from Barry Lane's The Reviser's Toolbox ~ printed in the October 1999 MCTE News File Folder with permission
Alternative Writing Forms for Researched Information
The "How to" Poem
A "How To" poem is a list poem form which can be used effectively to play around with specific facts we have researched. Start by making lists about your subject, then order them for best effect. (Tip: Jokes come in threes. Try putting your surprising fact third.)
How to be Thomas Jefferson
Write like an angel.
Live in your mind.
Have your heart broken many times.
Declare all men equal,
and never release your 200 slaves.
Buy lots of real estate from Frenchmen
without looking at it.
Live beyond your means
and owe lots of money.
Never finish the house
that years later will appear
on the back side of a nickel.
Barry Lane
How to be a Heart (first grader)
Pump blood
Be the strongest muscle in the body
Don't stop
Have love in you
Beat fast in rats and slow in elephants
Don't stop. . .
Don't stop. . .
Don't stop. . .
___ Ways of Looking at _____
If you know the poem by Wallace Stevens called "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," you may enjoy writing similar poems to the ones shown below. Start by collecting facts about your subject then ask yourself what your subject might look like from different points of view. Make each line a new point of view.
3 Ways of Looking at Columbus
1. Great explorer
2. Bad map reader
3. Mass murderer
6 Ways of Looking at the Rain Forest
1. 1/3 of the Earth's surface
2. Giant medicine chest
3. Something to save
4. Oxygen factory
5. Lumberyard
6. Dreams up in smoke
4 Ways of Looking at a Fraction
1. Common denominators
2. Decimals in disguise
3. I want the big half