POETRY

1. POETRY

2. POETRY • What is poetry? • How is poetry different from prose? (For example, how is poetry different from a newspaper article, novel, or short story?)

3. A North Carolina poet once said “a poem is a photograph in words.” • How is a poem a photograph in words?

4. Mattie Stepanek • Mattie’s Website - Let’s learn about a young poet and how and why he painted pictures with words. (View Oprah’s dedication and other videos about Mattie). • Sometimes he painted happy pictures; sometimes he painted sad pictures, depending on how he felt. • When do you most feel like writing poetry?

5. A Poem is a metaphor • What is the difference between something literal and something figurative? • What is a metaphor? It is a suggested comparison. It does not use like or as. It says that something is something else. Read “A Light in the Attic” by Shel Silverstein. • What is a simile? It is a comparison using like or as. “Her eyes were like jewels.” • Two poems from Mattie Stepanek…

6. a-byss’ by Matti Stepanek • What is an abyss? • What is Mattie comparing to an “abyss” in his poem? • Let’s read some of the poem again… • Looking at the first 15 lines, underline words NOT meant to be literal or concrete. • How do you think Mattie was feeling when he wrote this poem? • What is he comparing his life to on this day?

7. Let’s write our own poems. • What made Mattie’s poems special? • Be original! • Write something that no one else would think of writing!!! • Poems are built on metaphors and similes so that is what we are going to do.

8. A poem should be… • 1. A poem should be mysterious • 2. like_____________ • 3. A poem should be silent like • 4. _________________________ • 5. But most of all, a poem should be • 6. As wordless as _________________

9. Fog The fog comeson little cat feet. It sits lookingover harbor and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on.

10. Dreams • Dreams can be as big as______________ • Or small like_______________________ • Dreams can be as round as ___________ • Or Flat like _______________________ • Dreams can be as golden as _________ • Or green like ______________________

11. Dreams   Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow. Langston Hughes

12. Dream Deferred • What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry upLike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore--And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over--like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sagslike a heavy load.Or does it explode? Langston Hughes

13. A “poem is a secret that the poet shares.” • What do you think that the poet who said that means? • Let’s write our own “secret” poem.

14. SECRETS • 1. A secret can be hidden like_________ • 2. Or is can be as easy to see • 3. as__________________________ • 4. A secret can be as red • 5. as____________________________ • 6. or blue like ____________________ • 7. A secret can be as soft as ___________ • 8. Or hard like ______________________ • 9. A secret can be kept like ____________ • 10.Or thrown away like ______________ • 11. A secret is a school of ________________ • 12. A secret is a child trying to _________________

15. Autobiographical Poem • I am leading a _______________ life • My life is (same word as above) like ___________ • The world goes by me like ________________ • I had a ___________________ childhood • It was as (same word as above) as ____________ • I had _______________ and ______________ • I read _______________ and ______________ • Sometimes I thought I was ________________ • Or ___________________________________

16. Autobiographical poem cont. • And now my world is ________________ • I love to see _____________________ • I hate to hear _____________________ • I know beauty is a mirror of __________ • I know love is a poem of _____________ • I know sorrow is a symphony of ________ • I have lost __________ and __________ • I know a wish is as soft as____________ • My heart is _______________________