For Colored Girls...Conclusion; Poetry

After our conclusion and discussion of "For Colored Girls" we will take a few minutes to discuss a central idea in poetry.

Poetry is written to be read, to be savored like a fine chocolate, to melt on our tongues, to beat with our pulse, to become part of us like memory. Poetry is also meant to be shared. Whether we choreograph our poems into a performance piece like Ntozake Shange, or perform our poems at coffeehouses or in public readings, the poem, like song, was meant to be heard (as well as read on the page). The following poems are examples and models. 

As you listen/watch or read, please note the writers' craft: the use of imagery, the use of metaphor, personification, simile, allusion, figurative language, diction, tone, repetition, rhythm (cadence), meter, rhyme, caesura, enjambment, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, etc. Last semester (last year, years before that) we have introduced and referred to these concepts. Notice them. Start owning them. Use them.

Saul Williams:
Ohm

Jessica Care Moore:
Black Statue of Liberty

Taylor Mali:
The the Impotence of Proofreading
What Teacher's Make

Sarah Kay:
Hands

Derrick Brown
"A Finger, Two Dots, Then Me"

You Are the Opera

Billy Collins:
The Lanyard

Lucille Clifton:
What Haunts Him

Poems can be of any of the following basic themes:

A. Nature, B. Life, C. Love, or D. Death

Being broad themes, we can narrow down some of these to be more specific:

Common poem themes: 

• Politics
• God (extranatural poetry), philosophy, or personal belief
• War
• Gender
• Family
• Revenge
• A certain feeling or emotion: happiness, sadness, anger, etc.
• Beauty
• Coming of Age
• Disillusionment or enlightenment
• Love (Ode) or loss (Elegy)
• Emptiness or fulfillment
• Pain or pleasure
• Justice or injustice
• Hope, innocence, or dreams
• Birth, rebirth, or beginnings
• Vanity or pride (humility or temperance)
• Failure or success
• Wealth
• Learning

And there are others. As always, a theme starts with one of these basic abstractions, then the writer adds his/her MESSAGE. To write an effective poem, you need to have a message. What do you want to say to the world about your theme?

Getting an idea for a poem is relatively easy. Pick a theme, state what you want to say about it, then write.

HOMEWORK: Please read the packet of poems given to you in class.
Write a poem of your own. Not sure where to begin? Try these techniques taught to you previously in class:

• Freewrite/brainstorm
• List
• Create a word web or cluster
• Use a graphic organizer
• Steal a line from one of the poems you've read, then write your own poem
• Select 10-50 words from the poems you read and use some of these words in your own poem
• Doodle (cave drawing)
• Cut and paste

As the saying goes, "Where there's a will, there's a way." If you want to write a poem, you will. Write a poem for homework. Bring the drafts of all the poems you have written so far with you to our next class. There will be a workshop/sharing session.