Alien angel

Cut up the following words, mix them up and choose 8 randomly. Play around with combinations. Pick a few more until you find something you like.

The write free verse (no need to rhyme or stick to a particular length of line) using your words somewhere in the poem. (Feel free to change tenses and so forth.)

PEOPLE
actor
alchemist
alien
android
angel
apprentice
artist
avatar
baby
Barbie
beggar
bounty hunter
boy
bride (of)
cat
demigod
demon
demon slayer
dragon
embezzler
enchantress
father (of)
fiend
ghost
ghoul
girl
goth
groom (of)
lady
lord
mouse
ogre
orphan
outcast
Ozzie
pig
poet
psychic
pyromaniac
rat
slave
soul
specimen
spirit
thief
troll
vampire
weasel
witch
writer

VERBS
assassinate
assault
bite
blast
bless
capture
celebrate
challenge
charm
corrupt
curse
disappear
discover
doom
dump
eat
exorcise
explode
expose
fall for
flee
hit
imprison
kill
knot
lose
murder
plot to kill
quest for
rebel against
resurrect
reveal
rip off
sacrifice
seize
shoot
silence
slay
smack
smash
stab
surrender
terminate
torment
torture
transform (into)
trick
vanquish
wed
weep

PLACES AND THINGS
bakery
bazaar
bed
bones
castle
chamber
clock
computer
diary
drum
dungeon
empire
fire
flute
forest
garden
goblet
grave
heaven
hell
island
jewel
key
knife
labyrinth
lightening
monastery
palace
paradise
parchment
phone
plastic
quill
quilt
ring
runes
sanctuary
sarcophagus
space colony
star ship
strands
sword
tavern
temple
thunder
tomb
tower
underworld
volcano
well

ADJECTIVES
340 pound
abandoned
accused
amnesiac
angry
annoying
blind
brilliant
crazy
crimson
crumbling
delirious
devoted
doomed
dying
emerald
enchanted
escaped
exiled
faded
feline
first
glowing
haunted
hollow
icy
impenetrable
indecipherable
infested
inhuman
lavender
lost
magic
monster
naked
noble
oozing
phobic
pink
primitive
resurrected
sacred
sapphire
shattered
singing
stinky
tattooed
teen
telepathic
wicked

Be the ball

For today's poetry prompt imagine you're a creature or thing. What's it like to be a television or your cat or a cloud or a record album or a fish in a tank ...

The children took the idea in many different directions: interviews, imagining what the answers would be, taking on the persona and revealing the answers ... Don't limit yourself to what you think the approach "must" be :-)

Examples:

I would like to be a pen because every day I would dance and whenever I'm out of ink they would put me away until I got ink. And I would go any place people go.

---

Questions to Ask Snow Person

Do you like to be what you are?
Do you like when people step on you and make snow balls with you?
Do you like your color white?
Do you like to be mixed with now?
Do you like to stand all day out in the snow with nothing to do?
Do you like when people fall on you?
Snow
The answer is
NO!!!

---

How does it feel to be a blackboard?
I think it would feel funny,
Always being written on.
Always having examples erased off.
What do you see?
You see many many kids.

---

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

"I went for years ..."

Ah, and our eight alligators ardently ate another

Write a series of eight-word lines. Each line will contain one of each part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, interjections and conjunctions.) How many lines you write is up to your muse or your 15 minutes timer :-)

(Not sure why he -- and lots of other grammar lists -- leave out articles (a, an, the).)

Here's a quick stab at it:

And, well, slowly his hungry Borslang chewed through
But, oh, inside her dark Gorvopl patiently waited
And, alas, enormous hunger unexpectedly slaked within her.

Okay, the conjunctions are tricky when you can only have one noun or verb per line!

---

And if you're a bit rusty on your grammar:

Noun: person, place or thing. Can be general (the president, the city) or specific (David Palmer, Mos Eisley).

Verb: action word.

Adjective: describes a noun. (Red, hot, blushing ...) (Hmm, could also have a poem made up of entirely one part of speech.)

Adverb: describes a verb. (Slowly, haltingly, boorishly ...)

