Loyd—SCPS

Creative Writing

 

You don’t have to suffer to be a poet.  Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

--John Ciardi

 

Cool Poets Project—Step #1:  Selecting a Poet

 

         

1.  Search these websites to find a poet who captures your attention:

 

          www.poets.org                          The Academy of American Poets

            www.loc.gov/poetry/180/   Poetry 180 (Billy Collins and the Library of Congress)

           

 

2.  Using Word, write a concise summary of the poet’s biography.  Summarize

               in your own words a brief chronological account of the unique events in your

               poet’s life.   (1/2 page, single-spaced)

 

3.  Below your biographical summary, copy one poem by your poet.

 

4.     Select two “perfect ” words from this poem to add to your word list in your

journal and to use in a free verse poem of your own.

 

5.     Write a free verse poem in the style of your poet using your poet’s two

     “perfect” words somewhere in it.

 

          6.  E-mail the above assignment to me (dloyd@savcps.com) by Thurs., March 3.

 

 

The poet, as everyone knows, must strike his individual note sometime between the ages of fifteen

and twenty-five.  He may hold it a long time, but it is then he must strike it or never.  School and

college have been conducted with the almost express purpose of keeping him busy with something

else till the danger of his ever creating anything has past.

--Robert Frost