Category: Poetry Exercises

New Poetry Exercise! (This could also be used for fiction, I suppose.)

So, I’m sure some form of this exists already and has been published in a book of writing exercises, articulated much better than what I’m about to describe.  Nevertheless, I found myself doing this the other day after looking up a definition:

Flip through a dictionary (in book form!) and make a list of a few words (no less than three, no more than five) that you don’t know but like based purely on their sound or appearance.  Don’t read their definitions until you’ve compiled your list.  Build a poem (or short story even…) based around these words.

Post your results!

Weekly Poetry Exercise

This looks like a really fun Poetry exercise! Give it a go and post your results.

By Deborah Digges, from The Practice of Poetry, Robin Behn and Chase Twichell, eds.

Write a poem in which you literally build or take apart something for the reader. Describe each step of the process for the reader, incorporating technical terms and descriptions of materials. Create a lyric or narrative poem that “shows” the reader how it’s done.