2. “Voices”
This unit was created to explore the use of
creative writing for students who suffer from
situations in which they cannot control their
emotions. Creative writing like poetry, prose, and
storytelling is a great way to voice your feelings
without violent outbursts.
3. Poetry Therapy
Is the intentional use of the written and spoken
word for healing and personal growth. Poetry,
literature, journals and song lyrics help
individuals see themselves fully, and in time they
come to experience the hidden facets of
themselves.
http://www.lifespeakspoetrytherapy.com/poetry-
therapy/
4. What is Poetry?
Poetry (noun)- literary work in which special
intensity is given to the expression of feelings
and ideas by the use of distinctive style and
rhythm; poems collectively or as a genre of
literature.
www.google.com
5. Different types of Poems
There are different types of poems.
Examples:
Sonnet- contains 14 line; typically with two
rhyming stanzas known as a rhyming couplet at
the end.
Stanzas (noun)- a group of line forming forming the
basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.
6. Different types of poems…
Haiku (noun)- a Japanese poem of seventeen
syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five,
traditionally evoking images of the natural world.
Lyric (adj)- (of poetry) expressing the writer’s
emotions, usually briefly and in stanzas or
recognized forms.
Limerick (noun)- a humorous, frequently bawdy,
verse of three long and two short line rhyming
aabba, popularized by Edward lear.
7. What is Prose?
Prose (noun)- Written or spoken language in its
ordinary form, without metrical structure.
Metrical or Metric (adj)- of or based on the
meter as a unit of length; related to the metric
system.
8. What is Storytelling?
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words,
sounds or images, often by improvisation and
embellishment.
West African storytellers are known as a Griot.
9. How can creative writing benefit
you emotionally?
Healing
Personal Growth
Dealing with socioeconomic issues
Political Issues
10. The Last Poets
The Last Poets is the name for several groups of poets and
musicians who arose from the late 1960s African-American civil
rights movement's black nationalist movement. The name is
taken from a poem by the South African revolutionary poet
Keorapetse Kgositsile, who believed he was in the last era of
poetry before guns would take over. The original users of that
name were the trio of Felipe Luciano, Gylan Kain, and David
Nelson.
12. Felipe Luciano – ” There is no difference between Black and Latino”
(Transcript)
Jíbaro, mi negro lindo
De los bosques de caña
Caciques de luz
Tiempo es una cosa cómica.
Jíbaro, my pretty nigga.
Father of my yearning for the soil,
The land,
The earth of my people.
Father of the sweet smells of fruit in my mother’s womb,
the earth brown of my skin,
the thoughts of freedom that butterfly through my insides.
Jíbaro, my pretty nigga.
Sweating bullets of blood and bedbugs,
Swaying slowly to the softly strummed stains of a five string guitar
Remembering ancient empires
Of sun gods and black spirits and things that were once
So simple.
13. How times have changed Man.
how Man has changed time.
“Unnatural,” screams the wind.
“Unnatural.”
Jíbaro, my pretty nigga man.
Fish smells and cane smells and
Fish smells and cane smells and
Tobacco
And oppression makes even God smell foul.
As foul as the bowels of the ship
That vomited you up on the harbors of a cold metal city to
die.
No sun, no sand, no palm trees
And you clung,
Yes, you clung to the slimy ribs of an animal
Called the Marine Tiger,
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
14. Jíbaro, did you know you my nigga?
I love the curve of your brow,
The slant of your baby’s eyes
The calves of your woman dancing;
I dig you!
You can’t hide.
I ride with you on subways.
I touch shoulders with you in dances.
I make crazy love to your daughter.
yea, you my cold nigga man.
And I love you ’cause you’re mine.
And I’ll never let you go.
And I’ll never let you go.
(You mine, nigga!)
And I’ll never let you go.
Forget about self.
We’re together now.
And I’ll never let you go!
Uh’uh
Never, Nigga.
Art Credits:
15. Other Notable Poets
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Maya Angelou (1928-2014)
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
Amiri Baraka (1934-2014)
Rita Dove (1952- )
Nikki Giovanni (1943-)
Phyllis Wheatley (1752-1784)
Paul L. Dunbar (1872-1906)
16. Assignment #1
Write a poem using six (6) or more stanzas about
an event in your life that made you feel hopeless
or afraid.
17. Assignment #2
Write a poem about someone who has wronged
you. You don’t have to list the name of the
person, but write a poem to someone who you
have anger or disappointment towards; e.g. if
you have a problem with your mom, dad,
grandparent or neighbor.
18. Assignment #3
Write a limerick. Remember, a limerick is a
humorous; funny poem. You can write a poem
about something funny that happened to you or
someone you know.
19. Assignment #4
Write a poem or prose about a love lost. It
doesn’t have to be about a boy or girl it can be
about chicken, potato chips, or a toy. This poem
should have at least ten (10) stanzas.
20. Assignment #5
Storytelling. Write as story that has a moral. A
moral (adj) concerned with the principles of right
and wrong behavior and the goodness or
badness of human character. You will write a
story giving advice about write and wrong. You
animals instead of humans, and give the animals
names. You will have to learn this story by heart,
because you will be performing this at our café
along with two other poems.