Pronoun: a word that takes the place of a noun (he, she, it, they, we, his, her, their, our, its ... Actually there are way more than I thought since I usually just think of personal pronouns. There's a list of Pronouns and a thorough list of personal pronouns at Wikipedia that include nonstandards like "youse guys" ;-)

Preposition: identifies the position of something (before, inside, under ...) (A very thorough list of prepositions at Wikipedia)

Interjections: Words that can be followed by an exclamation point. (Uh-oh, yippee, shoo, jeez, ouch, wow, ...)
Long interjection list at Wikipedia and a list of interjections by language, for no other reason than just because I stumbled across it and it's cool! :-)

Conjunctions: Joining words (and, or, but, nor)

From: Charles Bernstein.

Quiet as a rooster at sunrise

To warm up your poetry muscles today, have fun with false comparisons.

Use the form

As ____ as a ____.

and make comparisons that aren't true.

As always, you can use that format for every line. You can use it at the beginning and then explore the comparison in subsequent lines. Or make a few of the same comparisons and move onto others.

For some reason, it's a lot more fun and freeing than trying to come up with comparisons that are true. Maybe it ties into the psychology of wanting to do whatever we're told not to do ;-)

Here's some examples off the top of my head since this didn't come from Koch's book:

As quiet as a wolf in a hen house.
As quiet as a broken muffler.

As alone as Santa at Christmas.
As alone as a Brittany Spears.

As busy as a beach in winter.
As busy as a full bellied kitten.

Finding yourself

Ew, sounds self reflective. And I promised, no self-reflection! ;-)

Still, I promise! You're going to create a "found poem". It's a poem assembled from prose found in various contexts: newspapers, advertisements, books, labels, signs ... For this poem, type your name into Google, and scavenge what turns up for lines to use in your poem. Rearrange phrases, words and sentences into some pleasing form.

Okay, I only promise if your name isn't unique. :-) Mine is so all the pages are about me. So use someone else's name: your best friend from childhood, college roommate, first crush, random lawyer from the phone book, Harry Potter ...

(From Poetry Prompt from Google Tidbits)

A swan of bees

For this warm up, in each line write an fanciful combination. Keep going for 10-15 minutes.

The following examples were all done by children who didn't feel constrained only to combinations that make sense. :-)

swan of bees
sailboat of water
pajamas of oranges
book of stripes
kiss of babies
skeleton of discovery
blackboard of moons
swimming pool of doorknobs
hat of laughs

If you want, you can use templates like:

"I once saw ..."

or

"I wish I had ..."

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

"One of the most difficult qualities ..."

Extraordinary Poetry Writing

I'm always on the look out of books that approach a subject in a simple way without dumbing it down. I found this slim volume titled Extraordinary Poetry Writing by Margaret Ryan that's a gentle but not dumbed down introduction to poetry writing. It's nicely divided into small chunks with side bars and tips.

"Poems need to be about something."

An obvious and yet intimidating statement ;-) At least from my time in school, I picked up the idea that you began with a subject and tried to write profound or amusing things about it, as though the poem in its entirety were hidden inside of you and you just needed to find a way to transcribe it. As she goes onto help you see, you begin with something to focus on and then let yourself free associate and explore that idea. Comparisons, contrasts, images, feelings, phrases, lines, memories, words ... Then you play with those, finding patterns and interesting ideas that arise from the original subject.

"... it's not so much the subject of your poem that makes it special. It's the way you write about that subject -- the language you choose, your insights, your point of view."

As she explains, little to none of that is there at the beginning. You begin with a subject but your exploration uncovers surprising things you didn't know were inside you :-)

(This is true of prose, too, of course!)

"Tip FIle: "Just sit down with a pen you like and a clean sheet of paper, lined or unlined, and start writing. Play with words and images that interest you. Experiment with the music of words and see what happens. Let your subject emerge as you focus on it and it begins to clarify."

Though some people find a blank sheet of paper intimidating! If you do, mess it up. Put marks on it. Crumple it. Write on the back of an envelope. Or in your writer's notebook. Whatever will help you feel that you're not about to begin a finished product. It's notes. It's supposed to feel like chicken scratch :-)

"Let your mind wander. Daydream as you write. Cover at least one side of a sheet of paper with ideas, feelings, insights, and items you associate with your topic. Don't ask yourself 'Why does an orange make me think of gym class?' Just write down that it does."

