So You Think You Can Write

You can write a poem. Right now. Don't be scared. Just jot down the first thing that comes to mind in answer to the following questions from Poemcrazy by Susan G. Wooldridge:

If I were a color, what color would I be?
What shape would I be?
If I were a movement, what movement would I be?
What sound?
What animal?
What song?
What number?
What car?

Don't be telling yourself this is silly. Stop that. Just let the images flow.

What piece of furniture?
What food?
What musical instrument?
What place?
What element in nature?
What kind of tree?
What's something I'm afraid of?
What's hiding behind my eyes?

Now, looking over what you've just jotted down, take the phrases and words you like best and arrange them in a way that sounds good to you.

Voila! You have written a poem. Title it with your name, or "I Am" or some such.

Examples from students in the book include:

I'm a turquoise circle, rolling into nowhere,
. . . I'm the number 50, so far from the end and far from the beginning . . . .
I'm what you call life, hard to hold.

A fourth-grade student wrote:

I'm a poem that flies through the sky
I'm love and truth,
happy and sad
three dreams,
porcelain and fragile
in the night.

If you like what you wrote, please share it in the comments section. I sure would like to know you better.