Instruction
1. Write a letter to a friend about your life, what’s going on, what you’re thinking about, etc. Then print it out. Once it’s printed, turn it into a poem by simply using what you’ve given yourself, but instead of sentences isolate the ideas into poetic lines. Where to break the line? That’s your decision. But remember, most poets break the line where they either want the reader to "take a breath" or to "emphasize a thought" before moving onto the next line. You might not want to use all the words, phrases and punctuation you used in the prose version of the letter to streamline your thoughts, but you certainly can.
2. Limón says that poetry gives “us a little way of noticing” the world that shows us there is “also beauty in surviving and living and even thriving.” What about your ”letter poem” describes your noticing the world? It might just be some small moment or state of being, like you see how the tiny birds survive the brutal cold by hunkering down next to the garage door in the sunlight. Describe that moment or state of being in a few words.
3. Ada Limón says she often thinks of all the “things that are good, that are worth living for, that make me laugh,” and that these DETAILS allow her to focus on the “microcosm” rather than the unyieldy macrocosm called “life.” Make your own list of what makes you laugh, what is worth living for—in other words, your own “microcosm.” These details may become future poems or flash fictions.