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Suggestions for Approaching Poetry
Assume that it will be necessary to read a poem more than once. Give yourself a chance to become familiar with what the poem has to offer. Like a peace of music, a poem becomes more pleasurable with each encounter. Do pay attention to the title; it will often provide a helpful context for the…
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The Night Aunt Dottie Caught Elvis’s Scarf When He Tossed It From The Stage Of The Rushmore Plaza Civic Center
This exercise is simple: write a poem about a family member meeting a famous person. All of us have such incidents embedded in family history or folklore: the day Dad shook hands with Ike in France; the time Mom spilled coffee on Elizabeth Taylor in a pizza parlour in San Mateo; the night Aunt Dottie…
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My Mother’s Kitchen
Use pencil crayons to draw a picture of your mother’s kitchen. Put the oven in it, and also something green, and something dead. Write a poem about your mother’s kitchen. You are not in this poem, but some female relation – aunt, sister, close friend – must walk into the kitchen during the course of…