Professional poets have different
feelings about free verse. Robert
Frost said that writing free verse is
like playing tennis without a net.
But many great poets such as
Walt Whitman and William Car-
los Williams wrote most of their
poetry in free verse, and e.e.
cummings didn't even use any
punctuation!
The directions are simple for free
verse:
1) Choose a topic.
2) Make it up! Free verse poetry
is fun to write.

down as people say them. Cau-
tion: if you choose a humorous
topic, these poems can get really
silly!

❑

Excerpted from Girls Know
Best 2: Advice for Girls From
Girls on Just About Everything!
(Beyond Words Publishing), an
advice and activity book writ-
ten by girls aged 7 through
15 for girls of the same ages.
This chapter, written by three
Michigan classmates, was one
of 20 chapters selected for
publication from more than
3,000 entries in a nationwide
solicitation. Books may be pur-
chased at local stores, includ-
ing Barnes and Noble or by
contacting Beyond Words Pub-
lishing, Inc., 20827 N.W.
Cornell Road, Suite 500, Hills-
boro, Ore. 97124 1-800-
284-9673. —

POETRY PARTIES
Now that you know all about
poetry, you can have your v e ry
own "Poetry Party!" Get a bunch of
friends together to read some of
your favorite poems and write poet-
ry of your own. One fun thing to do
is write a group poem together.
To write a group poem:
1) Sit in a circle with your friends.
. Girls Know Best 2, copyright 1998,
2) Decide on your poem topic.
Beyond Words Publishing. Re,printed
3) Have everyone write one line
with permission.
about the topic, with-
out showing anyone
else.
4) If you want,
everyone can make
their lines rhyme with
the same word.
5) Put all the lines
down on the floor
and arrange them
so they go togeth-
er.
6) Now you
have a poem writ-
ten by you and
111 4411 41:14
your friends!
Another fun
way to write a
group poem is to
have everyone
take a turn mak-
ing up one line
which they say
out loud. Have
one person
write the. lines

ESTc,SKS

CONNNCTION

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Watch Straps
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11/1 3
1998

Detroit Jewish News

89

