Week 12: Idea into Image

This week the students and I worked on what continues to be a challenge to poets at any level: Taking those vague yet complex idea and feeling words and finding a concrete and relatable way to describe them. This involved a several step practice before writing good begin.

First I asked the students to close their eyes. I told them I was going to say a word and I wanted them to picture it in their mind. For instance, I might say "Love" and remind them too keep their eyes closed while I asked them questions about their word picture: Are there people in this picture? Who are they? What do they look like? What are they doing? What is the setting? Is it light or dark? What colors do you see?

After one minute, I'd ask them to open their eyes. For the next minute they were required to write as much as they could about their minds picture, in the greatest detail possible. We repeated this 5 different words.

Next I asked the students to pick their favorite. It could be chosen because they liked the image the best, because the association was the most bizarre, or it seemed like the best one to write about.

I then wrote eight words on the board. The students were required to write a poem about the "idea word" they had chosen, using their mind's image plus six of the words on the board. They were only given ten minutes.

The results were spectacular, here is a sampling:

From Ms. Gonzalez's Class:

Love
Daniel B.

Love means to be with someone, a girl.
Taking her out to the park or
McDonald’s as fast as a buzz.

Grab her hand like you grab a pen.
When you grab her hand it feels like a cloud.
When see her, think of her like a blueberry.

When it’s over, take her home and say Hi!
to her mother. You need to use your voice,
to talk in nice ways, so you can be loved.


Heaven
Jenny R.

Heaven is like all white
all over you. You hear
voices all around when
you enter heaven. There
are so many clouds, beautiful
white clouds, soft as a
pillow. Some beautiful
angels are talking to you.

Beetles enter another kind of
heaven but with the same
buzz in them. Some insects
get killed by biting people. The
people get itchy and the insect
gets killed and goes to heaven,
the insect heaven.

Some people enter the blueberry
heaven if they like blueberries
so much.


Death
Oscar P.

Me in a hospital looking at my mother
and father, hearing their voices. Me
looking out at the clouds thinking
it is going to be the last time I see them.
Buzz the bees go as I look outside. A
blueberry pie next to me. Then in the
blink of an eye death came. I see my
family crying and I see myself falling
from a cliff.


Heaven
Omar F.

Heaven is a great place
with clouds all around

You hear a booming voice
from God and you get
a great feeling of excitement
like a buzz through your
body or something like that

You can have as many things
as you want, like blueberries,
or whatever you can use in heaven

You never feel pain in heaven,
if you lose your mother
she can be on her way to you
in a matter of moments.

Heaven is a place you want to be at
when you pass away and leave
everyone you love by doing something
stupid like diving off a cliff, but
God will forgive you and you will
be happy here .

From Ms. Formisano's Class:

Love
Esmeralda Q.

Love to a person
on a cliff, the
ups and downs.

Holding hands and
his voice saying
I love you.

Walking down
the street together
your skin itches
because your with him.

And in Fall your
alarm buzzes.
Flowers and leaves
and you’re still in
the clouds.

And a pen that
writes love notes
and poems.

That’s how
love feels.


Heaven
Rene M.

In Heaven the clouds
look like blueberries.

In heaven there is
no buzzing voice.


Self
Manuel M.

Right now writing with a pen,
thinking of my mother,
her giving me a voice
Manuel be careful.

Because I’m going to the mountains
for a cliff.

I was going to buzz my hair but then
I thought about it.

Me, going to the mountains, looking
for a cloud that looks
very white.

Me, myself, walking, eating
blueberries.

But then a beetle kept
following me.


From Mr. Lukas' Class:

Guilty
Steven G.

A car made of real gold.
I drive the car off cliff
my car like a bee (buzzzz)
I drove right into the clouds
(I squashed a beetle)
I heard a voice
It was my mother
(go home)


Love
Jocelyn A.

In the rain…

It’s you and me, baby
holding hands and kissing.
Talking to each other while walking
Your voice buzzes in my ears
each time you talk to me, baby.

Grabs a pen and gently he writes
in the palm of my hand
“True love is you and me.”

Wow baby!


Death
Andrew Y.

Falling off a cliff
Mother is crying
A rotten blueberry
A scary squeaky voice buzzing by
Deadly beetles everywhere
Dark grey clouds full of rain
Pen that signs your death certificate