NOVEMBER: English: working with quick writes!

TRY THESE AT HOME!!

 

Angry

I’m feeling so angry I kick up the stones.

I’m feeling angry right through to my bones.

I’m feeling really, really bad.

I snap at Mum and I snarl at Dad.

When they ask me, What are you angry for?

I stomp to my room and slam the door.

I’m feeling angry ---that’s all I can say.

I wasn’t picked for the team today.

Jane Buston2

Try this:

􀂃 For 2-3 minutes, write as quickly as you can all that this poem brings to mind for you.

􀂃 Borrow any line and write as quickly and as specifically as you can all that comes to mind,

letting the line lead your thinking.

􀂃 Write whatever this poem brings to mind for you.

2 From The School Magazine, ORBIT, April 2005.

Sam Grumont: Quickwrites compiled Adapted idea from 100 quickwrites by Liinda Reif, Scholastic 4

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.

The rain making running pools in the gutter.

The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night ---

And I love the rain.

Langston Hughes

Try this:

• For 2-3 minutes, write as quickly as you can about any experience this poem brings to mind for

you.

• Borrow any line from this poem and write for 2-3 minutes, letting the line lead your thinking.

Sam Grumont: Quickwrites compiled Adapted idea from 100 quickwrites by Liinda Reif, Scholastic 5

Endangered

It is so quiet on the shore of this motionless lake

you can the slow recessional of extinct animals

as they leave through a door at the back of the world,

disappearing like the verbs of a dead language:

the last troop of kangaroos hopping out of the picture, the

ultimate paddling of ducks and pitying of turtledoves

and, his bell tolling in the distance, the final goat.

Billy Collins

Try this:

• For 2-3 minutes, write as quickly as you can about any experience this poem brings to mind for you.

• Borrow any line from this poem and write for 2-3 minutes, letting the line lead your thinking.

Sam Grumont: Quickwrites compiled Adapted idea from 100 quickwrites by Liinda Reif, Scholastic 6

He Shaved His Head

He shaved his head to release his imagination.

He did it to get a tattoo on his shiny head.

He did it to lose his normality.

He did it to become a freak.

He did it because he was angry.

He did it to make people angry.

He did it for himself.

Rene Ruiz from You Hear Me?

Edited by Betsy Franco3

Try this:

􀂃 For 2-3 minutes, write as quickly as you can all that this poem brings to mind for you.

􀂃 Borrow any line and write as quickly and as specifically as you can all that comes to

mind, letting the line lead your thinking.

􀂃 Change the pronoun “he” to the first person “I,” and the second person “you” or the

third person “she”, and write about something that person did, and why, as quickly and

as specifically as you can.

3 From Linda Rief, 100 Quickwrites, (2003) Scholastic

Sam Grumont: Quickwrites compiled Adapted idea from 100 quickwrites by Liinda Reif, Scholastic 7

Insanity

Hit!

Smash

Guts,

Crush heads.

Break

Legs,

Arms,

Backs.

Men

In stacks,

All

After a ball.

Gaston Dubois from American Sports Poems4

Try this:

􀂃 For 2-3 minutes, write as quickly as you can all that this poem brings to mind.

􀂃 Write as quickly and as specifically as you can about any activity, trying this list technique.

􀂃 Write as quickly and as specifically as you can about whether you agree or disagree with

the title as a description of football.

4 From Linda Rief, 100 Quickwrites, (2003) Scholastic

Sam Grumont: Quickwrites compiled Adapted idea from 100 quickwrites by Liinda Reif, Scholastic 8

That Kind of Day

It’s that kind of day

and that kid of season

when the breeze is sweet

and the cool air calls

“Come out!”

It beckons the folks

who come out of doors

and wander about

pretending at first

to look for chores

although they know

they just want to walk

in the breeze and the pale

sunlight

it’s that kind of day

Eloise Greenfield5

Try this:

• For 2-3 minutes, write as quickly as you can about any experience this poem brings to mind for you.

• Borrow any line from this poem and write as quickly as you can all that the line brings to mind, letting the line

lead your thinking.

5 5 From Linda Rief, 100 Quickwrites, (2003) Scholastic

Sam Grumont: Quickwrites compiled Adapted idea from 100 quickwrites by Liinda Reif, Scholastic 9

Jen

I asked you to dance,

But you were still crying.

I gave you a rose,

But you were still depressed.

I gave you a teddy bear,

But you never received it.

I gave you a porcelain

unicorn,

But you were still broken up.

I tried to be nice,

I tried to comfort you,

I tried to help you,

But none of it worked

So I cried.

