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.