Poetry Workshop for Teens by Ruth Paget
I write nonfiction and read poetry to make my nonfiction stronger. When I was a youth services librarian I sometimes put together workshops to introduce young poets in Monterey County to library resources for their writing and to do some writing with them to do show not tell writing.
Some of my notes for young poets follow:
Use Your Five Senses
-All good poetry and fiction writing uses the five senses to create feeling and mood that allows readers to see images in their minds.
-Using your senses allows you to show not tell your story or poem.
-We’ll look at a few examples, so you can see what this means.
Sense of Sound
-The loud music was great.
Versus
-The rhythm throbbed
until my heartbeat pounded
along with the drums
making my house keys jingle.
-Which description makes you remember a concert better?
Sense of Touch
-I’m freezing.
Versus
-Ice needles sting my eyes
water in my eyes freeze
burning my pupils.
Wind cuts through my coat
On my Chicago walk To School.
-Which description makes you feel cold or imagine better what walking down a Chicago street would feel like?
Sense of Taste
-It tasted horrible.
Versus
My lips and jaw pinched together
my throat closed
my tongue arched
against sugar on steak.
-Which description gives you a better idea that you do not like what you are eating?
Sense of Sight
-It was a beautiful sunset.
Versus
-Rays of pink
shoot across the sky
dividing the gray ocean
from white clouds.
The orange disc sank
Through clouds and water
-Which description gives you a better picture of what the sunset looked like?
Sense of Smell
-The dirt smelled.
Versus
-Wet, dirty socks and
cotton corn
tickled my nostrils
as I lay in the field by the house.
-Which description makes you sense odor?
Your Turn to Write
-Think about the walk we did today. (I ran workshops after a walk outside.)
-Write down 1 or 2 sensations you have about the walk for the following senses. You will use this data bank to write poetry from various cultures:
-Sound:
-Touch:
-Taste:
-Sight:
-Smell:
What is haiku?
-A seasonal poem with the first two lines setting up a scene and a third one that relates something unexpected.
-Traditional form:
-First Line = 5 syllables
-Second Line = 7 syllables
-Third Line = 5 syllables
-Written in the present or now tense. Haiku
Example
-From Haiku Handbook by William J. Higginson
-A haiku by Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694)
-English translation:
The stillness
Soaking into the stones,
Cicadas cry.
Write a Haiku or Two
-Think back to your nature walk
-Write a haiku in the “now” about something you experienced during the walk.
What is a renga?
-A Japanese renga is a party poem where one poet provides a lead line and the other poets provide lines until you run out of ideas.
-Rengas can be serious, but they often become silly.
Let’s Write a Renga
-Lead idea: Metamorphosis or change from one state to another.
-How did you know you had morphed into a teen?
-When I got keys to the car.
-When I had to buy groceries for mom after school.
-When dad made me clean toilets.
-You get the idea from this.
What is a ghazal?
-Pronounced “guzzle.”
-Ghazals are the poetic form used by the Persian poets Hafiz and Sadi and the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca.
-The book Poetry for Dummies provides the following guidelines for writing ghazals:
-Every line must have the same number of syllables.
-The ghazal is a series of 5 couplets (10 lines).
-The first couplet rhymes.
-The poet’s signature (first name, last name, or both appears somewhere in the last couplet).
-See the book for more details.
Let’s Write a Ghazal -We’ll work on just one. They are hard.
Try to put down 5 couplets, but break it down
-5 couplets = 5 x 2 = 10 lines of verse
-First couplets rhymes (10 lines – 2 lines = 8 lines to write)
-Last couplet has your signature (8 lines – 2 lines = 6 lines to write)
Just this brings you down to 6 lines in the body of your poem to work on.
Write your first couplet and last couplet first and then fill in the rest.
Parting Words
-Poets often use metaphors such as “Love is a soaring plane.”
Or
-Similes such as “Love is like a soaring plane.”
Metaphor = image picture
Simile = an image picture using “like”
Happy writing American bards!!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
