Unit 2 - Lesson 1: Writing From Emotion
An Introduction
Craft:
For this first part of the lesson, we'll be learning about how you can use your emotions to write effective poetry! We'll be doing "Craft" in two parts this time. We'll start with a short article written by Tynea Lewis and put out on FamilyFriends Poems. Then, we'll read a short poem—"We Lived Happily During The War" written by Ilya Kaminsky as an example on how you can use emotion.
The article and poem is linked to the right of this text.
Connect:
Now we'll be talking about what you just read and adding on some new knowledge!
First, we'll be talking about "We Lived Happily During The War". While reading, could you feel the emotions Kaminsky was pouring out? What did you feel specifically? And were there any word choices that clued you into this? Pay attention to how Kaminsky uses white space, or line breaks to create space or more emotion.
Now take some time to review the advice from the article! Just a review is fine. It'll lead into the "Create" part of this lesson!
More lessons here
Create:
This is the final step in this lesson. Now you get to put what you learned into practice!
Now focus on something that causes emotion in you. It could be a sweet memory, a passionate opinion, or even a person. Now start writing, but make sure to avoid saying emotion. Try to write a poem that points to the emotion without saying "I was happy", or "I'm angry". Try to incorporate word choice and line breaks, like Kaminsky, that will say that for you. Use as many (or as few) metaphors, line breaks, and anything else you might want!