1. What is a poem?
What is the difference between poetry and prose (paragraphs)?
What is the difference between a poem and just talking?
Remember the 3 Fs: feeling, flow, figurative language

2. A Song in the Front Yard by Gwendolyn Brooks
Original
Acoustic version
I've stayed in the front yard all my life. I want a peek at the back Where it's rough and untended and hungry weed grows. A girl gets sick of a rose. I want to go in the back yard now And maybe down the alley, To where the charity children play. I want a good time today. They do some wonderful things. They have some wonderful fun. My mother sneers, but I say it's fine How they don't have to go in at quarter to nine. My mother, she tells me that Johnnie Mae Will grow up to be a bad woman. That George'll be taken to Jail soon or late (On account of last winter he sold our back gate.) But I say it's fine. Honest, I do. And I'd like to be a bad woman, too, And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace And strut down the streets with paint on my face.
I have been good all my life.
My life is easy.
I want to know what it is like
not being good all the time.

3. Wonderbread By Alfred Corn
Original
Loaf after loaf, in several sizes, And never does it not look fresh, As though its insides weren’t moist Or warm crust not the kind that spices A room with the plump aroma of toast. Found on the table; among shadows Next to the kitchen phone; dispatched FedEx (without return address, though). Someone, possibly more than one Person, loves me. Well then, who? Amazing that bread should be so weightless, Down-light when handled, as a me Dying to taste it takes a slice. Which lasts just long enough to reach My mouth, but then, at the first bite, Nothing! Nothing but air, thin air… Oh. One more loaf of wonderbread, Only a pun for bread, seductive Visually, but you could starve. Get rid of it, throw it in the river – Beyond which, grain fields. Future food for the just And the unjust, those who love, and do not love.
Acoustic version
Wonderbread looks good. It’s on the table by the mail. I want to eat it. It tastes like nothing.

4. Class poem rules Each line must begin with a verb
Each line must include a color
Each line must include a feeling

5. Poetry Slam Poem Ideas
Write about something that happened to you and how it affected you
Write about a social issue, such as gay rights, being pro-life/pro-choice, or protecting the environment, and how you feel about that issue
Write about someone important in your life
Write about an emotion you feel, like love, hopelessness, or pride
Write about how other people act and your feelings about it