In Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson

In Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson tells the story of her childhood through poetry, not prose. Instead
of chapters written in sentences and paragraphs, we have poems written in lines and stanzas, each with a
suggestive title. Most of her poems are free-verse lyric poems, and some are haiku (such as "how to listen #1"
on p. 20).
This exercise invites you to write a scene from your life through poetry. Write in lines and 节 (Links to an
external site.) rather than sentences and paragraphs. Play around with rhyme and rhythm if you want, or write
in free verse. Feel free to be creative: you can write a series of haiku (Links to an external site.). You can write
打油诗 (Links to an external site.). You can write beautiful lyric poems, as Woodson does.
Think about the musicality of language. Think about where to 突破 (Links to an external site.) the 线 (Links to
an external site.). Don't break the line at the obvious place, at the end of a clause or sentence; use
enjambment (Links to an external site.) to create unexpected meanings. Use metaphors and similes. Try 所有
诗意的事物 (Links to an external site.)!
Please write at least three separate poems, and at least 30 lines total (longer is fine). Please give your poems
titles.
Don't worry if you don't feel particularly poetical. Do your best, and remember that these exercises are all
experiments in trying out new writing techniques, styles, and genres.