Pam Webb

Shaping Up Poetry: Object Poem

Object Poem

1.  Select an object
2.  Explore it using the following questions:
What does it look like?
How or why does it look like that?
What colors do you see?
What do the colors remind you of?
What does it smell like?
What does it feel like?

3.  Here is a guide to help structure your Poem:
First it is….
And then it is like…
And then it is like…
And now it becomes…
and now it is…
And now it is…
And now I am …

Here is an excerpt from Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.  Listen for the comparisons and descriptions based on the poem guide.

This snail shell, round, full and glossy as a horse chestnut.  Comfortable and compact, it sits curled up like a cat in the hollow of my hand.  Milky and opaque, it has the pinkish bloom of the sky on a summer evening, ripening to rain.  On its smooth symmetrical face is penciled with precision a perfect spiral, winding inward to the pinpoint center of the shell, the tiny dark core of the apex, the pupil of the eye.  It scares me, this mysterious single eye–and I stare back.

Find an object and explore it through imagery, seeing it for what it is through expanding vision.

Related articles

• Gift From The Sea (arlene1956.wordpress.com)
• What Seashells Teach Us About Life: A Look at Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s ‘Gift from the Sea’ (hersilentmusings.com)