Objectives:

Students will consider their roles as writers and reflect on their own development and
growth for a variety of writing structures
Students will create an original and reflective poem utilizing the structure of free verse

TEKS:
Reading / Comprehension of Literary Text / Poetry. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the
structure and elements of poetry and provide evidence from text to support their understanding.[3]

Writing/ Literary Text. Write a poem using a variety of poetic techniques (e.g., structural elements, figurative language) and a
variety of poetic forms (e.g., sonnets, ballads).[14B]

Writing / Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to
compose text.[13]
 The Bribe
by Pat Mora

(A Poem Reflecting on Language)

I hear Indian women, (language has evolved from ancestors)

chanting, chanting, (language of music- chanting,)
I see them long ago bribing (language of business- bribing)
the desert with turquoise threads
in the silent morning coolness,
kneeling, digging, burying (language of prayer, working, rituals-
their offering in the Land kneeling, digging, burying)
chanting, chanting
Guide my hands, Mother, (use language in the same way--to tell
to weave singing birds stories or to share them like a woven tapestry)
flower rocking in the wind, to trap
them on my cloth with a web of tiny threads
Secretly, I scratch a hole in the desert
by my home. I bury a ballpoint pen
and lined yellowing paper. Like the Indians
I ask the land to smile on me, to croon (the speakers homeland will
softly, to help me catch her music with words serve as a guide)

How can I model this poem for my assignment?

Create an original title
Include 15-20 lines of free verse

Begin with
I hear

In the Middle...

1) Describe the writing process

2) OR the value of writing in your life
3) Use sensory language or imagery throughout the poem
4) Possibly follow Moras structure if you wish

End with
I ask
 Ars Poetica
by Archibald MacLeish

(A Poem Reflecting on Poetry)

A poem should be palpable and mute (each set of lines includes

As a globed fruit, a comparison with figurative language)

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone

Of casement ledges where the moss has grown--

A poem should be wordless

As the flight of birds.

*
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases

Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves.

Memory by memory the mind--

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs.

*
A poem should be equal to:
Not true.

For all the history of grief

An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea--

A poem should not mean

But be.
How can I model this poem for my assignment?

Title: The _______ of Writing (Be Creative)

Use free verse

Begin with
Writing should be (provide the 1st comparison)

In the Middle
A) Describe the writing process
B) or the value of writing in your life
C) Include at least 8-10 comparisons for your topic; make sure each comparison is written as
2 lines

End with
Writing should not mean (finish these 2 lines as you wish)
 The Poem Wants a Drink
by Karen Glenn

(A Poem Reflecting on Poetry)

In the workshop, students analyze (poem as a person)

what each poem wants, what each one
strives to be. Well, this poem is
a layabout with limited ambitions. It wants
a drink.

This poem doesn't give a damn

for rhyme or reason. It only sings
off-key. It has no rhythm
in the jukebox of its soul.
It grew up without symbols.
It doesn't know from assonance.
Give it mambo lessons, and it
still won't learn to dance. It has
not one stanza with a lyric pedigree.
It's late, and getting later, and this poem
wants a drink.

Call it gray and tired. Even call it

a cliche. This poem's lived long enough
to know exactly what it means
to say: Don't be stingy
with the whiskey, baby.
.....Yes, the night
has been a cruel one, and this poem
could use a drink.

How can I model this poem for my assignment?

Title: The Writing Wants _____ or The Essay Wants _______ (Be Creative)
Use free verse
Use personification or extended metaphor

Begin with
In the English classroom (finish the stanza; 4-6 lines; end with a want statement)
 In the Middle, please do the following
A) Make sure to describe the writing process
B) OR the value of writing in your life
C) Include at least 1 stanza of 10-12 lines
D) Continue the personification or extended metaphor

End with
Call it (finish the stanza; 4-6 lines; end with a could statement)