April 7th, 2014

4/7/14

In Class:
Journal--  Using the photo you brought to class, practice your imagery techniques: put yourself ‘in’ the picture, and describe all five senses.

Screened and discussed two slam poems, "Talk Ugly" by Joseph LMS Green and "I Want to Buy a Sloth with You" by Mo Lawrence.

Writing Exercise: Borrowing Seeds as Inspiration
"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different." - T.S. Eliot
1) Identify one line in your Poem-a-Week that resonates with you particularly. 
2) Then, choose one line in someone else’s Poem-a-Week that resonates with you. 
3) Using the line from your poem as the first line and the line from a friend’s poem as the last, write your own piece:
     -> First line: a line from your Poem-a-Week

           [Fill in this part with your own words, ideas, and connections.]

     -> Last line: a line from a friend's Poem-a-Week






 
Defined and discussed theme and conceit (see Poetic Devices worksheet).
theme: the implicit, abstract meaning or message of a work of art or literature. (In the sloth poem, this might be the desire to share love for a common cause.)
conceit: an extended, often implicit, metaphor used to support a theme. (Consider the sloth itself.)

Writing Exercise: Conceit
Each student wrote an emotion and an article of clothing on separate post-its. Then, students swapped post-its so that each person had a random emotion and article of clothing. Using the technique of conceit, each student wrote a poem that conveyed the emotion using the article of clothing. For example, shoes and grief:

     The black leather seemed to constrict my arches like shackles
     As I staggered through the procession.
     That overwhelming stench of shoe-polish
     Assailed my nostrils with a heavy anguish.
     Black veils swept through the gathering.
     The eulogy is devoid of meaning:
     I bear the weight of her confession,
     And my shoes groan beneath its pressure.

Exit ticket: Define 'theme.'


Homework:
Develop and polish one of the two pieces you wrote in class today to share out on Wednesday.
Poem-a-Week #2 due Monday.