"Be aware that most poems have more than one subject. There will be the obvious subject, the one that triggered the writing of the poem -- a groundhog, a hyacinth in bloom, an encounter with a friend in the hall. Underneath will be another, larger subject that you will most likely discover during the process of writing your poem.

"Because this layer of subject -- sometimes called a theme -- will reveal itself to you as you compose your poem, you don't have to worry about working it in."

Then she goes onto the structure of poetry.

"The first line of a poem is an invitation."

And, as she has already pointed out, you may not write the first line first. You may not write the first line until the end. You may find it in the middle of the poem.

In the following chapters she discusses first drafts, final drafts ("Where the Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary"), and finally onto 5 poetic forms: haiku, list poems, dramatic monologue, ballads, sonnets.

Go to town

Today take a journey around town and collect words that strike you: street signs, business names, sale signs, political slogans, lost and found posters, family names, graffiti, bumper stickers ...

Create a list poem from them. A list poem is just that: a list, but a list that you've organized in some way that feels right to you. Play with the sounds and images as you order them. You may find some that create a rhythm and some that are opposites.

I've got it easy since our town is small, basically two blocks long ;-) If your town is overwhelming try just your street or your neighborhood.

Same difference

Compare opposites for today's poetry warm up.

Begin with a comparison that is opposite: a big thing and a little thing "An elephant is like a mouse" or two things that seem not alike "Rain is like a cemetery" and then explore how they're alike. You can use one comparison or many comparisons in the poem.

Here's something quick as an example:

An elephant is like a mouse.
Both are gray with long dangling attachments and papery ears and dark button eyes
Rain is like a cemetery.
They're gray and dreary and make the grass grow.
A peach is like a snake.
They bulge when they are full of food.
A ghost is like a pencil.
You find them in the most unexpected places.

Hey, that was fun! :-)

---

As I should have explained at the beginning of the month about warm ups, but didn't have my notes from last year:

Warm ups: These are chances to be wild and creative and get the words and ideas flowing. Generate lines based on a template. The point isn't to create a whole poem but to generate lines for the poem. The ones at the beginning will probably be trite, cliche and stiff. Let them out onto the paper. Allow them to clear a path that will allow the creative ideas to flow out. :-)

The "I" writing the poem doesn't need to be you! It can be anyone or any*thing* you want.

If you get stuck before your 15 minutes is up, read back over what you've written to see if it inspires some more ideas.

When you're done, you can toss out the ones you don't like and collect the lines you like into a poem :-)

Glitter like diamontes

Sometimes having the structure dictated can free up your creativity. Seems odd, yet it's like a coloring book. You don't have to spend time making the figure look right, just mess around with color.

A diamonte poem begins with one subject and ends with its opposite. The number of words increase then decrease and, if you center it, it looks like a diamond. Well, sometimes, if the words are the right length ;-)

Subject
2 adjectives describing the subject
3 words ending in -ing telling about the subject
4 words, the first two describe the subject, the last two describe its opposite
3 words ending in -ing telling about the opposite
2 adjectives describing the opposite
Opposite

Here's an example off the top of my head:

ink
black liquid
flowing staining expressing
splatter blot soak splash
flowing washing obliterating
clear liquid
water

If you like that structure, a diamonte poem is similar to a cinquain: A not so traditional cinquain and More nontraditional cinquains and the real one.

Fiddling

For today's poetry warm up begin with:

If I were ______ I would ______.

Then either continue that pattern with different speculations or start each line with "I would" to expand on the original speculation.

Here's an example from the book that was prompted by the more specific "If I were snow ..." (so you don't need to begin with the same object for yours, but can if you want!)

If I were snow I would fill up the streets.
If I were snow I would also freeze my brother.
If I were snow I would be mean and nice.
If I were snow and I saw somebody eating something very hot I would cool it for him.

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

"When I am dead ..."

Cobbler

Select one sentence each from a variety of different books or other sources. Add sentences of your own composition. Combine into a poem (or paragraph), reordering to produce the most interesting results.

The sentences can come from any printed source: children's books, novels, chemistry texts, dictionaries, webpages, newspapers ...

