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-: Hi there, my name is Shelby
and I am a poetry teaching artist,
and today I just wanna sit down with you to write.
So I'm gonna be inviting you to do
a very special form of magic,
literal approved official magic
which is called free writing,
and I'm gonna guide you through a series of prompts
and the only things you're gonna need
are something to write with, pen, pencil,
whatever you got around the house,
something to write on, paper, notebook, anything like that.
And today our theme is writing home.
And so, the first thing that I want you to do
before we start writing,
I want you to go grab an object from your home
that reminds you of home.
Something that reminds you of belonging,
of safety, something that when you hold it in your hand,
it says, "I belong here, I'm understood here."
So an example might be a special rock,
something that feels good in your hand.
Or maybe like a weird toy that you've had since childhood,
that totally applies.
Do you have a random bell that you really love?
That would be perfect.
You could also choose a stuffy like this one
that I've had since before I was born stuffy.
Or if you've got the moon.
Okay, now that you've got your object,
what I want you to do, place it in front of you
and you're gonna look at it
and I want you to do a little warm up,
a little just writing on the page
whatever comes to your mind to describe this object.
So, first question, what color is it?
Maybe it has multiple colors.
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What shape is the object?
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What size is it?
Is it big, small, medium?
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What texture, like how does it feel
when you hold it in your hand?
What word would you use to describe that texture?
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Okay, now that we're a little bit warmed up,
we've gotten acquainted with our home object,
I wanna read you a poem to get a little bit of inspiration
to write our own poem object odes
and we're gonna talk more about what an ode is in a second.
So this is a poem by Francisco Alarcon.
and it is called "Ode to My Shoes."
"My shows rest all night under my bed.
"Tired, they stretch and loosen their laces.
"Wide open, they fall asleep and dream of walking.
"They revisit the places they went to during the day
"and wake up cheerful, relaxed, so soft."
So that was "Ode to My Shoes."
And as you might have been able to tell,
an ode is when you write a poem
that's sort of in honor of an object or a thing.
So in this poem, the poet is praising his shoes.
And the way that he praises his shoes
is he does this funny thing, maybe you noticed it,
'cause he's saying that his shoes are sleeping
and dreaming and if we ask any random grown up,
they would say, "Oh shoes can't dream, shoes can't sleep."
But in a poem, they can and when that happens,
when an object does something that usually a human would do,
it's called personification.
You can say that word out loud if you like,
personification, it's really long.
So that's what you're gonna do today with your object.
You're gonna write an ode to it,
you're gonna praise the object
and you're gonna do a little bit of personification.
All right, so we're gonna keep writing,
you can stay on the same page, you can start a new page,
and I'm gonna write along with you.
At the top of your page or wherever you are on it,
I want you to write ode to whatever the object is.
So I'm going to write an ode to the mermaid toy.
Let's go for it.
The first line of your ode describes the object
and you can use some of those words
from your warm up to get started.
Go for it, describe the object.
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Okay, as you keep writing,
the second line gives the object an emotion.
So I just want you to imagine,
how do you think that object feels?
Is it sad, is it tired?
Is it wild, happy, joyful?
Just give it an emotion, go for it.
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As you keep your pen or pencil moving across the page,
the third line I want you to describe the object
doing something that usually a human would do.
So maybe you imagine the object doing a dance,
maybe you imagine the object flying a rocket ship,
maybe you imagine the object laying down next to you in bed
and going to sleep for the night.
Or maybe the object is dreaming like the shoes did.
What's your object doing?
Go for it.
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All right, the fourth line of your free write
describes why you love the object.
Why do you love this object?
Why did you choose it?
Why does it make you feel safe?
Say why you love it.
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Now you're gonna write your last line.
And the fifth and last line must have the word home in it.
So this is kind of a wild card line.
It can be anything you want
but it has to have the word home in it.
And if you're feeling stuck,
you can just try home is and just finish that sentence
and maybe bring in another description of your object.
Go for it.
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Good job, you did it.
You did a form of magic,
I hope you didn't judge yourself too much,
just wrote whatever came to your mind.
And I really wish I could hear what you wrote,
I'm very curious about what your object is
and I really encourage you, if you wanna go share this
with someone in your house or call someone on the phone
and share with them or over video chat or whatever.
Even though we're not together,
I wanna share with you what I just wrote,
just see what it is, not gonna judge it, just gonna read it.
So ode to the mermaid toy.
The mermaid is smooth, worn by age,
blue, pink, yellow, flowy and flippy.
The mermaid is lonely, missing a younger version of me.
The mermaid sings and spits as far as I do
with a watermelon seed.
I love this mermaid,
she reminds me I can be anything on sea or land.
Home is what my mother has given me.
So that's my ode to the mermaid.
Thank you all so much for writing today,
for writing about home,
it's a really brave and vulnerable thing to do
to write about the things that make us feel safe
and you just wrote an ode.
If it's your first one, congrats;
if you've already done it, no big deal.
Again, my name is Shelby and I'm really grateful for you all
for sitting down to just write.
Have a great day.
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