Grand Theft Poetry

Now comes the fun part of poetry. Stealing. We steal ideas, we steal opening lines, we steal phrases and use them as our titles.

We can steal motivation (Billy Collins writes because he's bored, but death is why many poets get out of bed in the morning). We can steal style (He writes poems that people can understand....gasp!). And for this assignment, we're going to steal words and images.

On Monday we sat in a circle and stole lines from different poems. Now I want you to turn those stolen lines into a poem of your own.
Due Sunday, 3/7

You don't have to change every line, but change it enough that you feel comfortable calling the poem your own. If it's too random for your taste, you can use very little of the poem. But try to use unexpected/fresh/interesting images from the stolen lines.

The lines I stole
Article about poet Billy Collins
Advice on revising your poems

Second Draft (Bad Poetry)

Ernest Hemingway said The first draft of anything is sh*t.

Now that we've gotten the bad poem out of the way. Write a second draft. But don't make it worse, make it better. Take one line, one idea, one image...something from your first poem and use it to create a better poem. Good luck.

An interview with a creative person
Some thoughts on poetry revision
A list of poems to read

Due Sunday, 2/28

Very Bad Poetry

Sometimes when we try to write a good poem, we write a bad poem. But what happens if we try to write a bad poem?

Your next assignment is to write some bad poetry. Some very bad poetry.

Some characteristics of very bad poetry:

• Overly sentimental
• Too many syllables or words in a line or phrase
• False confidence in the beauty of the poem
• Anticlimactic ending
• Random
  
• Forced rhymes, words, meter
• Ridiculous metaphors, alliteration
• Bad grammar
• Poet's wooden ear for words
• Stupid title

Very Bad Poetry website
Very Bad Poetry book

Due Sunday, 2/21

Impulse

The Impulse is a writing activity designed to get you in touch with your subconscious mind. Read the image and then write for 15-20 minutes.

Rules:

• Your scene must be written in script format (character name, dialogue).
  
• No he said/she said or narrative description.
• Your scene can be as long/short as you need it to be.
• Your scene must be inspired by this image.
• Click here for notes on scenes.
• Click here for notes on writing realistic dialogue.
  

Due: Sunday, 2/14 @ midnight

Writing Journals

In addition to the 10 journal entries that we do in class, you will be expected to write 5 entries outside of class. Put these entries in the back of your journal (each entry should be a full page). Identify them with a letter instead of a number. The first 5 entries will be prompts A-E. They can be about anything you want.

Ideas

• Poetry
• Regular journal entries
• Rants
• Lists
• Collages (with words)
• Interviews, dialogues, scenes
• Storyboards, characters
• Outlines
• Observations
• Quotes

Writing Journal #1 (prompts 1-10) due 2/3
Writing Journal #2 (prompts 11-20, A-E) due 3/10