(From Charles Bernstein's Reading/Writing Lab course)

Not happening

For today's poetry warm up, make a statement about something ordinary. Then think of strange, impossible or maybe beautiful things that you might wish were there but aren't. For example:

The stars twinkle in the night sky.
None are falling to earth.
None spell my name in the sky.

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

Bad as I wanna be

Write the worst possible poem.

If you need inspiration, take someone else's poem or one you've written and start substituting words, like:

Burning, burning distant sun.
I needn't consider what you've done.
Way off far in our galaxy
Like a nuclear inferno of kind maxi.

Well, not nearly as bad as it could have been ;-)

(From Charles Bernstein's Reading/Writing Lab course)

---

Of course they don't need to rhyme but if you need help with rhymes try Rhymer or Rhymezone. If Rhymer gives you an overwhelming number of rhymes try choosing “Last syllable rhymes” or “Double rhymes” from the drop down menu. (Annoyingly, you need to type the word into the search box again.) Rhymezone returns fewer rhymes (which can be a good thing sometimes!)

Sound of noise

Warm ups: These are chances to be wild and creative and get the words and ideas flowing. Generate lines based on a template. The point isn't to create a whole poem but to generate lines for the poem. The ones at the beginning will probably be trite, cliche and stiff. Let them out onto the paper. Let them to clear a path that will allow the creative ideas to flow out. :-)

Write a noisy warm up poem. :-)

As a template for each line you can use one of the following (or come up with your own):

______ sounds like ______.

or

The noise of/made by ______ is like ______.

or

The sound of ______ is like _____.

You can use the same template line for each line. You can mix them up. Use the template as an aid rather than a straight jacket!

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

"A poem is never ..."

Left at the start

An acrostic poem uses each letter of a word or phrase to begin each line of a poem. The poem will have something to do with the initial word or phrase.

Voracious
Appetite
Mesmerizing
Personality
Icy
Reserve
Elegantly
Savage

There's some amusing ones by Bruce Lansky at How to Write an Acrostic Poem.

All the examples happen to be single words for each letter but of course they don't have to be!. Each line can be a phrase. The format of the acrostic is very loose :-)

Use a character's name, a movie title, a word, an emotion, the beginning of a favorite poem.

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines for April 2008

April is National Play with Words Month!

Actually it's National Poetry Month but to keep the prompts relatively short and encourage people who cringe at the word poetry, it's a whole lot more about playing with words.

Last year I introduced Kenneth Koch's poetry warm up exercises. (You can see them all here by clicking on Poetry Warm Ups over on the right.) They're a way of playing with words to get stuff flowing :-)

No actual poetry will be produced, though you may come up with an intriguing line that leads to a poem or a story.

For today, use the structure of the first tabloid headline and generate similar lines of the form:

Food -- Noun -- -ed verb

Cucumber Killer Captured
Bean Bomber Bamboozled
Anchovy Anarchist Annihilated

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines from APRIL 1998

1. CUCUMBER KILLER CAPTURED! -- WWN
   
2. BEN FRANKLIN SHOCKER!He was a Founding Father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence -- AND A SERIAL KILLER! -- WWN
   
3. Teens ordered to clean toilets after peeing on theater seats! -- WWN
   
4. 10 GIRAFFES HAVE HEADS TORN OFF -- when zoo truck passes under low bridge -- WWN
   
5. Kitten drowned by a giant goldfish!  Cat dips paw in tank & fish pulls him in! -- WWN
   
6. Exploding grapefruits kill hundreds in Argentina! -- WWN
   
7. DEAD HUBBY BURIED WITH WINNING LOTTO TICKET IN HIS POCKET Anxious wife digs up 103 corpses looking for him! -- WWN
   
8. FARMER DEVELOPS THE ELVIS CHICKEN! New birds sport slick hairdos & swivel their hips when they walk! -- WWN
   
9. Gun-totin' Texan shoots baby kitten. . .   THEN CLAIMS SELF-DEFENSE! -- WWN
   
10. VENGEFUL OLDSTER SUES DAUGHTER FOR DEAD WIFE'S ASHES . . . SO HE CAN FLUSH THEM DOWN THE TOILET! -- WWN