Mel's Poems and Reflections!

Inspiration from sound

The far away roar of relentless repetition
Sombre they vigorously collide,
Crashing together the sinister pattern unfolds
The power of insignificant solitude.

Bitter cold cascades and intertwines,
Tranquillity swishes amongst the danger,
The distant thunder of nature’s plan
Disappearing in an instant.


Inspiration from form and structure

Ode to a Cadbury’s Crème Egg

Your perfect form and shiny attire
Oh how you entice me!
Standing proud a symbol of life
No one is as lovely as thee.

Crumbly and gooey, you’re hard to resist
So sweet and seductive you are,
As I bite off your head and you trickle before me
The satisfaction is unrivalled by far.

Oh my flawless, voluptuous friend!
Your versatility cannot be surpassed,
You accompany me in my thirty seconds of need
If only your greatness could last.


Inspiration from imagery

Envy is the scorn on a child’s face
As with bitter fury she glares,
Spitting in spite her wrath you receive
In anger her green eyes will glow.

She longs for a time when she was the one
Her resentment is twisted and vile,
And in the dark of the night all tucked up in bed
She plots her revenge on your child.


Using rhyme to inspire

There once was this girl called Lacey
The boys would describe her as racey,
Timid to start, she beelines the bar
And that’s when she goes a bit crazy!

Sexy and kind
With a curvaceous behind
She really doesn’t mind
Which man she will find.

As she struts in the place,
That look on her face,
All stop and stare
At this vixen so fair.


Using non-fiction to inspire

The Rams

Some take patriotism too far
As was my experience last Friday,
I was sat in my local reflecting the score
When out of nowhere this panic did fright me!

No sooner were it dead
This poor sheep’s fat head
Came plummeting down right in my bread!


Inspiration from perspective

Ramblings of Happy Feet

I swear my home was bigger yesterday,
Or am I just getting bigger?
Hmm I don’t suppose it really matters
There’s plenty of this stuff, no need for my natters!

This really is the life you know
We march, we skate, we fish!
And if it ever gets a bit chilly round here
Then in my mother’s feathers we squish.

I really don’t think I can get to my buddy’s
My eyesight is getting much dimmer
But even though I can barely see him now
I am an incredible swimmer!


Inspiration from words

Oh hey there mum, and how was your day?
Awful, just awful, don’t ask me!
Ok then, just being polite
I’ll know not to bother in future.

That is typical you, you’re twisting my words
Can’t you see how stressed out I am clearly?
Ok ok, don’t bite off my head
I am not a mind reader my deary!


Reflections on poetry exercises

I really enjoyed writing all these poems; I like playing with words and being creative so it was a lot of fun. I have written poetry in the past but I do not like the idea of sharing poetry as I think it is personal and I probably care what others think too much.

These tasks made writing poems a lot less daunting, the fact that the poems were guided and that we had limited time meant that I wasn’t so concerned with the end result and just enjoyed the process of writing the poems and experimenting. It wasn’t as if we were being expected to write great works of literature so that was a relief! Although at first I was worried about writing on demand I think it did give us the courage to just write something down without too much deliberation.

I liked the task of writing a poem from a simile; I started with ‘Her smile was as bright as the morning sun’ and ended up writing a poem about Bathsheba, which was possibly influenced by reading Hardy criticism all bloody Christmas! I liked that we were given a starting point to create the mood and get us started but then we were allowed to let our imaginations run wild.

The tasks were helpful in that they forced us to include things like personification in our poems, once I had decided to write about a traffic jam in relation to WWI soldiers at battle then it was just a case of playing with the words and meter so that the poem sounded structured and trying to think of words that rhymed.

I liked the idea of linking sounds and feelings to make a poem; this sort of technique would assist in giving the poem depth.

I didn’t really like writing poems from our partners’ descriptions of a picture, firstly because we didn’t have as much freedom with what we were writing and also because it was hard to get a sense of atmosphere without actually seeing the picture.

I think the tasks were good in that they gave us cues as to what to write but encouraged imagination and uniqueness at the same time; my least favourite tasks were those that were more ambiguous and vague such as ‘inspiration from rhyme’ and ‘inspiration from words’.

It would useful for children writing poetry to practise reading their poems aloud to each other; this will help them see if their poem sounds right and will also give them the opportunity to share ideas, whilst developing their speaking skills.

The activities in which we were to think of a number of similes, for example, would be a good staring point for children; the teacher could possibly do this activity as a class by giving them a thing/feeling to start with then asking them to think of a simile. If the class as a whole put the poem together, pupils may not find it as intimidating.

Cloze activities would be a good way to get pupils thinking about their vocabulary and word order; I think it is important that pupils are given a lot of support and guidance in writing poetry initially so that they can build their confidence. Another activity could be giving pupils a poem in which they have to replace certain words with a synonym; this could even be done as a class using an interactive whiteboard.

Using different mediums in order to stimulate creativity would be very useful in a classroom; pupils could bring in a photograph or a recording of their favourite song and write a poem regarding their sensory and emotional reactions to these stimuli, using these methods would help pupils to understand imagery.

There are lots of ways that poetry can be explored in a classroom, I think the most important element is that activities are fun and non-threatening for pupils.