Most of us like to make lists, especially at this time of year. A great way to make a list and write a poem at the same time is to make a List Poem.
It's as simple as it sounds: you can make a poem out of a list of things, ideas, sounds, smells, favorite words. You can think of a theme and make a list that relates to the theme.
That's what Eileen Spinelli did in her poem, "Creativity," in Falling Down the Pages: A Book of List Poems (published by Roaring Brook Press).
"Creativity"
An artist takes:
colored pencil
piece of yarn
wooden slat from
some old barn
sidewalk chalk
or spool of wire
can of paint
or junkyard tire
twig or twine
or river rock
seed or seashell
woolen sock
bar of soap
or paper heart
and turns it
happily
to art.
Perhaps you have:
a shard of plate
a hinge from someone's
garden gate
a scrap of quilt
or rusty screw...
then you can be
an artist too.
A List Poem doesn't have to rhyme. "Walking Home from School I See" by Rebecca Kai Dotlich (from the same book) rhymes only in the last line:
"Walking Home from School I See"
A bus with a flat tire.
Pennies in a puddle.
Baby birds.
Fat worms.
A pair of pigeons.
A crooked gate.
A mailbox spray-painted pink.
A bulldog wearing a raincoat.
A bumblebee.
A reflection
in a window--
me!
Have a great time making lists and turning them into poems! With thanks to my writer friend George Shannon for giving me the book Falling Down the Pages.
