Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.
View of the state capitol from the top floor of the state library.
The weekend was absolutely beautiful for a trip to the capital city of Baton Rouge for the annual Louisiana Book Festival. The sky was clear, the air was cool, and the sun was bright. A great time to celebrate literary works.
I treated myself to a day off and attended a poetry workshop with our state poet laureate, Ava Leavell Haymon. Ava is brilliant and funny and an out-of-the-box thinker. She gave us each a large sheet of drawing paper and had us begin on each edge by writing different sensory words, i.e. sounds, smells, colors. Then we drew a large circle with a gold marker. In this circle, we were asked to free write. She said something about drawing other shapes to put your over-the-shoulder-negative voice into, but I didn’t do this part. After free-writing, we circled concrete words from our writing to use in a poem. Then to complete the task, we folded the large paper so that it made a book. (I found online instructions for the book form here.) After all this, I ended up with this poem.
Rose-colored Glasses
In-box flashes
“Teacher evaluations”
Her plate spills.
All she wants is to be
invited outside
to the trampoline.
–Margaret Simon
Completed poem book
As crazy as this whole exercise seemed, I like the idea of using a free write to compress ideas into a small poem. I want to try this with my students. I have not done free writing yet this year. I usually have a theme or prompt for writing. I wonder if students will be able to work with the randomness. Or maybe that’s the idea, random writing leads to poetry.
Reflections on the Teche 
“Random writing leads to poetry…” I love the idea of this exercise! It’s fun to see poetry in all kinds of things, isn’t it?! What a fun day you must have had!
I think for my students I will have them write freely in their journals first. Circle words, pick two or three senses, and create a poem.
I love that you treated yourself off to a day to attend a poetry workshop! That made me smile!! Sounds like you learned some amazing ideas. Thank you for sharing! I always love reading your poetry!
Thanks, Michelle. Such a small poem with pow. That’s what we say in my class. If you write a short poem, it has to carry a big stick.
A day off with poetry to fill the soul and get you writing – perfect!
And sharing with you makes the circle complete.
Love your day off, would love to have traveled with you, Margaret. The poem idea is terrific-will save it for a good time! Thanks for the link too.
I forgot to say how much I loved your poem, too, Margaret. You expressed the feelings of many I’m sure.
What a neat way to craft a poem, Margaret. Thanks for sharing this with us!
This is cool idea. Some people (me) find writing poetry to be really hard, so this is seems like a way in. I love your poem, too. Very good!
Sounds like a great seed for you Margaret. I love your fertile mind. Are you getting excited about NCTE????