ACTIVITY: Spaghetti Strip Found Poems

Magazine articles were cut into word strips. Club members took handfuls of word strips and arranged them into spaghetti strip found poems. See there results below...

Words were taken from National Geographic magazine articles from October 2016 through June 2016.

World Keeps Telling

The Book offered few clues

In the beginning there was no sound

ACTIVITY: Ten by 10 by X by

Start at a book in the library. Turn to the tenth page. Count down to the tenth line and copy down the line and the source. Repeat the process ten times.

When finished, use the words as your "word bank" and collage something together.

Nancy Celina turn faces to the window

The ten bocks

Nancy Celina turn faces to the window
Poly never spoke
Of the grotesque talents he toke pride in
If he lightly needed
Solace rushed in the somewhere

10 books

The devil pass through. Thick was all she could see out from the window in the morning. She wishes he were a lawyer. She will wear what everybody wears in the universe. 

resources:

1687

telling was a White European other story

falling into college

working to protect his colleagues
poor women and children of labouring classes
presented the great black circle route besides which war effort

therefore their test scores were collected, published, aired on television
part business temple

among magnificent faces

being taken from Turks

fishing in battle

--
Sources
The Freud Reader - edited by Peter Gay; Am I OK? - Carol C. Nadelson; Stereotypes and Prejudice - edited by Charles Stengor; The Mismeasure of Man - Stephen Jay Gould; Critical Thinking: Building the Basics - Timothy L. Walter, Glenn M Knudsuig, Donald E.P. Smith; Modern Historiography - Michael Bentley; With Courage and Common Sense - edited by Susan Wittig Albert and Dayna Finet.

this morning

A picture on p. 10 in The Phantom TollBooth by Norton Juster

staggered dropped

in my tub

stars swooped

one said “he went for long,

if asked against…”

before saying never

I think back

where might winter man be

pleased his snow head ran

to New York,

but when?

huge shop

Claudia’s dad never comes early

sometimes Caroline

cracked exploded

breaking ballot record

nasty and me

two rooks

jaw at the

to is of I’d a

What a cute surprise left in this book by a previous reader!

“lady! wake up”!

“thank you Tariq!”

Sources:

p. 10 line 10 of the following 10 books:

- Coverup by Jay Bennett.

- Pictures of Hollis Wood by Patricia Reilly Giff.

- Flour Babies by Anne Fine.

- The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.

- The Royal Diaries: Marie Antoinette Princes of Versailles by Kathryn Lasky.

- Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse.

- From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

- Lord Brocktree by Brian Jacques.

- The Phantom TollBooth by Norton Juster.

- Caleb's Story by Patricia MacLachlan.

ACTIVITY: Write a Tritina

A tritina is a derivative form of a sestina. The tritina is a ten-line form that consists of three tercets and a concluding line. Like in a sestina, the last word of each line repeats, but in a different order. The final line includes all three of the words. For example:

1
2
3

3
1
2

2
3
1

123 or
321

The numbers represent the words that should be repeated at the end of each line. The final line should include all three words in one of the two suggested orders. Our variations may be slightly different, but this is the basic idea.

The nights are gone

The nights are gone
The thunder is let off darkness took over
The doors were shut

The fear can't take over
Hope can't be shut
The rope strangling us is gone

The voice held inside can't be shut
Beauty in the eyes of grown up
yet innocent children will never be gone
They are still here yet they are gone 

Time Goes Fast

Time goes fast
I couldn't finish
It was staring

Why is it staring
am I fast
I couldn't even finish

I will finish
It will stop staring
when I am fast

Finish, Staring, Fast.

While I click on the keyboard

While I click on the keyboard
Sally sleeps across the ocean
Ritaj's baby wakes up and cries.

I can hear the snores and the cries
Smile while clicking on the keyboard
My heart an ocean.

The dreams beyond the ocean
Beyond the tears and cries
Beyond the clicks on the keyboard.

Keyboard ocean cries. 

The aliens look down on us from outer space,

The aliens look down on us from outer space,
But they don't understand the plan.
They can't see a pattern

Or something obscures the pattern.
Perhaps, there are too many clouds or there is too much space
Between them and us. The plan

They think, is not a plan,
But a distraction. Shadows or something. A pattern
Of black and white words and space

And nonsense. A pattern in the grand plan of empty space.

ACTIVITY: Write an Epistrophe Poem.

