Color the World

 In this final poetic experience, you will explore color through the use of imagery and diction, relying upon all the skills you have practiced in this course. Let the color spectrum be a way to see the world, and find precise images that will let the reader experience the MOOD of your color and the TONE of your speaker's voice.

Paint with words!

Writing the Screenplay

Our screenplay work has consisted of

--learning format

--considering scenarios

--establishing atmosphere

All of these help to create a streamlined presentation of a meaningful story!  Be sure to post your final screenplay to your blog.

Minimalism, Modernism, and the Non-Apology

Inspired by William Carlos Williams' famous "This is Just to Say," create your own Imagist/Modernist poem in which your apology is less than sincere. Focus in on the objects and sensory details of the moment.

Post finished poems on your blogs.

Inspired by Great Poetry

Read Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." This is a great example of a VILLANELLE, which is "a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2" (poetry.org).

Then write five statements:

What you would say to a dying person.

What you would say to a frightened child.

What you would say to the parents who love you.

What you would say to your best friend.

What you would say to someone who has lost her confidence.

Then choose ONE of these and made it a repeating mantra in a Thomas-style poem.

2. Read e.e.cummings "Maggie and Molly and Millie and May."

Then think of your friends who have two-syllable names, and one friend who has a one-syllable name.  Use them as the starting point for a similar poem. See other students' examples.

What if Sherlock Holmes got to sit in on an autopsy performed by Bones?

They are both highly intelligent, rather obsessive individuals. What sort of dialogue would they have?

OR, what if they weren't at an autopsy, but out in public somewhere--say, at a movie or at the circus? What kind of dialogue would you envision in a mash-up of these two shows and characters?

Or what if the characters from Spongebob ended up in Hamlet's Castle, or on MacBeth's heath?  How would their dialogue alter (and perhaps ruin) Shakespeare forever?

With one or two partners, decide on two works and mash them together in a little script. For example:

MACBETH: What manner of creature are you, that appears so unexpectedly on this foul day?

SPONGEBOB: I'm Spongebob! I live in a pineapple under the sea, but you have a really nice field here. A little gray, but that can be fixed with a little bit of IMAGINATION!

MACBETH: (aside) I fear I have too much IMAGINATION, for it sees a crown dropping upon my head.

Et cetera. What sort of mash-up will you create? Use it to generate a distinct PLOT.

Alfred Noyes wrote this famous poem when he was twenty-four years old; it took him about two days to finish the final draft.  It is set in 18th Century England and focuses on a young robber who is in love with the local landlord's daughter.

He was inspired by his own setting (he was staying in a cottage in a desolate Scottish heath) in order to create the spooky, dreary setting of his poem.

After reading and studying "The Highwayman" today, write your own poem in which you pay homage to a particular type of man.  See the examples on previous blogs for ideas.


Post your poem for Monday!

Your Brain Fills in the Gaps

Sometimes writing teachers suggest that you shouldn't provide too much detail because your reader likes to provide some of it herself. Think of the times you were offended by a movie version of a book because "It's not the way I pictured it."

When we read a novel or a story, we are in essence collaborating, because we embellish, in our minds, what the author has provided.

It is also understood that our brains, ever creative, will immediately work to fill in details that are missing.  Have you ever:

--Seen someone and started to imagine a backstory for him or her?

--Been given part of a story and found yourself writing the rest?

--Been told one thing, like, "Gretchen had a sad life," and started to imagine what that entailed?

Let's test the ideas above by giving your brain something VERY LIMITED to work with. Then you will write a paragraph providing the rest of the detail--the who, what, why, when, where and how.

Here we go:

TWO PEOPLE ARE LEAVING A BUILDING.