Creative Writing Exercises

Find an article about something that interests you, a subject matter. Take from the article, 5 to 10 “pieces” of language that excite your sensibility. These pieces can be words, phrases, names, quotations, etc. Then write a poem in which you incorporate these pieces of language into a poem about the subject of the article. I did this for my poem “Raising Ali.” I was reading an article by James Baldwin called, “The Fight: Patterson vs. Liston.” I was also reading the poetry of Neruda at that time. It all came together.


Find an ordinatry object, a blue pen. Come up with 6 words that describe the object, adjectives. Write those words on the board. For instance:


straight
blue
hard
shiny
small


Then write a six line poem called BLUE PEN using all six words.

Next, come up with three objects for each of the adjectives and write them on the board under the initial words. For instance:


straight tree electrical pole screwdriver

smooth water desktop satin

blue cup shirt sapphire

hard rock stapler key

shiny window book jacket eyeball

small button penny paperclip


Then write another poem called BLUE PEN using two words from each column. You may not use the initial adjectives.

The point of this exercise is to illuminate and illustrate the differences between descriptive and figurative language.