Archive for the 'The Sunny House' Category

December 16, 2009 | Life in General,SARK-ism,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Sunny House,Writer Moment,WriterVolunteer

This week at The Sunny House: SELF-PORTRAIT POEM

Today was our final session with the girls. We did a self-portrait poem. We had to do it one of two ways: Fill in the blanks or answer a series of 14 questions. The fill-in-the-blank lines asked you to complete a sentence like “Who intends to….” “Who cares about…” and “Who wants to be respected for…” Some of the questions were “What do you like?” “What do you hate?” “Who is important to you?” etc.

This poem gave PA and I another chance to get to know the girls a little bit better. For some, I think answering the questions was a lot easier than filling in the blanks. It’s not easy trying to describe yourself because you really don’t think about how people see you until they come out and say it. “That girl is a great listener” or “She’s really loyal to her friends.” The questions and the fill-in-the-blank sentences asked the girls to think about their present and future (“What do you want to do when you graduate from high school?” and I think it was a little difficult for them.

As usual, the results were amazing. We only had 4 girls this time, and not all of them shared their poems. I had a great time participating in this Creative Writing series. Both me and the girls learned about different forms of poetry. We were exposed to local authors and got a chance to read poems by several talented local young adults. And the girls will receive a published booklet of all the poems they wrote during the session some time after the New Year. What a great gift!

I have a greater appreciation for poetry now. For those that write it and for those that have a great voice when reading it aloud. I’ll just stick to writing novels. Here’s my contribution:

Celise
Sense of humor, bookworm, loyal, caring
Who cares about sharing my overactive imagination with the world
Who intends to create a writing center for teens
Who wants to be known as the local writer who created a local place for future aspiring young writers
Who wants to be respected for loyalty to family and friends
Who fears of not living up to my potential
Who wants others to understand that sometimes what I want to say never gets said
Who gives 110% when I’m in Writing Mode
Who dreams of becoming a full-time writer
Who believes in the words of Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (aka SARK) “I am enough, I have enough, I do enough”.

Technorati Tags: Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, SARK

December 13, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Sunny House,WriterVolunteer

This week at The Sunny House: A LITTLE BIT OF FORM

Me and the girls learned about a type of form poem called the Sestina: six words repeated in a 37-line poem. Thank goodness PA took pity on us and didn’t make us write a 37-line poem. It was hard enough writing six. The girls had to come up with six words and then write a poem around those words, but they had to be at the end of each sentence.

Once again, I was reminded of the reason why I never liked writing poetry in all those creative writing classes I took. LOL

I think those were the six hardest words the girls had to come up with, but the end result was amazing. As usual. They wrote about people, places…feelings. They manage to stun me every week. They’re so wise beyond their years and it shows in their work.

Since I love adult romance books, I chose six words that had to do with that: reading, escape, romance, gorgeous guy, pretty woman, happily ever after. Here’s what I came up with:

In the world of fiction, there is happily ever after
Quiet room, no distractions, lying covered up in the bed reading
5 foot 5, brown hair and eyes, he thinks she’s a pretty woman
Locked in a loveless marriage, she longs to escape
Muscular, black hair, ice blue eyes, she thinks he’s a gorgeous guy
“I’ll take you away,” he says. “I’ll be your love and give you romance.”

Corny, but that’s all I could come up with. Imagine having to come up with 31 more lines! After I read it, one of the girls asks, “Is that what happened with you and your husband?” LOL. Yeah, um, no. Adult romance. Gotta love it.

Next week is our last week with the girls. I’ll miss being with them and hearing what pops up from their creative minds.

December 7, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Sunny House

I closed down my other blog, Non-Profitation, and just decided to blog about my mentor/volunteer/school stuff over here. So I moved over ALL the posts. It was pretty friggin’ tedious, but easier than trying to keep up with two blogs.

This week at The Sunny House: Abstract vs Concrete

PA brought two poems for the group to read. “Intensity” and “Courage” were written by two local high school students and had been published in last years’ 22 Across book. The activity for this session was to take something abstract (emotion) and associate it with something concrete (person, place or thing). This was definitely a big challenge for the girls, even with the sample poems they had as a guide.

They found it difficult, at first, to describe an emotion. There was a lot of “How would you describe (insert emotion here?” and PA would respond, “Well, what does someone do when they’re (insert emotion here)?” I thought this was a really great activity for me because, as a writer, this is what’s called “show don’t tell.” If a character is nervous, we have a habit of telling our readers that the character is, say, nervous:

“Do you think we should be in here?” she asked nervously.

Instead, we need to show the character being nervous: shifting from foot to foot, glancing over the shoulder every few seconds, jumping at every sound, etc.

I didn’t think of that until I started this post. So, of course, I didn’t mention this during the session. *sigh*

Basically, these girls had to write a poem about physically describing an emotion and they did a great job. Similes and metaphors abounded! They’re so talented. It’s great to witness their potential and the way they stretch their minds. PA is teaching them so much. I hope they’ll keep at it after we’re done.

Technorati Tags: 22 Across

November 29, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Sunny House

No session this week at The Sunny House. Thanksgiving holiday week.

November 23, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Sunny House

No session this week at The Sunny House