Last week, I had the oppurtunity to meet Terry Wolverton and she introduced me to this process developed by Jim Simmerman. Coincidently, I interned for her publisher and had an oppurtunity to copy edit the anthology of poetry she edited based on the 20 Little Poetry Projects.
I have found this process to be *extremely* helpful, and in the past week, I've not only written 7 poems, but I'm always looking forward to writing more.
Anyway, I thought y'all might be interested in trying it as well. So I thought I'd type it for you.
Open the poem with the first project and close it with the last. Otherwise, use the projects in whatever order you like, giving each project at least one line. Try to use all twenty projects. Feel free to repeat those you like. Fool around. Enjoy.
1. Begin the poem with a metaphor (or similie)
2) Say something specific but utterly preposterous
3. Use at least once image for each of the five sense, either in succession or scattered randonly throughout the poem.
4. Use one example of synethesia (mixing the senses)
5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
8. Use a word (slang?) you've never seen in a poem.
9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
10. Use a piece of "talk" you've actually heard (preferably in a dialect and/or which you don't understand).
11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun)..."
12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual assosiative qualities.
13. Make the persona or character in the poem do something he/she could not in "real life."
14. Refer to yoursel by nickname in the third person.
15. Write in the future tense, such that part of the poems seem to be a prediction.
16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.
19. Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).
20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement but echoes an image from earlier in the poem.
This is what I wrote the first time I did this:
Insomnia is the calico cat that purrs on my chest
She philosophizes until four am.
Her whiskers tickle my stomach
Her body revs like a '57 Chev
White and tan fur mingles in the shadows
The house semms like cat food and
I chew on garlic.
Her tail feels like the snake's hiss,
low and sinister.
I listen to the Beatles at Shea Stadium to soothe her.
Winter just means the leaves are brown
because the milkman has stopped delivering.
"What about Willow? Is she poetry?"
The tortoise shell cat of poetry
is as sedate as a hungry lion.
She ignores me when I buy peaches and eat
them on a cloud with almonds.
Pepper does not like fruit.
She will eat bread and dine on the flesh of
revised cows.
The cats know each other but have never met
Mi llamo Haley, no Pepper.
The calico cat showers and makes breakfast
While Willow curls into a ball of chocolate and peanutbutter
rests her nose between slippered paws
and dozes.
I have found this process to be *extremely* helpful, and in the past week, I've not only written 7 poems, but I'm always looking forward to writing more.
Anyway, I thought y'all might be interested in trying it as well. So I thought I'd type it for you.
Open the poem with the first project and close it with the last. Otherwise, use the projects in whatever order you like, giving each project at least one line. Try to use all twenty projects. Feel free to repeat those you like. Fool around. Enjoy.
1. Begin the poem with a metaphor (or similie)
2) Say something specific but utterly preposterous
3. Use at least once image for each of the five sense, either in succession or scattered randonly throughout the poem.
4. Use one example of synethesia (mixing the senses)
5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
8. Use a word (slang?) you've never seen in a poem.
9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
10. Use a piece of "talk" you've actually heard (preferably in a dialect and/or which you don't understand).
11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun)..."
12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual assosiative qualities.
13. Make the persona or character in the poem do something he/she could not in "real life."
14. Refer to yoursel by nickname in the third person.
15. Write in the future tense, such that part of the poems seem to be a prediction.
16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.
19. Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).
20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement but echoes an image from earlier in the poem.
This is what I wrote the first time I did this:
Insomnia is the calico cat that purrs on my chest
She philosophizes until four am.
Her whiskers tickle my stomach
Her body revs like a '57 Chev
White and tan fur mingles in the shadows
The house semms like cat food and
I chew on garlic.
Her tail feels like the snake's hiss,
low and sinister.
I listen to the Beatles at Shea Stadium to soothe her.
Winter just means the leaves are brown
because the milkman has stopped delivering.
"What about Willow? Is she poetry?"
The tortoise shell cat of poetry
is as sedate as a hungry lion.
She ignores me when I buy peaches and eat
them on a cloud with almonds.
Pepper does not like fruit.
She will eat bread and dine on the flesh of
revised cows.
The cats know each other but have never met
Mi llamo Haley, no Pepper.
The calico cat showers and makes breakfast
While Willow curls into a ball of chocolate and peanutbutter
rests her nose between slippered paws
and dozes.
