Help! I'm Stuck!

Help!! I’m stuck! I can’t think of anything to write about. I have nothing to say. I don’t wanna do this dumb assignment. I’m no poet. This is not fun!



If you ever feel like that, here are just a few ideas that may spark your creativity:

1. Make a long list of yellow things, blue, green.... Now substitute one of these words for the kind of yellow you are describing in a poem. For instance: pond scum green, new leaf green, August sky blue, cotton candy pink, green, the color of a six day old bruise, bumble bee yellow,

spider black, eyes that are fall-into-blue, coat closet black, corn silk yellow,

2. Make a long list of opposite, like black/white, good/evil, weak/strong, angel/devil, bold/timid,

innocent/experienced, flawed/perfect, fat/thin, cold/hot, smart/dumb, soft/hard, beloved/hated, young/old, slick/hick, joy/pain,

3. Select a few key words that you may want to include in a poem. Now find all the rhyming words you can for each word. (I do this by writing an alphabet at the top of my page.) Then, come up with a verse that has rhythm, rhyme and meter.

4. Sit out in nature for 15-20. Write down your observations. Listen. Feel. Hear. Look. Smell. Taste. Touch. Be detailed in your descriptions.

5. Scale it down. Study one square inch of dirt or floor or wall or ceiling or skin or scalp or chalkboard or sky or animal or water or tile or hair or desk or mirror or fabric or paper or anything. Record your thoughts.

6. Go to the Deseret Industries. Buy an old article of clothing. Put it on and write about who used to own it. Tell their story in but a few, well-chosen words.

7. Read some poetry by other poets than yourself.

8. Think about the extremes in your life: the most afraid you’ve ever been, the most excited, the most physical pain you’ve ever experienced, the most peaceful, the most fun, the most daring thing you’ve ever done, the most rotten thing, the most noble thing you’ve ever done. These extremes can prompt poetry.

9. Record your dreams. Keep a notebook by your bed.

10. Write as if you were someone else, something else, an old person, a baby, a person of another race, religion, height, weight, or possibly an inanimate object.

11. Use crayons to write your poetry. The colors you choose can be telling. You may even end up revising things as a result of the colors. They may inspire new thoughts.

12. Wake up early in the morning, before anyone else is up. Go into the yard, or some other quiet spot. Record the beginning of a day, or the end of one.

13. Take a bus ride and write about the characters you see, what they look like, where they might be going, make up a past, present, and future for them.

14. Splash cold water on your face. Try to put words to that sensation of shock.

15. Listen to music that is TOTALLY not your type.

16. Go for a walk.

17. Take your writing notebook to a new place. Create five columns, one for each of your five senses. Record what your eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose tells you to record.

18. Write about your earliest recollection of life.

19. Write about a pet peeve.

20. Go to an art gallery. Allow yourself to become inspired by something you see.

21. Read poetry aloud. Feel the sounds of the words as they are formed using your lips and teeth and tongue and nose.

22. Write without stopping. Write without looking at what you’ve written. Write until your hand hurts.

23. Write about the weather.

24. Write about love. Write about envy. Write about loss. Write about seemingly insignificant details.

25. Listen. Listen to the sounds we hear everyday. Try to come up with a way to spell the words that sound like those sounds. For instance, how would you spell the sound a kiss makes?

26. Write a list of action verbs, juicy words, delicious words that move, have life, not dreary, boring words.

27. Do a spoof on a well-known poem, nursery rhyme, or fairy tale.

28. Use the following prompts:

I let go of anger.....

Right before I fall asleep, when....

I dreamed....

"This is just to say..."

My shadow knows...

My real name is...

I will be...

I remember...

29. Make lists:

Things under my bed, things I have not quite learned, things I wish my parents knew, things I wish my English teacher would do, things I would take with me if my house were on fire, things even my best friend doesn’t know about me, hours in my life I wish I could have back, why we love popcorn, reasons not to try at school, or life, or math, things I’m proud of but shouldn’t be, things my big brother inflicted upon me, qualities my grandmother thinks I possess, secrets I kept, what I would do with a cloak of invisibility, list what’s in the fridge right now? Cute tricks I performed as a child, Things I learned in junior high, what my shadow knows how to do, reasons why I adore English, places my mother used to drag me...

Poetic Terms

Matching Poetry Terms Name _________________ Period____


_____1. Metonymy

_____2. Metaphor

_____3. Aporia

_____4. Symbol

_____5. Onomatopoeia

_____6. Epanalepsis

_____7. Alliteration

_____8. Assonance

_____9. Personification

_____10. Meiosis

_____11. Imagery

_____12. Cacophony

_____13. Euphony

_____14. Consonance

_____15. Paranomasia

_____16. Hyperbole

_____17. Paraprosdokian

_____18. Simile

_____19. Allusion

_____20. Apostrophe

_____21. Epizeuxis

_____22. Rhyme

_____23. Rhythm
_____24. Connotation

_____25. Denotation_____26. Structure

A. The end of the words sound the same.

B. The beat, the pattern of sounds

C. Name dropping, referring to something, someone from life or literature

D. Lyrical language, lots of l’s and r’s

E. Surprise ending

F. Repetition of the internal consonant sound

G. Repetition of one word

H. Play on words, a pun

I. A direct address

J. Comparing two unlike things, using like or as

K. Lots of harsh consonant sounds

L. Pertaining to the five senses

M. An understatement

N. An inanimate object or idea takes on human characteristics.

O. Repetition of the internal vowel sound

P. Repetition of the initial consonant sound

Q. Bookend repetition

R. The word says the sound it makes

S. Something represents something more important than itself

T. When you don’t know where do begin, where to end, what to say

U. Comparison of two unlike things without using like or as


V.
the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing.

W. Exaggeration

X. The personal or emotional associations called up by a word that goes beyond its dictionary meaning

Y. The dictionary meaning of a word

Z. The form or design of a literary work