Poetry Hunt: Poetry Is Hiding Everywhere

Here’s a fun pre-writing activity I found in Georgia Heard’s book, Awakening the Heart, that I think could come in handy at the top of the year when our dreams are dazzling and daunting. Heard suggests going on a poetry treasure hunt. What you do is look for words and phrases from other books that give you a tug; that delight you in some way. Write them down on strips of paper, and then see if you can order them into a poem.

I used the Concordia University Course Catalogue because I look at it a lot during my day, and also, it is kind of a hunt for treasure to find some new thing that might be within us, waiting for us to give ourselves a try.

Here is a picture of the phrases that struck me as I skimmed through the catalogue:

And here is the poem I came up with:

This course examines monsters
There will be:
outside speakers,
advanced design,
literary visions,
and
therapeutic interventions.
Lab work will be completed on
small town high school fields.
This is a writing enriched course.

Try It: Poetry Hunt

This week, go for a poetry hunt! Look through books, recipes, magazines, and the newspaper and write down phrases that strike you. Then, order them into a poem.

Photo by Marc Veraart Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Callie Feyen.

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Callie Feyen

Callie Feyen likes Converse tennis shoes and colorful high heels, reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Twilight series. Her favorite outfit has always been a well-worn pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but she wants hoop skirts with loads of tulle to come back into style. Her favorite line from literature comes from Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal Chaos: “I don’t know who I am yet. I’m still waiting to find out.” Feyen has served as the At-Risk Literacy Specialist in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and is the author of Twirl: my life with stories, writing & clothes and The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.

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