Write a poem or a series of lines in which each line ends the same way.

My mom smiled in that winter

My mom smiled in that winter
It was as worm as love in winter
I took my first sip in life in winter
I discovered tears in that winter

I Turn the Page

Dance with butterflies. I turn the page.
A magician comes. I turn the page.
I carry a corpse. I turn the page.
With horns made of gold. I turn the page.
Enchanted darkness. I turn the page.
Camel and the mirage. I turn the page.
Above me. I turn the page.
The moon hides and I turn the page.
You are far away from me. I turn the page.




Note: The process used for writing this poem is: randomly turn a page, count three lines and use words from the fourth line. Add "I turn the page"
Book used: Love, Death and Exile: Poems Translated from Arabic by Abdul Wahab Al-Bayati. Translated by: Bassam K. Frangieh.

Who is looking at the moon?

Is that you or the moon?
Do you feel cold when you look out the window at the moon?
Do you want to cover up the moon?
Are you pointing that thing at the moon?
Did you go to a party on the moon?
Will it end late or soon at the moon?
Who will be at the moon?
Will the sun come to the moon?
Do you want to live on the moon?

Write a List Poem

Creative Writing Club members wandered around the LAS Building and made a list of words that they encountered on signs around the building.

Eyman's List

attitude

like; there
in all the pirate's loot
you can be good
that many times

i love you
sat - thurs
don't make excuses
go see Miss Sarah

Compose an Erasure

1) Find an article in a magazine.
2) Obscure irrelevant words (or leave important words uncovered).
3) Combine with an image.
4) Cite your sources beneath your image.

Fatma's Erasure

in limbo

"Mining in Latin American: From Conflict to Co-Operation." The Economist. 6 Feb. 2016, p. 33.

Asmaa's Erasure

Write a Cinquain

My graphic organizer on the whiteboard.

Wikipedia indicates that a cinquain is a poetic form that uses a 5-line pattern. There are different variations of the form, but we worked with the following structure:

Line 1: 2
Line 2: 4
Line 3: 6
Line 4: 8
Line 5: 2

Each line should include the number of syllables or, if that proved too difficult, words to include in each line. For an added twist, we added lines in reverse order to create a butterfly cinquain:

Line 1: 2
Line 2: 4
Line 3: 6
Line 4: 8
Line 5: 2
Line 6: 8
Line 7: 6
Line 8: 4
Line 9: 2

The explanation might not be clear, but, perhaps, by looking at what we made, it might become clearer.

Students

Students

Who work harder

Always get a good grade

But it depends on how they work

Teachers

Who always have time for students

To make them understand

Everything that

They say

Two Cinquains

her story

swallowed up whole collections

of stories words and other stuff

she just made everything her own little world

she did

and she made up her mind to return

none of it to its owner

she swallowed it all

and laughed

Students

& teachers learn

from each other often;

however, they don't often know

the time

it takes to realize the truth

or how much time it takes

or what it's worth

or not.

Tick Tok

I Am...

Club members moved around the LAS Building and found an object. Then they wrote about how that object sees the world. As an added challenge, students took a picture of the object.

People see me and they are confused because of the way that I look.

People see me and they are confused because of the way that I look.

They watch me differently when they pass by me.

They do not know what I am doing here or where I come from, that is a sign of how they hate me. they do not even bother to know my background.

All of the things that people say about me does not matter that is who I am and I know from where I come from.

It is something unique that only people who have a creative mind and thinking follow me and that is because they do not care about the shapes and flaws that I have.

sometimes

you look at me and see your reflection
or you see what's on the other side

i let the sun in during the day
the moon at night

nothing else may pass
unless i am broken

Write an Alternative Recipe

Write your alternative recipe--not a recipe for food, but for something else.

Recipe for Inner Peace

1. A cup of wonder.
2. A sea of admiration to people in your life. 
3. A life long commitment to loving your self.
4. A mountain of delightful food.
5. A spoon full of kindness. 
6. A sprinkle of hope.
7. The greatest amount of gratefulness.
8. self confidence.

