Taken form the Rural Poetry Site

www.missouriwestern.edu/prairielands

 

Four-Room Poem [1]

Stefanie Lyle

Steps:

 

1. Call up and briefly state a vivid memory, one with plenty of detail.

2.  Write it at the top of the paper.

3.  Divide the rest of the sheet into four sections.

4.  Label each section in such a way that you’ve forced yourself to separate the types of imagery. For example:

                                                                                   

Textures and colors

 

 

 

 

Emotions felt

Things said, sounds heard

 

 

 

 

Questions then

 

 

5.  Fill these “rooms” with particular details of the memory.  Avoid clichés, vague wording, and boring descriptions. 

6.  Pick and choose from the rooms the items you want to use to tell the story.  You may not use them at all, or you may think of others as you write.  Remember, you want your audience to see, feel, hear, and understand the feelings that were a part of this memory. Some images will overlap.

7.  The beauty is that you may label the boxes any way you like each time you use this form. The “rooms” need to be sensory/imagery.

For example:  Surrounding sounds/smells, Thoughts, Colors/sights,         Textures/weather.

8.  As you fill your rooms, look for the best image, or the one that sticks out in your mind.  This might be the focus of your poem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hometown Poems

Valorie Stokes

 

Modeling your poem’s format and use of literary techniques off of Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago,” create a poem which personifies your hometown.  Use the techniques of personification, cataloguing, and parallelism just as Sandburg does in his version. 

 

Before you begin writing the poem itself, ask yourself the following questions and write responses down for each one.  You should be able to utilize at least some of this information to create your poem.

 

  1. Does this place remind you more of an antiquarian, middle-aged, or nascent being or someone who falls somewhere in between those ages?  Why?  How so?

 

  1. What are some items, objects, types of people and areas within that place that instantly leap to mind when I hear someone say the name of the place?  (List as many as you can think of.)

 

  1. What history/activities are associated with the place?  List them.

 

  1. What “businesses” come to mind when I think of this place?  List them.

 

  1. From what perspective do I see this place?  Who am I in relation to it?  What are my feelings about it and attitudes toward it?

 

  1. If someone insulted or criticized this place in front of me what would my reaction be and how would I respond in defense of it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From your own poem write these though stems on a separate sheet of paper and complete the thought with appropriate information from your poem. 

 

  1. I am personifying (name the place here) as a…(describe the type of persona you have created for this place)

 

  1. That is the overall personification I am trying to convey and the following words/phrases/lines throughout the poem work together to do this:

 

  1. The epithets used in the poem should give the reader the impression…are important or unusual or characteristic qualities about the place.

 

  1. The strongest aspect of this poem is…because…

 

  1. The part of the poem that could use more thought/work is…because…

 

 

 

For each poem you read write these thought stems on a separate sheet of paper and complete the thought with appropriate information for that particular poem.  At the end of the hour you will give this information to the poet to staple to the back of his/her poem.

 

  1. This poet is personifying (name the place here) as a…(describe the type of persona they have created for their place)

 

  1. I think that is the overall personification they are trying to convey because…(EXPLAIN what key words/phrases/lines throughout the poem helped you decide on the personification you did)

 

  1. What do the epithets used in the poem give you the impression is important or unusual or characteristic about this place?

 

  1. The strongest aspect of this poem is…because…

 

  1. The part of the poem that could use more thought/work is…because…

 

  1. One other specific comment/question I have about this hometown poem is…

Place Poem

Rebecca Dierking

 

Poets often write about their hometown, home state, or favorite place.  Ted Kooser, America’s Poet Laureate, is known for writing about his home state of Nebraska and about facets of living in the Midwest. 

 

So, where are you from?  Is it Maryville, Burlington Junction, Arkoe, where?  Maybe you’re a transplant and feel you identify more with your last city of residence, be it St. Joe, St. Louis, or Elsewhere, Virginia.  Or, do you more closely identify with your home state, be it Missouri, Tennessee, or Hawaii.  Perhaps you don’t identify with any place you’ve lived yet.  Maybe you identify with a foreign city or country or some other entity.

 

Choose a place where you feel you belong.  It should be a place you know VERY WELL (not just a place you’ve visited on vacation for a few days).  It may be a town, a city, a county, a country, or some other entity.

 

Now write a poem about that place, telling what makes it unique, what makes it special to you.  Include its wonders and its detraction.  Create a clear picture of it for your reader by including street names, landmarks, bits of its history and people.  What is characteristic about this place?  Incorporate the language or dialect or accent:  is it Missouri or Missourah?  Give clues to the reader of why you chose this place.  Here’s an example by Ted Kooser:

 

So This is Nebraska

 

The gravel road rides with a slow gallop

over the fields, the telephone lines

streaming behind, its billow of dust

full of the sparks of redwing blackbirds.

 

On either side, those dear old ladies,

the loosening barns, their little windows

dulled by cataracts of hay and cobwebs

hide broken tractors under their skirts.

 

So this is Nebraska.  A Sunday

afternoon; July.  Driving along

with your hand out squeezing the air,

a meadowlark waiting on every post.

 

Behind a shelterbelt of cedars,

top-deep in hollyhocks, pollen and bees,

a pickup kicks it fenders off

and settles back to read the clouds.

You feel like that; you feel like letting

your tires go flat, like letting the mice

build a nest in your muffler, like being

no more than a truck in the weeds,

 

clucking with chickens or sticky with honey

or holding a skinny old man in your lap

while he watches the road, waiting

for someone to wave to. You feel like

 

waving.  You feel like stopping the car

and dancing around the road.  You wave

instead and leave your hand out gliding

larklike over the wheat, over the houses.

 

From Flying at Night, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005, and taken from NPR’s website.


[1] The Four-Room Poem format was originated by Georgia Heard.  This particular format was presented and modified by Jan Reeder.