Learning Resource

Mission: Write a Poem Using The Archive

by Laura Mucha

A white page can be intimidating. A white page can be so white that pens quiver at the sight of it. So, in order to write to a poem on the very white page in front of me, I’ve decided to use the Children’s Poetry Archive as inspiration. And I’m going to give you things to think about in case you want to do it with me...


STEP ONE: LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION

I make myself a cup of tea, grab some coloured pens and a notepad and open the Archive. I filter all the poems by ‘theme’ and decide to go for ‘emotions’.

I listen to and read each of the poems, jotting things down in my notebook – phrases that make me think or feel something, language that I find surprising or that I like the sound of, ideas that feel important, and anything else that comes to mind.

Try This

Look through the themes on the Archive and pick one – then have a read / listen to some of the poems. As you do, collect words, phrases and ideas that you find interesting.

I read over the list again and underline the phrases that really made me feel something – “Her words are scalpels”, “Out of place here” and “All you see is outside me”.

I pause and think about what those phrases mean, what they’re trying to explore – the power of words to hurt, feeling different or out of place and the distinction between what’s happening inside and out.

Try This

Go through your list of words, ideas or phrases and underline your favourites – what are they about? Why did you choose them? How do they make you feel? This might be what your poem will be about…

STEP TWO: PLAY

An important part of writing poetry can be playing. I remove the ‘emotions’ filter and give myself some time to have a dig around the Archive, clicking on whichever options I fancy. I jump about, half reading some poems, re-reading and re-listening to others. I don’t do anything because I feel I ‘should’ do it, I just explore.

Try This

Spend ten minutes playing around on the Archive. Listen, explore and pay attention to what you do and don’t like. Find a poem boring? Skip it. Love one? Listen again. Your job is to investigate ideas and try to see if other people’s poems spark anything for you.

My favourite words or phrases are:

 

I wouldn’t like to meet you when you’re hungry

His lips were icicles                                               Smaller than my baby sister’s finger

Thumb-size crocodiles snooze                             I’m like a knot

Everyone                                                                Everyone, except me.

 

I reread the list and the line that jumps out at me is ‘everyone except me’ and I realise I want to write a poem that repeats ‘everyone…’, ‘everyone…’, ‘everyone…’ before ending with that as the last line. It also fits with the theme of feeling different or out of place, which I was drawn to in STEP ONE above.

Question?

Of the words and phrases you’ve jotted down, are there any you especially like? Do you want any of those to be repeated in your poem? Is there a feeling, idea or theme you want to focus on?

STEP THREE:  GET ADVICE

I watch interviews with poets on the Archive to hear their top tips on how to write. Allan Ahlberg tells me that he likes leaving home and going somewhere else, preferably somewhere quite small, a little room where he can gaze out of the window, think of various things and occasionally write the odd word. He also tells me he likes writing on trains.

Jackie Kay, meanwhile, recommends having some space in life and not being too busy – she also finds a physical space like a room or a study helpful for writing, as well as empty, barren landscapes.

I don’t have a study and as I live in London, it’s hard to get to empty, barren landscapes. So I decide to head to a park nearby and go for a walk with my notepad.

Try This

Spend ten minutes listening to some of the interviews with poets on the Archive – how do they go about writing? Can you give one of their suggestions a try?

STEP FOUR: START WRITING

As I feel the steady clomp clomp clomp of my feet on the grass, my mind comes back to the phrase ‘everyone / everyone but me’. I’ve been researching and talking to child psychologists because I want to write poems about children’s mental health, and the phrase echoes an important topic that’s come up again and again – comparison. The phrase also reminds me of my own experience of growing up, looking at what everyone else had, and wishing I had the same – whether that was matching cutlery, a particular pair of shoes or a mum and a dad.

Question?

Is there anything you’ve been thinking, reading or talking about recently? Do you want to bring that into your poem?

In this phase of writing, it’s very important not to think about whether what you’re doing is any good or not. Some of it will be, some of it won’t. But thinking about whether what you’re writing is good enough can get in the way of that initial phase of creating.

I try to switch that part of my brain off and come up with as many ideas as possible – I try to make a gigantic mess before trying to tidy up. So during my walk, I write down ideas when they come to me, then write down more when I get home. Here’s the list:

Everyone here has a mum and a dad

Everyone here, except me.

Everyone here has a stonking great house,

A house full of things that are shiny and new.

Everyone here has expensive new shoes,

With buckles that glint in the sun

And heels that have barely been used.

Everyone here has sofas that match,

Cushions that are plump.

