| Write a poem that is a song of yourself, a
celebration of yourself. In ordinary life we are constantly made
aware of the limitations of our powers. In this poem forget the
limitations. Write as if you actually were all of life, as
if you were everywhere and in all time and were everyone and
everything-- seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding, being
everything that there is.
It may help to begin your lines with the words "I
am..." or "I see..." or "I hear..." or
"I know...". Imagine yourself in many different places
including some you've never really been in-- on a sinking ship,
walking through the desert, in a burning building, at the battle
of the Alamo, floating down a river.
You might try, at least for part of your poem, putting a
different place in every line. Say what you see and do there.
Try using long lines, lines which give you space enough to
describe in detail exactly who you are and what you see and hear
and know.
Be boastful and bold. Try making the poem very long. Let your
poem keep changing its subject as it goes along, as Whitman's
poem does. You will probably find, after you write it, that is
all goes together in a way you wouldn't have expected. (Koch 38) |