1. POETIC LICENSE: The liberty taken by an artist or a writer in deviating from conventional form or fact to achieve a desired effect. A license to break free from conventional writing constraints such as grammar, proper usage, or even punctuation. HOWEVER The usage of your words and punctuation becomes more important. Poetry is all about impacting other people and can also be an emotional release for the writer.

2. Poetry Collection Writer’s Notebooks (10 by the end of the marking period) Use your WN as a place to collect your poetry. However, any poetry we write in class will count as a writer’s notebook. We will be writing every day that we discuss poetry. On many days you will choose the style poem that you would like to write.

3. Poetry Can Be Funny and Rhyme

5. Breaking Down Barriers "r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r " by E.E. Cumming

6. GRASSHOPPER, WHO, AS WE LOOK, NOW UPGATHERING INTO HIMSELF, LEAPS, ARRIVING TO BECOME, REARRANGINGLY, A GRASSHOPPER

7. Music is a Form of Poetry Hello, it's me I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet To go over everything They say that time's supposed to heal ya But I ain't done much healing Hello, can you hear me? I'm in California dreaming about who we used to be When we were younger and free I've forgotten how it felt before the world fell at our feet

8. Simplistic Beauty that Speaks Volumes "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams https://www.youtube.co m/watch?v=6PqRhDdeKD A https://www.youtube.co m/watch?v=6PqRhDdeKD A

9. Still Life with a Queen on a Starry Night by Tyler Malmstrom (From Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night) Not a black fire or a burning bush: a castle. The queen on its peak looks down at the sleepy village. The young children walk the blue terrain whistling jingles heard on their radios. Curfew bells ring high up in the church. Its steeple broadcasting far across the wandering hills. And the stars graze like cattle upon the silence.

10. Create a Poetic License

13. What’s on a license? Name (Real or Alter-Ego/Poetic Ego) Date of Issue Expiration Date (whatever you want) Address (Make one up or use school address) Age Defining Characteristics: what poetry do you like? Favorite songs? rhymes, types of poems Signature Picture/Creative Element Seal or Illustrations ON THE BACK Write an “I Am” poem The poetic license and “I am” poem will be due next Wednesday. Start writing some poetry in your writer’s notebooks!

14. Sample I am growing old I wonder if my best years are ahead I hear the bell of time chime away I see so many roads of opportunity I want to know my destiny I am growing old I pretend that I can control my fate I feel the swift breath of life I touch the music streaming through my ears I cry for those that suffer alone I am growing old I understand that I must occasionally alter my course I say that life is a great, yet confusing experiment I dream about people as stars, each vying for their own spot in the sky I try my hardest to convey kindness and make others happy I hope it rubs off on others I am growing old

15. I am driven and determined I wonder how many more miles are left in this race that never ends I hear my peers encouraging me to keep going I see myself winning a medal in the near future I want my every task to be perfect I am driven and determined I pretend that my nerves are just in my imagination I feel the adrenaline squirt through my veins I touch my heart and feel it pounding like the beat of a drum I worry that I will let my team down I feel my eyes water at the thought of losing I am driven and determined I understand that everything happens for a reason I say and repeat that I can get through the race I dream about grasping onto a gold medal I try to finish the race before my opponent I hope that I will finish the race in the long run I am driven and determined

16. I am inquisitive and complex like an unsolved mystery, I wonder If dreams are the doors to our imagination? I hear the lonely moon calling out for a friend for I am lonely too, I see life in the constellations, I want to travel to all untouched wilderness and free open seas, I am inquisitive and complex like an unsolved mystery, I pretend to sit in the clouds and watch the world below me, Hustling and bustling with their lives and they’ll never even know me, I feel the warm wind washing out my hair and the adrenaline rush in my gut! I touch the clouds and they turn to rain, I fall to the earth safe and sound again, I worry that my loved ones will leave and I’ll go mentally insane, I cry for the unloved and unwanted souls, I am inquisitive and complex like an unsolved mystery, I understand I must grow up, I say Peter Pan come save me, I reminisce about the past and I speculate if it will effect my future, I try to please my parents and sustain my grades, I hope the broken past becomes history, I am inquisitive and complex like an unsolved mystery.

17. Poetry Can Stand For a Cause “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou “Caged Bird” “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” “Justice” by Langston Hughes “Justice”

18. “Alabanza” by Martin Espada “Alabanza” 9/11 Poem about food service workers that passed that day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiKJXnRC B3c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiKJXnRC B3c

19. Humor and Deep Thinking

20. Emotions Through Personification ______________by Sylvia Plath I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. I am not cruel, only truthful ‚ The eye of a little god, four-cornered. Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers. Faces and darkness separate us over and over. Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, Searching my reaches for what she really is. Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon. I see her back, and reflect it faithfully. She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands. I am important to her. She comes and goes. Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness. In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.