Everyone here has a smile on their face

Everyone here has gazillions of friends,

So many that they forget their names,

Everyone here loves the violin,

They play in an orchestra, dance at weekends,

Everyone here is a winner at sport

Scoring goals when their eyes are shut tight

Everyone here has a house full of smiles

With siblings who cuddle not fight

Everyone here has a house full of books

And read one in bed every night

Everyone here has a smile on their face

Everyone here is as fast as a []

Everyone here lives a life without sad,

A life full of flowers and trips to the sea.

 

As the poem is about comparison, I also write a list of ways a young person might compare themselves to others. Ideas include:

 

Nice holidays / adventure parks / lunch boxes / phones /

loneliness versus ‘popular’ people / LGBTQ+ /

others (e.g. sibling) treated better / unwell vs well /

physical comparisons and limitations / mobile vs immobile /

cleverer / not being able to afford proper school uniform.

Try This

We’ve looked at the ideas of others, but now it’s time to come up with your own ideas. Just write. Write write write write without worrying about spelling, neatness, or whether it’s any good or not. The aim is to make a mess with words and ideas. The tidying comes later. So get writing!

STEP FIVE: ORGANISING WORDS

I start trying to organise the words somehow, looking for sounds, patterns, or ideas I particularly like (or don’t). I do a lot of adding, cutting and shuffling. Then I do some more.

‘Everyone here has a mum and a dad / Everyone here, except me’ is the first phrase I think of, but I decide that should be the last line of the poem.

I notice that the phrase has four then three beats:

Everyone     here has a   mum and a   dad

tum tee tee tum tee tee tum tee tee tum


Everyone      here, except me

tum tee tee tum tee tee tum

So I decide to try and follow that pattern (or ‘metre’) throughout.

Question?

Look through the list of your own ideas – are there any lines you particularly like? Any that could be a first or last line? Can you hear any beats in them? Do you want your poem to have those beats throughout?

I reorganise lines, add more, then reorganise again. After lots of rejiggling (and staring out of the window) I come up with:

EVERYONE

Everyone here is a winner at sport,

scoring goals when their eyes are shut tight.

Everyone here has expensive new shoes

with buckles that glint in the light.

Everyone here has a house full of books

and reads one in bed every night.

 

Everyone here has a stonking great house,

totally poverty-free.

Everyone here lives a life without sad,

a life full of trips to the sea.

Everyone here has a mum and a dad.

Everyone here, except me.

Try This

Try to organise what you have into a poem, adding words or lines where necessary. This is only a first draft, so you don’t have to get it right. It’s just something for you to work from.

STEP SIX: EDIT EDIT EDIT

Over the next few days, I come back to the poem again and again and AGAIN and try and think about every single word, idea and feeling, checking that they’re all the best they can be. I do this about 15-20 times. I use the thesaurus A LOT. I decide it needs another stanza. I add one. I decide the stanzas are a bit long. I cut them. Then I change my mind and make them long again. This is what I end up with…

EVERYONE

Everyone here is a winner at sport,

scoring goals amid whoops of delight

Everyone here has expensive new shoes

that are polished – and never too tight.

Everyone here has a house full of books

and reads one in bed every night.

 

Everyone here has adventurous trips

to places that I’ve never seen.

Everyone here has gazillions of friends

and brothers who’ve never been mean.

Everyone here is clever and thin

and their uniform’s ironed and clean.

 

Everyone here has a whopping great house,

with chocolates and sweets guaranteed.

Everyone here lives a life without sad,

a life full of trips to the sea.

Everyone here has a mum and a dad.

Everyone here, except me.

Try This

EDIT. Edit. EDIT. Edit. EDIT. Editing is an ESSENTIAL part of writing a poem. It’s important to make sure EVERY word deserves to be there. Shuffle, chop, add, rewrite. Then do it again. And again. And again…

STEP SEVEN: KEEP WRITING

I usually know when I’ve finished a poem because I feel a sense of satisfaction, a full-belly sort of happy, like all the words have fit into place and it just feels finished. To celebrate, I make myself a cup of tea.

But that’s not the end. I soon find myself writing other poems on other themes that came up in STEP ONE. It’s as if the poems I read on the Archive added ideas into my general ‘poem pot’, only to come out unintentionally and unexpectedly at a later date.

Sitting down with an empty piece of paper can be daunting, so I often use something else as a starting point to generate ideas. It could be a trip to a gallery, listening to some music, or reading the poetry of others. And what better place to explore poetry than the Archive, a haven of ideas just waiting to be turned into a brand new poem written by you…

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