Skip to main content

Do you remember your nursery rhymes?

Write Poetry

Who hasn't written a poem before? Even once? I believe most people go through a phase in life and it pushes them to pen a poem; ok, or something that resembles a poem.

At an early age, we have been exposed to poems. Remember the nursery rhymes? They're poems. Someone put melodies on them so adults can sing the rhymes to little kids and the little kids can remember them easily.

You've probably written a poem of some sort in the past. Whether you write poems for fun, for personal reasons, or for publication, here are 3 poetry prompts you can try out:

1. I Am. For each of the letters in your first name, think of at least 3 positive adjectives. Next, go over your adjective list and circle the ones that describe you best. Then use those adjectives for your "I Am" poem. 2. A Quinzaine. Quinzaine is from the French word quinze, which means "fifteen." A quinzaine is an unrhymed verse having 3 lines and 15 syllables. Line 1 gives a statement and the remaining 2 lines ask a question that relates to line 1.

Here's the form: line 1 - 7 syllables
line 2 - 5 syllables
line 3 - 3 syllables
And here's an example of a quinzaine:
Sun's radiance shuns shadows
Will the morning steal
the darkness?
3. The Object Poem. Choose an object. Next, list down the reasons you think the object you chose represents you (or your personality). From your list of reasons, which one is the most powerful? Which one conveys the strongest image of yourself? Once you've chosen your main image, list at least 10 things that support this main image. Build your poem from there.

Copyright © Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ

About Shery: Shery is the creator of WriteSparks!™- a software that generates over 10 *million* Story Sparkers for Writers. Download WriteSparks!™ Lite for free at http://writesparks.com

Popular posts from this blog

Interview Friday: Natasha Yim & Gretchen Maurer

Natasha Yim is a children's book author and freelance writer. Her first book, Otto's Rainy Day was published by Charlesbridge Publishing in 2000. It was selected as a Kids' Pick of the Lists. She has written for Highlights for Children, Appleseeds and Faces magazines, and her new picture book biography, Cixi, The Dragon Empress was released by Goosebottom Books in October 2011. Gretchen Maurer's writing has been published in Frances Mayes' The Discovery of Poetry, and in Adventure Cyclist and Highlights for Children magazines. She also co-wrote a short film, Alma, that has won multiple awards. Mary Tudor, "Bloody Mary" is her first picture book. She lives in Northern California with her family. Natasha Yim’s current book, Cixi, The Dragon Empress and Gretchen Maurer’s current book, Mary Tudor, “Bloody Mary” are two of the six books (all written by different authors) in Goosebottom Books’ series, The Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Dastardly Dames. The seri...

Interview: Meet Author Sands Hetherington, Author of Night Buddies, A Lights Out Adventure Series for Kids - Books - Blogcritics

Sands Hetherington credits his son John for being his principal motivator. Sands raised his son as a single parent from the time John was six. He read to him every night during those formative years. He and young John developed the Crosley crocodile character in the Night Buddies series during months of bedtime story give-and-take. Sands shared, “We always did bedtime stories and probably didn't miss a night for six or seven years. Stories were as essential as air and food.” It’s no wonder Sands loves to read and write, and is a big advocate in starting a reading schedule with young children. Sands majored in history at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and has an M.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro. However, he started writing at a very young age. “I think it was 10th grade. I handed in some sappy poetical piece and the very cute student teacher gushed over it. Her name was Ellen and she was spoken for, but that did it...

The Stories for Children show 09/26 by WorldOfInkNetwork | Blog Talk Radio

Fiona Ingram’s earliest story -telling talents came to the fore when, from the age of ten, she entertained her three younger brothers and their friends with serialized tales of children undertaking dangerous and exciting exploits, which they survived through courage and ingenuity. Haunted houses, vampires, and skeletons leaping out of coffins were hot favorites in the cast of characters . Although Fiona Ingram has been a journalist for the last fifteen years, writing a children’s book — The Secret of the Sacred Scarab —was an unexpected step, inspired by a recent trip to Egypt. The tale of the sacred scarab began life as a little anecdotal tale for her 2 nephews (then 10 and 12), who had accompanied her on the Egyptian trip. This short story grew into a children’s book, the first in the adventure series Chronicles of the Stone . You can learn more at http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/FionaIngram.aspx Set a reminder for the show or listen live here The Stories for Chil...