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge

3. Purpose: • Set up circumstances to make poems happen. • Play with words. • Make discoveries about ourselves through our poems.

4. Non-purpose To critique our poems or feel like we have to write an amazing poem. We will be happy with the messing around and thrilled if we write one great line.

5. Goals: Experiment with some odd and off the wall poetry prompts to see if we can take our poetry to new places. Introduce Zentangling as a way to illustrate poetry.

6. Making Metaphor Create three columns. Write adjectives in the first column.

7. Making Metaphor Write concrete nouns in the second column. Add several of your own.

8. Making Metaphor In the third column, write abstract nouns.

9. Making Metaphor Choose one word from each column and insert the word of between the second and third words to create a line for a poem. “the empty doghouse of apology”

10. Vivid Verbs Fold paper in half. On the left fold, list ten or more common nouns.

11. Vivid Verbs On the right fold, without referring to the list on the left, list ten or more verbs that describe actions by people in a selected occupation.

12. Vivid Verbs Unfold the two lists and combine the nouns and verbs to see what happens. The fiddles boiled the air with their music. The lilacs sliced the sky into purple.

13. Somehow This Works • Three colors • Something you rarely, if ever, tell anyone else • Three questions you would ask if they were the last things you could ever say • An aphorism (“A stitch in time saves nine.”) • Three slant rhymes (shared consonants) long/thing moon/mine • Three things people have said to you in the last 24 hours • A recent dream • Think of the last extreme pain you have endured. If it were an animal, what would it be?

14. Five Lines: A Parts of Speech Poem • Write a noun of your choice • Write two adjectives joined by and to describe the noun • Write a verb and an adverb to describe this noun in action • Start this line with like or as followed by a comparison • Start the final line with if only followed by a wish

15. A Fantasy A mechanical device lawn mower One-word metaphor and a participle a shark devouring its prey An absolute phrase to show what it’s doing teeth slicing its way A prepositional phrase to show location through oceans of green, Another participle describing its actions attacking prey unseen A prepositional phrase for a conclusion with mindless devotion

16. Copy/Change PoemsImitate the following poems by retaining the underlined words or word parts, using no punctuation and using similar line breaks. This Is Just to Say I have eatenthe plumsthat were inthe iceboxand whichyou were probably savingfor breakfastForgive methey were deliciousso sweet and so cold The Red Wheelbarrowso much dependsupona red wheelbarrowglazed with rainwaterbeside the whitechickens

17. Poetry Reading

18. Illustrate a Poem with Zentangling

19. Zentangle a Frame https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZJ9SpSukeQ

20. Goals: Experiment with some odd and off the wall poetry prompts to see if we can take our poetry to new places. Introduce Zentangling as a way to illustrate poetry.

21. How to Doodle • I was a child poet. And a bad one. • Twelve-year-old slam poet • The Giving Tree