HOW TO WRITE – A FIRST STEP
You Are In Everything
There is something strange about the wind today
As if you are inside it,
As if you are the one who skims over my face,
Who blows my hair.
You are in my tears.
You are inside of the paint which is on the wall,
Inside of the writing that is one the desk,
In the most beautiful green on the tree.
You are in every part of the place that I’m in.
Meltem Cengiz
This is a poem written in my Creative Writing class by a fourteen-year-old Turkish girl in her second language – English. With all the hormones that teenagers have bouncing around, passion is a subject that is in the beat of their hearts; but, if you just ask a class of fourteen-year-olds to write a poem about love, they will churn out something pink and fluffy with pretty bows on that is totally unrealistic and silly. If you give them a methodology they turn out stunning poems.
A basic lesson that is given in the writing of poetry - by poets - is the choice of language. I have sat in a class by Kate Clanchy, the poet, in a classroom in Cairo, and in a class by Rhoda Dunbar, the poet, and former editor of Northwords Now, where they covered much the same thing, and this worked with the students they were teaching at the time and has worked with students I have taught since.
First – the difference between abstract nouns and concrete nouns. Abstract nouns are such as Love, War, Peace, Hate, Forgiveness, Pain, Sorrow, Regret, Ambition, and Loss. Concrete nouns are such as table, floor, flower, grass, street, lamp, vase, jacket, shirt. Abstract nouns are basically concerned with ideas. Concrete nouns are words that describe things you can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste. In other words, they describe things you are aware of through your senses. So the first step in the lesson is to clarify the difference between the two different types of noun. Students should understand that the type of noun used in writing poetry is the concrete noun. I have been in many lessons in places such as Arvon courses where the poet has instructed students to go through poems and haul out any abstract nouns, because these have no place in their poems.
The second step in the lesson is for the student to choose one of the abstract nouns. Now they must write down all the concrete nouns suggested by this. These are shared with the group and the teacher checks that their concrete nouns are actually concrete.
The third step is for the student to close his/her eyes, and imagine a scene suggested by their abstract noun. If the noun is love it might be a scene on a river bank on a summer’s evening, with two lovers strolling together. It helps if you’re imagining a real experience. Now the student quickly describes the scene as fully as possible, using concrete nouns. This isn’t the poem.
The fourth step is for the student to read what he/she has written, think carefully about it and try to write a poem from this.
The sharing process and feedback from the teacher are both essential in the lesson, with constant checks, that, yes, these are concrete nouns that are being used, not abstract.
And this was a lesson which inspired Meltem Cengiz who wrote the poem above. She has described passion by using her school desk and the wall beside her as she wrote. How concrete is that? And it works.
You Are In Everything
There is something strange about the wind today
As if you are inside it,
As if you are the one who skims over my face,
Who blows my hair.
You are in my tears.
You are inside of the paint which is on the wall,
Inside of the writing that is one the desk,
In the most beautiful green on the tree.
You are in every part of the place that I’m in.
Meltem Cengiz
This is a poem written in my Creative Writing class by a fourteen-year-old Turkish girl in her second language – English. With all the hormones that teenagers have bouncing around, passion is a subject that is in the beat of their hearts; but, if you just ask a class of fourteen-year-olds to write a poem about love, they will churn out something pink and fluffy with pretty bows on that is totally unrealistic and silly. If you give them a methodology they turn out stunning poems.
A basic lesson that is given in the writing of poetry - by poets - is the choice of language. I have sat in a class by Kate Clanchy, the poet, in a classroom in Cairo, and in a class by Rhoda Dunbar, the poet, and former editor of Northwords Now, where they covered much the same thing, and this worked with the students they were teaching at the time and has worked with students I have taught since.
First – the difference between abstract nouns and concrete nouns. Abstract nouns are such as Love, War, Peace, Hate, Forgiveness, Pain, Sorrow, Regret, Ambition, and Loss. Concrete nouns are such as table, floor, flower, grass, street, lamp, vase, jacket, shirt. Abstract nouns are basically concerned with ideas. Concrete nouns are words that describe things you can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste. In other words, they describe things you are aware of through your senses. So the first step in the lesson is to clarify the difference between the two different types of noun. Students should understand that the type of noun used in writing poetry is the concrete noun. I have been in many lessons in places such as Arvon courses where the poet has instructed students to go through poems and haul out any abstract nouns, because these have no place in their poems.
The second step in the lesson is for the student to choose one of the abstract nouns. Now they must write down all the concrete nouns suggested by this. These are shared with the group and the teacher checks that their concrete nouns are actually concrete.
The third step is for the student to close his/her eyes, and imagine a scene suggested by their abstract noun. If the noun is love it might be a scene on a river bank on a summer’s evening, with two lovers strolling together. It helps if you’re imagining a real experience. Now the student quickly describes the scene as fully as possible, using concrete nouns. This isn’t the poem.
The fourth step is for the student to read what he/she has written, think carefully about it and try to write a poem from this.
The sharing process and feedback from the teacher are both essential in the lesson, with constant checks, that, yes, these are concrete nouns that are being used, not abstract.
And this was a lesson which inspired Meltem Cengiz who wrote the poem above. She has described passion by using her school desk and the wall beside her as she wrote. How concrete is that? And it works.