Creative Writing Poetry Assignment 10%
ENGL 102 Spring 2021
About the Assignment:
Throughout the semester we have read numerous types of poems from multiple voices and poets. We read political poems and poems that documented the intersection of the personal and the historical. All of the poems we read for our poetry unit bear witness to experience and the life of the mind. Now it is time to try writing your own poem. Consider the work of Emily Dickinson, Audre Lorde, Walt Whitman, Linda Hogan, Lucille Clifton, and the haiku form Japanese Americans in May Sky There Is Always Tomorrow. For the Creative Writing Poetry Assignment, write a poem that bears witness to your own life and/or an event you see unfolding in current events. You may even want to use visual art that you find online as inspiration.
How do I get started?
Consider an image or metaphor that represents this idea and move from there. To begin, you might find a photograph that represents your life or a photo from a magazine or newspaper that represents a moment in current events (or history).
Include at least 2 drafts:
So, your first of the poem is whatever falls on the blank page.
Now shape your words and lines into line breaks. Keep working on it. Change images, words, phrases, extend the metaphorsthese are your second and third drafts.
Even if you return to your original draft you must show evidence of having thought about the language you are using and tried other words. This is a revision or re-envisioning of the poem. Poems will be graded on revision (and attempt).
1) One Poem (including drafting notes and poem) typed in 12-point Times New Roman font or equivalent
Poems demonstrate the following
· Takes risks through voice and content
· Includes sensory details, images
· Employs conventions of poetry (i.e. allusions, imagery, personification, metaphors, similes, etc.)
· Explores line breaks and form (Aim for 14-20 lines at leastif you want to write really short poems, then offer more than one adding up to 14-20 lines. Poems maybe longer.)
2) Reflection on your process: Write a 1-2 page typed reflection on your process. Discuss the following: What are you trying to do in your poem? What do you think your poem is about? What prompted you to write this poem? What obstacles did you face in writing the poem and how did you overcome them? What discoveries did you make in writing the poem?
3) Final Poem with Revision and Reflection Posted in one document on Turn It In. Please put your Final poem (on top), drafts, and reflection paper in one Word Document on Turn It In.
DUE DATES
Rough Draft: 3/17 Begin writing your first draft (you do not need to turn this in yet)
Final Copy of Poem with drafts and reflection papers due: Friday, 3/26 to Turn It In.
Creative Writing ExerciseOptional Exercise to get started:
Take out your journal and the photograph you chose to write about. Spend some time looking at and re-seeing the photograph.
1) What do you notice? Take a moment to describe exactly what you see in the picture.
2) Now add sensory details. If the picture is outside, might the people smell grass, wood-burning, exhaust? Imagine and add sensory detail.
3) Now explore what is happening in this photo.
4) Now imagine what happens after the photo was taken.
5) Add one line “I believe…” Make a proclamation.
6) Choose one image from earlier and extend the metaphor–describe it in greater detail.
7) Repeat one line.
If you are writing about a personal photo, explore that one moment. Imagine that moment as though you are watching a movie. Now freeze frame on that moment and imagine you are looking at your moment as if it were a photograph. Describe what you see in this photograph. What are the sights, smells, sounds, textures of that moment in the photo? Now tell the story of what happens after the photo was taken.
While it is difficult to grade a poem, there are certain conventions of poetry that we have been studying that can be applied to evaluation. Some things to consider for your poem: Try to revise with sensory details. Include smells, sights, sounds, tastes, textures. Avoid cliché and push to generate fresh, inventive language. Remember, show dont tell and no ideas but in thingsallow the objects to represent ideas. Rather than writing I felt angry, show anger by putting the reader in the place where your angry feeling arises with all the smells, sounds, and textures of that place. Play with words through sound and rhythmtry alliteration. Be aware of line lengths and rhythm in your poems. Finally, rememberperspiration count as much as inspiration! Show proof of revision between the first and last draft.
