Welcome back to our month-long #WaterPoemProject. It’s Day 6. If you’re new to this project, please read the Introduction and FAQ. Or you can watch this video of me describing how to participate. It’s on the YouTube channel Authors Everywhere.
Today, we have a creative prompt from YA author and poet Heather Meloche.
Heather’s poetry prompt is: Write a Concrete or “Shape” Poem about Waves?
Click to enlarge. Snake poem and art by Heather Meloche.
A concrete poem, also called a shape poem, is written in the shape of what it is describing or focusing on. Sometimes, these poems are mixed with a drawing of the poem’s subject, such as my poem below about snakes, which describes a true story about an event I had during summer camp (Eeek!). I drew the snake, and then filled it in with my poem in a creative way.
Now you try by using the image of a wave as your prompt. To help you, here is a picture of a wave that you can fill in, or you can draw your own or create the image with your words.
Wave shape poem form by Heather Meloche.
Heather says: Sometimes, just the words of the poem create the image, like this image created by my poem about a plant. (Click to enlarge.)
To inspire you, click on these two sound clips of waves crashing.
Ocean Waves 1 from FreeSoundEffects.com.
Ocean Waves 2 from FreeSoundEffects.com.
Have fun with it!!
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Your task is to draft a shape poem about waves before the end of the day tomorrow, Saturday, March 28, 2020.
If you’re doing the #WaterPoemProject with a group, be sure to share or post your rough draft, read other people’s poems, and cheer for their efforts. Or leave your poem here, in the comments.
Heather Smith Meloche’s work has appeared in Spider and Young Adult Review Network (YARN). She has placed twice in the children’s/YA category of the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition and won first place for Hunger Mountain’s Katherine Paterson Prize in 2011 for a short story in verse. Penguin Putnam released her debut novel, Ripple, a contemporary young adult novel, in September 2016. She lives in Michigan with her husband, two boys, and a very energetic Jack Russell. http://www.heathersmithmeloche.com
Check out her handout Breaking into the Writing Market for Young Writers.
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#WaterPoemProject Series Posts:
Project Introduction
FAQ
Prompt 1: Irene Latham, The Language of Water
Prompt 2: Elizabeth Steinglass, What Would a Raindrop Say?
Prompt 3: Linda Mitchell, Found Haiku
Prompt 4: Shari Green, Fogbow Fibonacci
Prompt 5: Margaret Simon, The Taste of Water
Prompt 6: Heather Meloche, The Shape of a Wave
Prompt 7: Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, A Water Memory
Prompt 8: Laura Shovan, Rainy Day Opposites
Prompt 9: Kathryn Apel, Silly Solage
Prompt 10: Buffy Silverman, A Watery Home
Prompt 11: Kara Laughlin, Frozen Fog
Prompt 12: Debbie Levy, Jump into a Limerick
Prompt 13: Joy McCullough, What Are Water Bears?
Prompt 14: Linda Baie, Frozen Water Skinny
Prompt 15: Chris Baron, The Hidden World of Water
Prompt 16: Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, Water Wordplay
Prompt 17: Susan Tan, The Sound of Water
Prompt 18: Mike Grosso, Waterplay!
Prompt 19: R. L. Toalson, Wishing Well
Prompt 20: Margarita Engle, Ode to the Shore
Prompt 21: Faye McCray, Poem in a Bubble
Prompt 22: Meg Eden, Surprising Connections
Please support the #WaterPoemProject authors by buying their books from your favorite independent bookstore.
A prompt in last month’s Ethical ELA 5 Day writer’s challenge for teachers, a prompt was to find a Japanese character and write a haiku for it. I’m partial to Chinese characters…I looked up the character for water which is the same in Chinese and Japanese. I then wrote my concrete poem to that. I’ll post it on twitter. I love this prompt, Heather!
That is so cool, Linda. I love the cross-cultural nature of your poem — water has no boundaries.
Okay, planning to get to this one after missing yesterday! But as a heads-up, I can’t get to the sound clips without requesting permission…
Hmm. I’ll double check. Thanks for letting me know.
Hi, Laura! I checked on the sound clips and was able to open them. Not sure what went wrong for you. Sorry about that.
https://flic.kr/p/2iJEEsp
Such a fun interpretation of the prompt, Kevin. I didn’t notice the rhyme until someone pointed it out on Twitter!
Sea waves,
Crashing and powerful
Or calm and gentle as a mother’s soothing touch
They will pull you to them with a strong embrace,
Or let you float, weightless and dreaming under the sun
Diving under them you might meet a sea turtle or a family of fish
Flipping like silver coins in the sun
[…] Found Haiku Prompt 4: Shari Green, Fogbow Fibonacci Prompt 5: Margaret Simon, The Taste of Water Prompt 6: Heather Meloche, The Shape of a Wave Prompt 7: Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, A Water Memory Prompt 8: Laura Shovan, Rainy Day Opposites Prompt […]