Personal Stories (continued)

If you completed your homework on History as Heartbeat please write a poem inspired by your research. You can write about:

• An ancestor who has always interested you
• Research historical events that took place during an ancestor's life
• Write about an incident/anecdote you learned about
• You can tell a story that has survived in your family via oral tradition
• You can focus on names, dates, etc. etc.

AND/OR

Try this exercise...
(I would like you to do both eventually)

Memory and Imagination

Memory is the source of imagination. What we think of, regardless of how imaginative or whimsical, is in one way or another based on what we know. The inventive use of memory is an integral aspect of the creative process. We all remember things differently, so the very act of reconstructing the past is always a creative one. The details we include and the details we exclude can help to form our own personal version of events.

Read

Theodore Roethle, "My Papa's Waltz"

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172103

Use an early memory for inspiration for a poem. Note how Roethke's poem "My Papa's Waltz" presents the speaker's memory of his father. What details help capture the child's perspective? Try to recreate similar details in your own poem. You can also write about a memory of something you couldn't possibly remember. For example:

• your grandparents' wedding
• your birth
• the creation of earth, etc., etc.