And you don’t know

How much it would mean to

me

Just to see you,

Smile.

Jeff B.

Linda Rief: 100Quickwrites6

Try this:

• For 2–3 minutes, write as quickly as you can about any experience this brings to mind

for you.

• Borrow any line from this poem and write for 2–3 minutes, letting the line lead

your thinking.

6 6 6 From Linda Rief, 100 Quickwrites, (2003) Scholastic

Sam Grumont: Quickwrites compiled Adapted idea from 100 quickwrites by Liinda Reif, Scholastic 10

Knoxville, Tennessee

I always like summer

best

you can eat fresh corn

from daddy’s garden

and okra

and greens

and cabbage

and lots of

barbeque

and buttermilk

and homemade ice-cream

at the church picnic

and listen to

gospel music

outside

at the church

homecoming

and go to the mountains with

your grandmother

and go barefooted

and be warm

all the time

not only when you go to bed

and sleep

Nikki Giovanni from Knoxville, Tennessee7

Try this:

􀂃 For 2-3 minutes, write as quickly as you can all that this poem brings to mind for you.

􀂃 Borrow the line, “I always like …best,” and insert a person, place, thing, event, season,

etc. Write as quickly and as specifically as you can to describe (in a list format, if you

prefer) all those things you like best.

7 7 From Linda Rief, 100 Quickwrites, (2003) Scholastic

Sam Grumont: Quickwrites compiled Adapted idea from 100 quickwrites by Liinda Reif, Scholastic 11

Rambling Autobiography

I was born after World War 2 in Woodend. I love chocolate and cake

and cream. I threw a lid of a can at Geoff Radford and split his head

open. We played with shanghais and had wars using acorns for ammo.

When I was in high school I was called up to the principal’s office

because a couple of us had set fire to paper on top of heaters in our

classroom. Tears slid down my face when I told my mum. One of my

students came up to me years later and said “I always remember you as

we had fun in your class.” Janet Hastings liked me but I was in love

with Diana Marsden. I attended confirmation class because Diana was

in it but she ignored me. I can still smell the leaves burning in autumn

when my father raked them into the gutter and lit them. I taught in

China for two years and had to block up holes in the kitchen where rats

sneaked in for a visit and feed. I hitchhiked to Cairns when I was 18 and

a truck ran over my bag beside the road and crashed into the

embankment and rolled over on its side. I love reading. I attended the

birth of Danielle in 1974 which was not so common then and I still see

her being born and remember thinking it was a miracle. I help my son

Zack at his pub in Guildford by washing dishes on pizza night. I

remember waking along the Seine river in Paris on a warm summer

night watching people playing music and people dancing the tango and

people demonstrating some form of martial arts and people eating and

drinking as tourist boats glided past.

Sam Grumont

Try this:

􀂃 For 2-3 minutes, write as quickly as you can your own “rambling autobiography.”

􀂃 For 2-3 minutes write as quickly and as specifically as you can about one thing this brought to

mind for you.

􀂃 If you’re stuck for starters, borrow any phrase and write from that, such as

• I was born at … during… when…”

• “…playing with shanghai…”

• “I can still smell ….”

Sam Grumont: Quickwrites compiled Adapted idea from 100 quickwrites by Liinda Reif, Scholastic 12

Remembrance

For my grandmother, Clarice Smith Chapman, 1914-1989

I remember… we collected wild strawberries

And made mud pies and built

Block houses and guided

Our cart down the supermarket aisle

And picked carrots and washed

Dishes and baked cookies and cut

Paper dolls and watched chickadees

And played checkers and ate scrambled eggs and

Took our time on the stairs

And you never told me you were dying.

I wanted the chance to say goodbye.

Lindsay O.8

Try this:

Think of someone you care deeply about (they might be still alive). Using Lindsay’s phrase “I

remember … we” and her style of linking one thing to another, write out the things you have done with

this person as quickly as you can.

Write in the same way using the second person “you” instead of “we”.

Borrow any line from this poem and write as quickly as you can all that the line brings to mind, letting

the line lead your thinking.

Write whatever this poem brings to mind for you.

8 8 8 From Linda Rief, 100 Quickwrites, (2003) Scholastic

Sam Grumont: Quickwrites compiled Adapted idea from 100 quickwrites by Liinda Reif, Scholastic 13

We Real Cool

The Pool Players.

Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

Gwendolyn Brooks 9

Try this:

􀂃 For 2-3 minutes, write as quickly as you can all that this poem brings to mind for you.

􀂃 Borrow any line and write as quickly and as specifically as you can all that comes to

mind, letting the line lead your thinking.