 My name is Shelby, and I'm a poetry teaching artist. And today, we're just gonna sit down and write together. I'm really glad that we get to do this. So our theme is going to be, like you, I love, dot, dot, dot. So you're gonna be writing about things that you love today and gonna be writing about what you believe about the world. And the only thing that you're gonna need to do this free writing activity is something to write with, pencil, pen, whatever you want, piece of paper or a notebook, something to write on. And in your free writing, you're just gonna get a chance to write sort of a spell for yourself, something to remind you of what you love in this world. Okay, well actually I need you to grab a couple more things for this one. Since we're writing about what we love, I want you to go find at least two random objects in your house that are things that you love. Could be anything, could be something random, you know, like your oldest stuffie, or you know, like a moon, the moon stuffed animal, something like that. It could be, you know, barrel of monkeys, that's what I think I'm gonna use, or mermaid toy, a beautiful bell that you have laying around, a very special stone, maybe even just like, you know, something you like to spray yourself with, something like that, just anything that you love. So gather around a couple of random objects and to get started, we're gonna do a warm up and I want you to just look at those objects, just notice some things about them and write a couple of words on your page just describing those objects, the color, the shape, the texture, anything like that, like that, just list it out, go for it, describe your objects. Once you've just got a couple of descriptions of those objects, now I'm gonna read you a poem that's gonna sort of be the inspiration for our free write today. This is a poem by the poet Roque Dalton and this poem is translated from Spanish and if you'd rather read it in its original form in the Spanish, there is a link available in the description to a video of someone reading it and the text version and if you'd rather do the free write in Spanish, there's gonna be a link available for those starting lines in Spanish as well. This poem is called Like You. Like you, I love, love, life, the sweet smell of things, the sky blue, the sky blue landscape of January days and my blood boils up and I laugh through eyes that have known the buds of tears. I believe the world is beautiful and that poetry like bread is for everyone and that my veins don't end in me but in the unanimous blood of those who struggle for life, love, little things, landscape and bread, the poetry of everyone. So inspired by Roque Dalton, you all are gonna write a poem that is sort of based off of Roque Dalton's poem. So the first line that I want you to write is like you, I love, love, life, the sweet smell of, and that's where you fill in the blank. What's the sweet smell that you love? Go for it. Courage you to try to bring in some of those description words from our warm up with the objects since those are objects that you love. Next line, I laugh like, dot, dot, dot. What do you laugh like? And it might even be cool if you picked a random word from your list and it might sound sort of unexpected and surprising. Like I laugh like a barrel of monkeys. I laugh like the softness of a teddy bear. Go for it. What comes to your brain? And let's keep writing. I believe the world. What's the first thing that comes to your mind? I believe the world is true, wild, real, kind, hard. Whatever comes to your brain. I believe that poetry is like, what do you want to compare poetry to? Maybe it's one of the objects on your table. Is for, who is it for? Is it for the bells? Is it for the fields? Is it for the fighters? Who do you think poetry is for? Write it. Keep writing. Your next line is, I live for. What do you live for or who do you live for? And this is gonna be a little repetition. Kind of repeating the start of the line for emphasis. I live for those who struggle for. Those who struggle for freedom. Those who struggle for another world. Those who struggle for joy. Those who struggle for games. Whatever it is, who do you fight alongside? Finish it off. I want you to add any last image that's in your brain. Any one more thing from one of your objects before writing the poetry of everyone so that your poem is gonna end the way that Roque Dalton's poem ended. Okay, we did it. You did it. You did it for your right. You did a form of magic. It's amazing. And I wish I was with you because I would definitely be asking you to share with me but only if you wanted to. And right now I'd suggest that you go and share this with whoever you're around or call someone on the phone. Share with them this poem that you just wrote. And in that spirit, I'd like to share my poem with you if that's okay. You know, and if it's not okay, you can always turn the video off, you know, you make the rules. Like you, I love, love, life. The sweet smell of a slightly burnt toast. I laugh like the wild flop of a mermaid I once met. I believe the world is whole, just whole. I believe poetry is like a smooth stone in my palm. Poetry is for creatures. I live for the memories of mothers. I live for those who struggle for our true names, the poetry of everyone. Thank you so much for writing with me. Again, my name is Shelby and I'm just really grateful that you're out there somewhere loving, laughing, believing, writing. It's a really brave thing to do. And I'm sending my magic to you wherever you are. Have a great day.