Observe like a Scientist, Write like a Poet
Observational Poetry
Something that I've always struggled with is finding a topic to write about. Once I start writing, the words starting coming out of my mind, but I just need a starting point to get the creative juices flowing. Observational poetry is one of those inspirations and it's as simple as sitting in your chair OR going outside. Observational poetry is an opportunity to understand your surroundings around you by making it into something new and exciting. Through multiple resources and ideas, I will inform you on some of the many ways you can become an observational writer!
1. Observational Drawing
Drawing not only helps you visualize what you want to draw, but it also slows down the process to help you think. It helps us notice all the details as we take time to draw them. Georgia Heard said it best, "drawing natural or ordinary objects helps them see poetry in the ordinary, small, and unglamorous." If we want our students to understand how to write with details, we have to teach them what details are. Helping grow on sketches of topics and converting that into a poem will help them notice the details.
2. Outdoor Sketching
Going outdoors can be our biggest inspiration. All you have to do is spot something and then start sketching. As we begin to sketch, we need to start labeling the things that we are drawing. This is where observe like a scientist and write like a poet begins to occur. As we observe things in nature, we are noticing the details of the flower or the leaf we have picked up. We start sketching the hole in the leaf or the way the flower droops onto another branch. This is where or imagination and poetic language comes into play. Start labeling the parts of your sketch as things that you feel, things that you are reminded of, things it looks like, and things it makes you wonder. Use these similes, metaphors, personification, and alliteration within your future poem. Without even realizing what you are making, you are creating a poem full of figurative language.
My Experience
Step 1: Find your inspiration outdoors. Look around your backyard, a park, or really anywhere that you choose to. Be creative in your choices. Find something that is unique or different than what you usually see.
Step 2: Begin to sketch what you see. Add details. Add what stands out to you. The only difficult part is that this needs to be a quick sketch. This doesn't have to be a work of art. It will inspire the art later on. Then begin labeling the sketch with your feelings, your observations, your connections, and whatever else comes to mind.
Step 3: Become a poet. Start crafting a poem from the sketch that you created. Through my experience, I started to see this unique plant as a way of life. There are so many attempts of growing, but sometimes that doesn't always occur. As you keep trying and keep building, you begin to flourish into something beautiful.
As the stem grows,
there will be
bumps.
There will be
attempts to reach out,
blossom.
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There will be
branches
grasping at a chance
so close to
flourishing
​
When the time comes
all the attempts
all the tries
become something beautiful.
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Growth is
fragility
time
and grace.
Growing
By Laura Swaringen
Using Your Senses for Observational Poetry
Keri Smith's text is a great guide on how to be an explorer during your writing time and life. She provides so many examples on how to inspire others in your own world.
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One thing that inspired me, was her explorations related to senses. Sensory poetry is something that calls for a lot of observations. You have to sit and explore your own environment and soak in what is happening.
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Below I will include three of her many exploration activities. She challenges writers to explore the environment by focusing on sounds, sight, and smells. These lessons may call for patience, but the creativity that follows from it can be so inspiring. You don't realize how much is around you until you give yourself an opportunity to explore it.
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Use these lessons as a guide to incorporate sensory observational poetry in your classroom, I know I will!
Observational Poetry ZOOM
This zoom lesson includes:
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Book talk about Forest Has a Song by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater.
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Mentor poems
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Guided writing instruction
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Modeled writing instruction
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Invitation to write observational poetry