 My name is Shelby and I am a poetry teaching artist and today I just want to sit down with you to write. So I'm going to be inviting you to do a very special form of magic, literal approved official magic which is called free writing. And I'm going to guide you through a series of prompts and the only things that you're going to need are something to write with, you know, pen, pencil, whatever you got around the house, something to write on, paper, notebook, anything like that. And today our theme is writing home. And so the first thing that I want you to do before we start writing, I want you to go grab an object from your home that reminds you of home. Something that reminds you of belonging, of safety, something that when you hold it in your hand it says, I belong here, I'm understood here. So an example might be, you know, a special rock, something that feels good in your hand. Or you know, maybe like a weird toy that you've had since childhood that totally applies. You know, do you have like a random bell that you really love? That would be perfect. You could also, you know, choose like a stuffy, like this one that I've had since I was, before I was born, stuffy. Or you know, if you've got like the moon, okay. Now that you've got your object, what I want you to do, place it in front of you and you're going to look at it. And I want you to do a little warm-up, a little just writing on the page, whatever comes to your mind to describe this object. So first question, what color is it? Maybe it has multiple colors. Shape is the object, is it big, small, medium? Like how does it feel when you hold it in your hand? What word would you use to describe that texture? A little bit warmed up. We've gotten acquainted with our home object. I want to read you a poem to get a little bit of inspiration to write our own home object odes. And we're going to talk more about what an ode is in a second. So this is a poem by Francisco Alcarón. And it is called Ode to My Shoes. My shoes rest all night under my bed, tired. They stretch and loosen their laces, wide open. They fall asleep and dream of walking. They revisit the places they went to during the day. And wake up, cheerful, relaxed, so soft. So that was Ode to My Shoes. And as you might have been able to tell, an ode is when you write a poem that's sort of in honor of an object or a thing. So in this poem, the poet is praising his shoes. And the way that he praises his shoes is he does this funny thing. Have you noticed it? Because he's saying that his shoes are sleeping and dreaming and, you know, if we ask any random grown-up, they would say, oh, shoes can't dream. Shoes can't sleep. But in a poem, they can. And when that happens, when an object does something that usually a human would do, it's called personification. You can say that word out loud if you like, personification. It's really long. So that's what you're going to do today with your object. You're going to write an ode to it. You're going to praise the object. And you're going to do a little bit of personification. All right. So we're going to keep writing. You can stay on the same page. You can start a new page. And I'm going to write along with you. At the top of your page or wherever you are on it, I want you to write ode to whatever the object is. So I'm going to write an ode to the mermaid toy. Let's go for it. The first line of your ode describes the object. And you can use some of those words from your warm-up to get started. Go for it. Describe the object. And keep writing. The second line gives the object an emotion. So I just want you to imagine, how do you think that object feels? Is it sad? Is it tired? Is it wild, happy, joyful? Just give it an emotion. Go for it. Keep your pen or pencil moving across the page. The third line, I want you to describe the object doing something that usually a human would do. So maybe you imagine the object doing a dance. Maybe you imagine the object flying a rocket ship. Maybe you imagine the object laying down next to you in bed and going to sleep for the night. Maybe the object is dreaming like the shoes did. What's your object doing? Go for it. Your free right describes why you love the object. Why do you love this object? Why did you choose it? Why does it make you feel safe? Say why you love it. Last line, must have the word whole minute. So this is kind of a wild card line. It can be anything you want, but it has to have the word home in it. And if you're feeling stuck, you can just try home is and just finish that sentence and maybe bring in another description of your object. Go for it. Good job. You did it. You did a form of magic. I hope you didn't judge yourself too much. Just wrote whatever came to your mind. And I really wish I could hear what you wrote. I'm very curious about what your object is. And I really encourage you, if you want to go share this with someone in your house or call someone on the phone and share with them or over video chat or whatever. Even though we're not together, I want to share with you what I just wrote. Just see what it is. You know, I'm not going to judge it. Just going to read it. So owed to the mermaid toy. The mermaid is smooth, worn by age, blue, pink, yellow, flowy and flippy. The mermaid is lonely, missing a younger version of me. The mermaid sings and spits as far as I do with a watermelon seed. I love this mermaid. She reminds me I can be anything on sea or land. My mom is what my mother has given me. So that's my owed to the mermaid. Thank you all so much for writing today, for writing about home. It's a really brave and vulnerable thing to do to write about the things that make us feel safe. And you just wrote an owed. If it's your first one, congrats. If you've already done it, no big deal. Again, my name is Shelby. And I'm really grateful for you all to sit, for sitting down to just write. Have a great day.