Add a cup of kindness to admiration you should mix them first then be generous with the other ingredients. Be careful not to spill any ego while poring self confidence. If it is not sweet enough add a sprinkle of hope.

how to be your own BFF

dress nice
take selfies
(multiple times a day, if possible)
write notes to yourself
leave them on your fridge
tweet pictures of your cat and like them
treat yourself to a daily treat
(something sweet)
make heart shapes with your hands
when you see something that makes you smile
tell jokes that only you laugh at

you know who loves you

Recipe

                                                    Love                                    Trust worthy 

       

                                                    Helpful                                Positive

                                                    Honesty                               Kindness 

                

                                                    Understandable                   Respect

Recipe

Put 1 cup of love, honesty, trustworthy in a bowl and mix them well. Pour 2 tsp of positive and understandable and keep stirring them with a bit of help from your friend and bake at 320° F. After that sprinkle it with some respect and serve it with kindness to your loved ones. 

Exquisite Corpse Poem

Last week we wrote an exquisite corpse poem. Each line had to contain one of the following words: crash, flower, canvas, snap, turn or sleep.

Noor Al Thani
SomayaDorzadeh
Bob Marcacci

silence crashed down around us
the flowers are colorful in the forest
like the colors used in a canvas
in a field of flowers
sometimes we have to turn back to make up things
like restoring an artwork or a blank canvas
whose turn was it? she thought
sleeping eight hours a day is what makes you fresh in the morning

*

I always draw nature on a canvas
to me it resembles sleep
we turn over in our sheets and dream
students sleep late every day to finish their homework
crashing instantly afterwards
a sleeping cat rushed out from under the table
drawing on canvas is what makes your art beautiful
it resembles flowers full of life and color

*

their stems snapped and left its part behind
we slept on the fragments
the driver crashed his car while driving
driving over the breathtaking flowers
I thought, "this would make a great snap" and took out my phone
I do not take snaps because I think it is a waste of time
it drives me away from sleep and ruins my eyes
snaps the cord and reminds me who I really am

Write a Villanelle

As it says in Wikipedia, "[a] villanelle...is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines." A villanelle should adhere to the following format in which capital letters represent the refrains and lower case letter represent rhymes.

A1
b
A2

a
b
A1

a
b
A2

a
b
A1

a
b
A2

a
b
A1
A2

The flowers are different and colourful.

The flowers are different and colourful.

The trees give fruit.

The trees are green.

There are so many things in nature.

The trees are huge.

The flowers are different and colourful.

The leaves of the trees are orange and yellow in autumn.

There are birds on top of the trees.

The trees are green.

The insects are everywhere.

There are so many animals.

The flowers are different and colourful.

The size of the trees are different.

The bears eat honey on the trees.

The trees are green.

There are small rivers.

There is green grass.

The flowers are different and colourful.

The trees are green. 

We walked on the sand and in the little water.

We walked on the sand and in the little water
The ocean left treasures at our feet.
Our footprints followed us up the beach

And we ran faster.
We stopped to look at a shell and a stone.
We walked on the sand and in the little water

We noticed little fishes and crabs
And all the underwater life and color.
Our footprints followed us up the beach

And we followed them back to the tide.
We were lost and we weren't.
We walked on the sand and in the little water

And in what was left of the sun
We thought we could see to the horizon.
Our footprints followed us up the beach.

We reached the top of a dune
And looked back.
We walked on the sand and in the little water
Our footprints followed us up the beach.

Make a List of Things in Your Room

For our first meeting, Creative Writing Club members wrote lists of things in our bedrooms as ways of introducing ourselves.

Eyman's list...

one white standing desk

one black table that is used as a desk
a leather chair
a laptop computer and a desktop computer
an orange table lamp
a small wooden jewelry box with little porcelain drawers
a pile of white cords
a rough rug
a king-size bed with a white bedspread and little blue and green flowers on it
a calendar of old Italian movie posters above the desk
a footstool with cushions
a red Chinese stuffed animal that looks like a cat, one head on both ends
a pile of books
an open magazine
a ceramic pencil cup that my son painted
two red shelves lined with books
some Italian textbooks
some English books
a desert rose
a mirror

My guitar leaning on my bed

by Al-Hanoof Mahzim

A piano that has been ignored for a year on top of my closet.
Books nearly organized in the bookshelf.
Samsung smart TV that keeps switching itself off whenever it feels like it.
My sister's messy bed that she scribbled all over.
Boxed slime everywhere from my siblings creations.
Abaya hanging on the door hook.
Messy closet.
Ice cold water by my bed.
Sports shoes on two shelves in the shoe closet, others on the lower shelves.