Twelve #verselove2019

Inspiration

What do you carry? In a day, in our life, we carry a great many things in a purse, in a pocket, in a bag, on our shoulders. Write a poem about the things you carry (or do not carry).

Note: This inspiration came from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.

Process Pointers

These can be concrete objects (chapstick, keys, sticky notes, lucky charm, crumbs, tissue, book, extra this or that- depending on your family or need for snacks) or more abstract things like emotions, self-doubt, secrets, what-you-really-want-to-say-to-someone.

To ponder a life beyond your own, try imagining what others carry (like your parents, child, loved one) or, if you have recently read a book or story, what does a character carry?

Try weaving in some sound and imagery techniques:

• alliteration (repetition of initial consonant sounds);
• anaphora (repetition of a word or phrase in successive lines);
• simile;
• personification — make an object come alive;
• apostrophe, talk directly to the object like “Oh, Chapstick, you are so waxy.”

Sarah’s Poem

Things We Carry

I do not carry a purse.
I grew up seeing the purse as a burden.
She who carries a purse,
she is the one
with the tissues, the gum, the bandaid, the comb, the quarter, the mirror, the safety pin, the wetwipe, the toy, the book, the snack.

She is the one
who rummages through the purse with every request from her children for
something.
And when she did not have “it,”
there’d be sighs of disappointment.
“No, honey, ” she’d say.

I just couldn’t carry that.  

Burden.

Disappointing others.

So I do not carry a purse.
And I do not ask for a tissue, a bandaid, a comb, a quarter, a mirror, a safety pin, a wetwipe, a toy, a book, a snack.
But I do accept “it” when my friend with a purse offers.
“Thank you, honey,” I say.