Writing a New Poem

1. Five Ways to Begin Writing a New Poem 

1. Actively seek inspiration by looking in your journal for ideas or reading other people's poems; don't analyze, just seek stimulation.
2. Use your five senses – don't rely solely on visual images; remember your senses of touch and smell. Pay attention to music, and not just the music we hear on radio and TV: listen to the natural and man made rhythms around you, including the sounds of mechanical objects and engines. Remember to always strive for "fresh language" and avoid clichés.
3. Make a list of your most memorable experiences from the past year. Are there details you remember that no one else did? Do the same for your early childhood. The chances are, if you have siblings, that you remember things differently than they do. Focus on the images that are unique to your memory.
4. Consider your friends, relatives, worst enemies: have you had experiences with any of them that seem contradictory? For instances, is there something about someone whom you actually dislike that you nevertheless find admirable? Have you ever been in a position in which you found your roles reversed? Have you, for instance, ever found yourself "parenting a parent?" or experienced a situation in which you found yourself filled with two strong but contradictory emotions like anger and respect?
5. Once you select a subject, start putting lines down quickly. Don't worry about ordering them or otherwise editing them, including whether you are writing in complete sentences.

Keep in mind that these are just ways to BEGIN writing a new poem. You are not like to end up with a poem at this point. Most writers have to WORK towards that most of the time.

Joy Harjo

AGENDA:

Go to library for She Had Some Horses

Joy Harjo:

http://www.joyharjo.com/Music.html

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/search?query=joy+harjo

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/45456

This Morning I Pray for My Enemies

Joy Harjo, 1951

And whom do I call my enemy?
An enemy must be worthy of engagement.
I turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking.
It’s the heart that asks the question, not my furious mind.
The heart is the smaller cousin of the sun.
It sees and knows everything.
It hears the gnashing even as it hears the blessing.
The door to the mind should only open from the heart.
An enemy who gets in, risks the danger of becoming a friend.

Finish Montana Short Story
If you have turned in the Montana Short Story, begin working on poetry

Pocket Poetry/April is National Poetry Month

AGENDA:

Go over Pocket Poems and 30/30 Assignment

Finish Flashback stories

Montana "Flashback" story

AGENDA:

Read "Epilogue" aloud

Work on Montana "Flashback" story and study guides

Montana 1948

AGENDA:

Quiz #1 on Montana 1948

Work on Study Guides and short story.

Montana Story/Study Guide

AGENDA:

Read PART 3 in Montana for Wednesday

Work on Study Guide II and Montana "Flashback" story

Montana 1948

AGENDA:

Montana 1948: Complete Study Guide Part I and turn in

For Monday, Read PART TWO to page 102

Finish all work for this marking period---MEMOIR!  Montana exercise and any missing blog posts
   
Begin thinking about and writing your Montana Flashback story--

End of marking period/Memoir

AGENDA:

Work on finishing memoirs and Study Guide MONTANA 1948 part 1.