Poem Anthology

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Organization	The poem is well organized. One idea follows another in a logical sequence with clear transitions.	The poem is pretty well organized. One idea may seem out of place. Clear transitions are used.	The poem is a little hard to follow. The transitions are sometimes not clear.	Ideas seem to be randomly arranged.
Mechanics/Conventions	Writer makes no errors in grammar or spelling that distract the reader from the content.	Writer makes 1-2 errors in grammar or spelling that distract the reader from the content.	Writer makes 3-4 errors in grammar or spelling that distract the reader from the content.	Writer makes more than 4 errors in grammar or spelling that distract the reader from the content.
Format	The entire poem is related to the assign topic. The poem follows the instructions of the assignment.	Most of the poem is related to the assigned topic. The writer wanders off the topic, but the reader still can follow ideas.	Some of the poem is related to the topic, but the reader cannot follow the topic.	A minimal attempt has been made to relate the assigned topic to the poem.
Word Choice	Writer uses vivid words to draw pictures in the reader's mind, and the placement of the words seems natural, not forced	Writer uses vivid words that draw pictures in the reader's mind, but occasionally words seem overdone or out of place.	Writer uses words that communicate clearly, but the writing lacks variety, punch, and flair.	Writer uses limited vocabulary that does not strongly communicate ideas or capture the reader's interest.

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Parent Poem Instructions:

Find a picture of one of your parents when he/she was close to your age or a picture of your parent before he/she became a parent. Write a poem about the young person you see in that picture. What were your parent's hopes? dreams? struggles? Try to write at least three stanzas or 12 lines about your parent in the "before kids" stage. In the last stanza or last 4 lines, connect yourself to your parent in the poem.

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I am from…

Where I'm From
by George Ella Lyons

I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the black porch.
(Black, glistening
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush,
the Dutch elm
whose long gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.

I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I'm from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from perk up and pipe down.
I'm from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.

I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments-
snapped before I budded-
leaf-fall from the family tree.

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I am from...

My Name Is

I am from...

(A valued or precious family treasure that, perhaps, you could not touch.)

I am from...

(The outdoor place where you play or played the most.)

I am from...

(The street where you live or used to live.)

I am from...

(Something that sums or summed up your neighborhood, town or rural area.)

I am from...

(Something that's really you!)

I am from my dad's red canvas kayak that battled rapids and then hunted for silence on the nearby river. I am from the boulevard of cherry blossoms and lost memories. I am from the forest, where grandfather trees guided my journey. I am from the edge of the Gatineau, with its turbulent blue-grey reflections. I am from a place of longing and belonging, where magic and earth and heart meet.
Connecting with each other in a safe place, a place of mutual respect, a place of trust, a place where you are considered unique and special, a place where your talents, your skill, your vision and your story count.
Tell me where you are from... I want to see it through your eyes I want to hear it in your voice... I want to feel it in my heart.

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The WHERE I'M FROM Template

I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.

I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).

I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)

I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).

I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).

From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).

I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.

I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).

From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).

I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).

Where I’m From ~ Fred First ~ November 2003

I am from the peaceful banks of a creek with no name; from JFG, toast and blackberry jam and home-made granola.

I am from "a house with double porches," a room filled with good ghosts and creek laughter in the mornings before first light.

I am from Liriodendron and Lindera, butterfly bush and mountain boomers

I am from Dillons and Harrisons, Betty Jean and Granny Bea-- frugal and long-lived, stubborn and tender, quick to laugh. Or cry.

I am from a world whose geography my children know better than I, from a quiet valley where I am the proprietor and world authority of its small wonders.

From barn loft secret passwords and children who can fly if they only try.

I am from oven-baked Saran Wrap and colds caught from jackets worn indoors.

I am from pire in the blood Baptists, from the cathedral made without hands, the church in the wildwoods, the covenant of grace.

I'm from the Heart of Dixie, son of Scarlett O'hara. From War Eagle, Wiffle, UAB and PT, from Walnut Knob's blue ridge and the soft shadows of Goose Creek.

From a "fast hideous" dresser and a home body from Woodlawn, from a grandfather I never knew that I can blame for my love of nature and my stubbornness, they tell me.

I am from fragments, the faint smell of wood smoke, and familiar walks among trees I know by name, from HeresHome and good stock. A man can hardly ask to be from more.

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Free-Verse Guidelines

There is anticipation as the eye moves from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, and the first word of each line also has a heightened weight, especially if you follow the convention of capitalizing the first word of each line.

Even though the lines of a free verse poem don't adhere to a regulated meter, they still have cadences, patterns of sound and repetitions of sounds, which give the words their music and can help carry the reader along or slow the reader down. These natural stresses of the language will call attention to certain words. In a free verse poem, you have more liberty to place these words at various points within the line to draw extra attention to them--or away from them, to create additional tension.

Likewise, while lines of rhymed poetry are more regularly end stopped, the syntax of free verse allows for sentences to end at any point within a line. These caesuras--or pauses--created thereby are part of the meter and rhythm of the line, and are very useful tools for the poet.