(This exercise is adapted from the work of Harry Noden in Image Grammar: Using Grammatical Structures to Teach Writing and Stephen Dunning and William Stafford, Getting the Knack: 20 Poetry Writing Exercises.)

Poets choose words carefully to communicate. They are conservative in word numbers, sensitive to sound, placement and rhythm as well as both denotation and connotation. Once technique useful in understanding the poet’s choices is to thoughtfully imitate a writer’s work. This calls for sensitive reading and careful structure imitation. So, try the following:

In scenery I like flat country.
In life I don’t like much to happen.
In personalities I like mild colorless people.
And in colors I prefer gray and brown.
My wife, a vivid girl from the mountains,
Says, "Then why did you choose me?"
Mildly I lower my brown eyes-
There are so many things admirable people do not understand.

-William Stafford

Begin by analyzing what you should imitate. How has Stafford structured his poem? Your poem need not have the same meaning, but the structure must be close. And, when you draft your poem, credit the poet. This is often accomplished in the title as in the following example.

so much depends                                           so much depends
upon                                                              upon

a red wheel                                                    a windowed castles
barrow                                                          built

glazed with rain                                              on sandy beaches
water                                                             washed

beside the white                                             and built again
chickens.                                                       tomorrow.

-William Carlos Williams                               -Marian LaBrie

The fog comes                                   Taking the hands of someone you love
on little cat feet.                                 You see they are delicate cages . . .
It sits looking over harbor and city     Tiny birds are singing
on silent haunches                              In the secluded prairies,
and then moves on.                           And in the deep valleys of the hands.

-Carl Sandburg                                            -Robert Bly

When the last giant came out of his cave
and his bones turned into the mountain
and his clothes turned into the flowers,
nothing was left but his tooth
which my dad took home in his truck
which my granddad carved into a bed
which my mom tucks me into at night
when I dream of the last giant
when I fall asleep on the mountain.

-Nancy Willard

What happens to a dram deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore –
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over –
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

-Langston Hughes