Let yourself become living poetry. -Rumi

Living Poetry 1Buy a notebook and decorate it. Make it you!

Living Poetry 2Walk around the high school and write down words

that you see

Living Poetry 3Add an adjective in front of all the words you

gatheredWrite a poem

Living Poetry 4Write down nouns and verbs on post its or index

cardsGo around the high school and label thingsWrite down the combinations that you and the

others have createdWrite a poem

Living Poetry 5Try putting only one, two, three or four words on a

line. You are more likely to use words you really want.

Living Poetry 6Who were you in my dream?What did you hear?What were you wearing?What were you eating?What did you want?Why were you hiding?Who was with you?Where were you going?

Living Poetry 7Seek, spy, and stalk.Record a random conversation.Turn it into a poem.

Living Poetry 8My real name isYesterday my name wasTomorrow my name will beIn my dream my name wasMy (mother, father, friends, teacher . . .) thinks my

name is

Living Poetry 9 “Poetry has an interesting function. It helps people be where they are.” “All of my poems are suggested by real life and therein have a firm

foundation . . . No one can imitate when you write of the particular, because no others have experienced exactly the same thing.” –Goethe

Walk somewhere alone. Look. Listen. Feel. Experience. Write about what’s around you, using all of your senses.

Create a poem.

Living Poetry 10I come from . . .

Living Poetry 11Find an atlas and look at some maps. Make a list of

place names you like. Begin to imagine a planet or a country or an island where you’d like to live.

Begin to paint this place with words.What color is the sky? Are there rocks, hills,

mountains? Are there trees? Describe and name the flowers. Place yourself there. What does the ground feel like under your feet? What kind of person, or being, could you allow yourself to be there?

Living Poetry 12Go outside and turn over a stone and list in detail

what’s under the stone.

Living Poetry 13Pick one colorNotice everything and write down things that are that

colorWrite a poem

Living Poetry 14If I were a color, what color would I be? What shape, sound, animal, song, number, car, piece

of furniture, food, place, element in nature . . .Write a poem

Living Poetry 15Write a series of images with stopping. Make some of

the absurd.

Living Poetry 16Make a wordpool of feeling words, going on oppositesThen choose an image/pictureChoose a feeling from your list. Look closely at your

image and find a detail that seems to express your feeling. i.e I feel as still as a white water jug.

Lastly, write a poem

Living Poetry 17Notice three new things in someone’s face. Write down

what you have seen.

Living Poetry 18Write an awake/asleep poem.Awake IAsleep I

Living Poetry 19List feeling wordsCan focus on oxymoronsI feel as disturbed asAs peaceful asExpectant asEnraged asJubilant as

Living Poetry 20 “Sometimes part of writing a poem is as simple as looking carefully

and bringing things together through simile and metaphor.”Take an object and think about what it looks like. Describe exactly

what you see. Look around you. Does your lampshade look like a ballerina’s pink pleated skirt?

Write I see It looks like

The pine tree looks like a torpedo

Write a poem based on what you have seen.

Living Poetry 21Where do you need freedom in your life? What part

of you is longing to be expressed that you’ve ignored or shut off for fear of failure, fear of success, no time, or because you’re being overly responsible?

Ask that part of you to speak.Write a poem.

Living Poetry 22Write a poetic conversation

Living Poetry 23Pick a person you love, hate, admire . . .Dear . . .How could youWhy did youThank you forWhere were you

Living Poetry 24 Use the following lines to write a poemI amI will beI used to beI let go ofI’ve forgottenI remember

Living Poetry 25Write a poem about an event

Living Poetry 26

Read some poems by e.e cummingsLet a poem write itself as if you were taking dictation from your pen. Breaks words up.

Living Poetry 27Take a page from a book.Black out all the unnecessary words. The remaining words will create a poem.

Living Poetry 28Create a Frankenstein poem. Take and mix word, phrases, lines from other poems

to create your own.

Living Poetry 29Write your name in a way in some way you’ve never

written it before. Draw your name.

Living Poetry 30Write a Diamente Poemhttp://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/intera

ctives/diamante/

Living Poetry 31Write and ode

Living Poetry 32Write and apostrophe

Living poetry 33Write a haikuWrite several

Living Poetry 34Write your epitaph

Living Poetry 35Pick an objectName (real or made-up)You look likeBring me . . .