This workshop uses visual stimuli, in this example hundred-year-old photographic portraits of Native Americans in full traditional dress, as the basis for writing poems. Before I hand out the portraits, I do a brief talk about Native Americans, where they lived, some of their customs and lifestyle, what happened to them historically, and some of their religious beliefs. I back up this discussion with pictures of the land, the buffalo, traditional dress, traditional dwellings, etc. The older the students, the more detailed the discussion, including the status of Indian on reservations today.

After this talk, which usually lasts about fifteen - twenty minutes, I let the students choose a portrait to work on individually or in small groups of two to four. Before they write, I usually get them on their feet to do something physical, to get them energised. They can either imagine themselves as the person in the photo, or as the photographer documenting a disappearing people for history, or to imagine themselves as modem-day descendants looking at their own history. To get the students to think about using imagery throughout the poem, and truly think themselves into the world of the portrait, I ask them a series of questions. First they tear a piece of A4 paper into eight rough parts. Then on each section, they write the answer to a different question. The questions are:

1. What time of year is it [season], and what time of day [morning evening midnight, etc.]?
2. Imagine the world, the environment of the portrait, and then describe it in as much detail as you can.
3. Pick a colour, either imagined from the [black-and-white] portrait, or from the surroundings. Describe it, and be specific: for example, red as? black as?
4. Pick a sound that you think of as you look at the portrait, and describe it. Be specific. It can be an imaginary sound, a sound no one usually hears.
5. Pick a smell. Again, it can be realistic, or surreal.
6. Pick a taste.
7. Pick a texture - the grass feels like ? when you touch it.
8. Pick an emotion - you feel happy as if? Elated as? Anxious, etc.

After they've written the answers, they can put them into any order they like. They then either write the answers down verbatim, on successive lines, which usually works best in terms of vivid imagery, or they must use each image/answer in a poem that they then write by adding lines, making it rhyme, making it into an acrostic, or whatever they prefer.

I use the Native American stimulus because it seems to get more emotional, thoughtful responses. You could use any postcards/art/photos, and use variants of the same questions to describe the pictures in interesting ways.

© Cheryl Martin 

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