A few weeks ago the Sunday Night Swaggers, my online writing group, posted a new form created by poet and teacher Heidi Mordhorst, the definito: a free verse poem of 8-12 lines that uses word play to define a word. The word is the last line of the poem.
I introduced the form to my students. Every Friday we are deconstructing poetry and writing our own. We name and mark poetic elements. This activity inspired me to write definitos about poetic terms. I am sharing three of them today, alliteration, imagery, and personification.
Margaret Simon, drafts, 2019
Letters, linked
and lively,
Lindy-hopping on the page
Notice how
some sounds repeat
Tongue twister
Word sister
…alliteration.
Make a movie
in your mind
Imagine all
that tastes, feels, sounds–
hands gripping,
feet slipping,
Writers show me
how to see
with imagery.
If the wind waves
If flowers wink
If hummingbirds tell a tale.
A thing you know
A thing you love
becomes a person
real and alive
walking across the page
personification.
Reflections on the Teche 