Ego Tripping

Students read EGO-TRIPPING by Nikki Giovanni: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/poetry/giovanni_nikki.html#ego%20tripping
After discussing Giovanni's use of hyperbole, students write their own poems. Poems triggered by this model include the following:

THE MYSTIC DRAGON by Robert Lee

I was born in the Yellow River.
I walked along the hills and built the Great Wall.
I developed a system of written characters
that only civilized people could understand.
Out of my mind my son Buddha was born.
As my skin peels, silk sheets glisten beside me.
I pare my fingernails, and they fall as jade.
I am the mystic dragon.
I wander my giant continents and awe the primitives
with my abilities.
I am too godly, too perfect
to comprehend.


A DESIRED WOMAN by Michelle Fitzpatrick

I was born in New York City.
I walked down Fifth Avenue,
bulldozed Manhattan's rock into a mound,
and built the Empire State Buiilding.
The screams of my birth pains created Hell's Kitchen.
A shake of my hips set 42nd Street steaming.
A rustle of my hem set the garment district bustling.
The pupils of my eyes set the diamond distrcit sparkling.
Each strand of my hair is pure gold.
I am a desired woman.
I gazed from Mantattan to Brooklyn,
and steel rays spanned the bay with a beaming bridge.
The word's elite come to look upon me.
My countries are kings and queens.
I am divine.

THEME FOR ENGLISH B

Students read THEME FOR ENGLISH B by Langston Hughes http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/English_B.html

Among the poems generated by Theme for English B is the following:

THEME FOR MULTI-CULTURAL LITERATURE CLASS by Shuen Wong

Sometimes I ask myself
"Who are you?
A name, a body, a spirit?"
Then I am confused.

I am nineteen years old, Chinese,
born in a small mountain village in South China.
My blissful childhood was there, close to nature.
I was only me, artless and carefree,
like an elf of the mountain.
In the morning, mist arose from the forest
like soft, light gauze.
In the evening, a cool mountain wind blew
through the forest
lulling me into sweet dreams.

Now here I am, a New Yorker,
in this motley land of skyscraping pressures.
I study hard in school to keep up
the Chinese reputation
of diligence and intelligence.
I am confined to school and home
like a caged nightingale.

The tall buildings sorrund me.
Subways and TV's make me dizzy.
I miss the old trees and the mountain,
the wind, the mist, and me.

Troubled Woman

Students read Troubled Woman by Langston Hughes.

Troubled Woman

She stands
In the quiet darkness
This troubled woman
Bowed by weariness and pain
Like an
Autumn flower
In the frozen rain,
Like a
Wind-blown autumn flower
That never lifts its head
Again.

After discussing Hughes's use of simile, students write their own poem modeled on Troubled Woman. Poems generated by this model include:

The Junkie by Steven Wong* *award-winning
He staggers
Into alleys of illusion
This wind-blown junkie
Angled by craggy veins
Like a
Helpless tumbleweed,
Like a
Crumpled, rain-streaked sheaf
Of yesterday's News.


The Old Man by Deborah Varner

He sits
In the stillness
Of his room
This old man
Crippled by
Age and loneliness
Like an
Aged tree
That can produce no fruit
Like the
Last living tree
In an eroding field.

Fog

Students read Carl Sandburg's poem Fog http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1791.html. They also listen to him reciting the poem http://poetlaureate.il.gov/sandburg.cfm. After a discussion of Sandburg's use of imagery, students write their own poem using personification. Among the poems generated by this model is the following:

Earthquake by Kim Lam Ng* *award-winner

The Earth roars
and shakes
his mighty body,
opening a huge mouth
to swallow whole cities
like a man his morning eggs.
He wakes, yawns, settles back to sleep,
leaving us to our trembling prayers.