Love Letters to Poetry | How to Build a Poem in Four Easy Steps
HOW TO BUILD A POEM IN FOUR EASY STEPS
One Lesson Plan for Teachers & Educators to Use for POETRY MONTH
Ages 9-17
This lesson can be paired with any nearly any poem. You can read a chosen poem together and talk about what memories the poem might be holding, what sensory details were included, and what statements the poet is making in the poem itself. I suggest Suma Subramaniam’s “A smile always heals” which is accessible online here on Poetry Foundation:
How to build a poem in four easy steps:
Remember
Find the Details
Heart of a Poem
Get Writing!
STEP 1: REMEMBER (5 min)
Poetry in many ways is a capsule of memories and emotions. It can be a way to return to a place, a feeling, a time, a moment. Sometimes to start writing a poem, it requires making space to remember.
Take five minutes to journal/free write about one of the following prompts.
Write down:
Your earliest memory.
A time you most felt like yourself.
Something recent that happened to you that struck you as meaningful.
Example: When I was seven, I felt like myself when I would stay at my auntie and cousin’s house in the summers because I felt free to be a kid. I liked to capture lightning bugs, make homes for toads, watching movies and eat popcorn.
STEP 2: THE DETAILS (5 min)
Most any piece of writing needs to feel material. It needs grit. We need to be able to experience it like we do the ground beneath our feet. How do we begin to capture the world around us so that both us and the reader can experience the world with us? How do we as humans experience the world? We use our senses!
Taste, sound, smell, touch, & sight are different ways we can bring a reader into the world. And the more specific the better. In fact, the universal is in the details. The more specific we are, the more likely it is that our readers will be able to believe the story we are telling. In this way, “a can of soda” can become “a can of cherry vanilla coke” or the “neighbor’s dog” can become “a mean Scotty named Bibop.”
The next exercise is to build a stock of sensory details.
Look at your memory and write down 3-4 sensory details you remember. Again, think about what tastes, sounds, smells, feeling, & views you experienced in this memory. If you are having a hard time remembering, draw where this moment took place. OR you can also get creative here and if you don’t remember something perfectly, it’s OK to create what it could have smelled like or taste like.
Example: My aunt was a potter, and her house smelled like wet clay and roses. Her house looked like a sink full of dishes, and it sounded the bright songs of her three canaries she kept in a white cage in her bedroom. Her house was high on a green hill at the end of the road.
STEP 3: HEART OF THE POEM (5 min)
Often, we hold memories because they mean something to us in one way or another. How do we access the meaning? We look for what the emotion is that we experience while remembering. We take time to journal and reflect on why we think a moment stayed with us.
Take a look at your memory and reflect on why you think you remember this moment? What does it give you? What does it tell you about yourself
Write down a phrase or statement that captures what you think that meaning is. This is your heart statement.
Example: I needed a place to be free to play and dream.
STEP 4: GET WRITING (15 min)
Congratulations, we just did a lot of work! We searched for a memory, found specific details, and thought about the meaning behind why we remembered this moment. Now, we’re going to take all of that good material and funnel it into writing a poem. Remember, you don’t need to rhyme if you don’t want to
Write a poem of at least five lines telling us about your memory you chose.
Include at least two sensory details (taste, sound, smell, sight, and touch.)
Include your heart statement in the poem.
Don’t forget to title it!
STEP 5: *BONUS* SHARE YOUR POEM WITH THE CLASS/A NEIGHBOR.
