 My name is Damon de Arundel. I am a poet and a teaching artist and today I have a poetry lesson for you. The title of it is imagery and imagination and I'll get into what imagery is all about. But the big idea behind today's lesson is beginning with a writing prompt that seems kind of weird or maybe even absurd can push our imaginations to new places and create more creative poems. So again, a writing prompt that seems weird or absurd can push our imaginations to new places and help us create creative poems. So where I'm going to have you start, and on my page here I've got two columns that's dividing up how it feels to be a young person today. I want you to think about what's good about being a young person today and what's not so good about being a young person today. And I want you to be as descriptive and as specific as possible because I know what it was like when I was growing up but I did not grow up. I'm a lot older than all of you. So what I know about growing up and what you know about growing up are two vastly different things. There was no internet, there were no cell phones when I was growing up, so it was a vastly different way of growing up and I want to, I want you to think about what those things are like. So some things are going to be universal, some things are going to be true just true. They were true for you, for you now and they're true for me when I was growing up. For example, growing up when I was your age a good thing was that I didn't have bills to pay. So that was something that was really good when I was growing up. I didn't have to focus on things like that. I didn't have as much but on the same end the bad part or one of the bad parts about being young today is that you don't have as much control over your life as you would like to. So think about the good things and the bad things for yourself. See if you can come up with five different things on each side, five good things about being young today or being part of the world today, five bad things or less than good things, things that you're not so crazy about being in the world today and being young in the world today. Just take a few minutes and as you're coming up with things on the bad list this can also be more focused on like what's wrong with the world today. It doesn't have to be totally focused on being young. But maybe a good thing about being young today is that you're already used to lots of amazing technology and it's a real part of your life. There wasn't Instagram when I was growing up but it exists now. TikTok didn't exist when I was growing up but it exists, it exists now. So again take another minute to come up with a couple more good things about being young today and a couple things that aren't so great about being young in today's world. So a couple more things that I wrote down. You have access to so much more information than I did. It was literally at your fingertips Google exists as opposed to what I had to do was look up things in the encyclopedia or go to the library. I had to physically leave my house to go get information whereas for a lot of you it's so much more accessible. But on the flip side of that you grow up so much faster. It's harder I think to be a kid these days but at the same time I don't know what it's like to be a young person. I know what it's like to be a young person in my era in the 70s 80s and early 90s but I don't know what it's like to be a young person in 2020. I have an idea but I don't know. Imagery is writing that helps our readers to understand and experience so what something looks like what something sounds like what it feels like what it smells like what it tastes like. Imagery brings these things to life for a reader so that they can better understand what you the writer are experiencing. For example there's a big difference between saying that something that the weather outside is nice compared to it was a bright sunny day out without a cloud in the sky. It felt like the world was sitting on top of me and smiling. Imagery helps to bring things to life so that the reader can experience them. We're going to really dive into our imaginations here in a different way and this is probably going to seem kind of weird but that's also what I like about it. I want you to make a list of five combinations of things that don't or shouldn't go together. Now this can be food, people, objects, animals, anything in a place that it doesn't seem to belong or two things going together that shouldn't be going together so cats and dogs playing together could be one or something in a place that it doesn't belong a barbecue at the Winter Olympics an elephant in an antique shop a car alarm in a library. This can also be some things that actually do exist but shouldn't like a shooting in an elementary school. What are five things in places that they don't belong or combinations of things that shouldn't go together? A lot of my students like to focus on food in this case things that they think are disgusting if you put them together that could be one of the things or several of the things that you come up with but try to make a variety of five different combinations of things that shouldn't go together or seem like they don't belong or seem out of place together five things and if you really want to if you find yourself stuck feel free to borrow from one of mine. You can use an elephant in an antique shop or what's another place in an elephant doesn't belong. What's another place that a car alarm shouldn't be or what's something else that shouldn't be law shouldn't be in a library. To take a minute see if you can come up with five different combinations of things that don't go together or shouldn't go together or simply don't belong. So again and sometimes my students love coming up with food combinations things that I've heard numerous times from numerous students peanut butter and pickles students spending the entire school day inside sweaters on cats weird to me fish in space so it could be anything but something that doesn't belong and we're going to use these combinations as ways to describe how you feel. Think about those days when things are rough and somebody asks you how you're feeling and you're like and you don't even know how to explain it or how to describe it. Um you can't quite find the words. These combinations could be ways to describe how you're feeling. So I'm going to give you the prompt sometimes being young in today's world feels like and then what you're going to do is plop in one of these combinations Being young in today's world feels like a car alarm in a library. I'm always too loud. No one wants to listen. No one understands. My voice goes over everyone's head and all they want is for me to shut up. Being young sometimes being young in today's world feels like a little kid in a horror movie. I'm terrified and I can't get out. All the adults are running for their lives but no one is thinking about me. Sometimes being young in today's world feels like a fire in the freezer. It's hard to get started and no matter how much of myself I put out there I'm never going to win. I'm the opposite of what should be like I was made to do something explosive but not here. So again the phrase is sometimes being young in today's world feels like and then you're going to use one of your combinations as a way to describe how it feels but then elaborate on it in the same way that I did. I didn't just say being young in today's world feels like a car alarm in a library and then move on to something else. I described why that's wrong or why those don't fit. This is where imagery really brings things to life. I'm describing my emotions. I'm describing what these things feel like to me. Sometimes being young in today's world feels like a little kid in a horror movie. Fear so I mentioned terror. I'm trapped. I can't get out. The adults are running for their lives. So use those four or five combinations that you came up with. I'm going to give you a few minutes to write in response and see what you come up with. Again sometimes I'll show it to you again. Sometimes being young in today's world feels like and then plop into place one of your scenarios one of your combinations and if you find that the combinations don't quite work feel free to just take part of it. Maybe sometimes being young in today's world feels like peanut butter. Maybe being young in today's world feels like being on the moon. Maybe being young in today's world feels like being in space instead of a fish in space. Go with whatever feels right and remember if you're writing you're doing it right. If this takes you off in different directions that's okay. The point is to express yourself okay. So again sometimes being young in today's world feels like and then go from there. When you run out of stuff to say about that particular combination move on to another. See how many you can do within the three or four minutes that we're going to work on this. Go ahead and start. A minute or so. However far you've gotten that's great. One of the great things about writing poetry is that you can always come back to it and start again. Build off of what you've already got. Change it. Edit it. There's no such thing as a poem that's finished. There's just points that we decide to walk away. You can always come back to it. So this is what I wrote. And this is again my opinion and my perspective of the young people that that I've been that I've had the pleasure of being around. Being young in today's world feels like a vaccine lost in a lab. I have purpose and I'm right in front of your face but you can't see me or hear me. Sometimes being young in today's world feels like sweaters on cats. I already have everything I need to survive and now I'm here looking stupid and constricted just so you can have a laugh. I wish I wish you'd just asked me what I need. Sometimes being young in today's world feels like peanut butter and pickles. I'm sweet, salty and sour. Beautiful at the same time but not like this. This time you're expecting something from me. I just can't give. And then the last one I wrote. Being young in today's world feels like fish in space. I have all this room to move but nothing to react to or bounce off of. It's cold and I'm alone. There's beauty somewhere off in the distance but it's so far I don't get to be a part of it. So again the point of all this is to give you an opportunity to write about and express how it feels to be a young person today in ways that maybe you haven't thought about before but needed to express. So thank you for joining me. Thank you for writing. I appreciate it and have a great day.