(upbeat music)
-: Hi, my name is Daemond Arrindell.
I am a poet and a teaching artist,
and today, I have a poetry lesson for you.
The title of it is Imagery & 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 gonna 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'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 you to think about what those things are like.
So some things are gonna be universal.
Some things are gonna be true, just true.
They were true for you now
and they were 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.
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.
Take a few minutes.
(upbeat music)
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 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.
(upbeat music)
Okay, so, 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 today.
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 an 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 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 gonna really dive into our imaginations here
in a different way.
And this is probably gonna seem kinda 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, (groans) 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.
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 that 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 in a library?
Just 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.
(upbeat music)
So again, sometimes my students
love coming up with food combinations.
Things that I've heard numerous times
from numerous students,
peanut butter and pickles, (groans)
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 gonna 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 (groans)
and you don't even know how to explain it
or how to describe it.
You can't quite find the words.
These combinations could be ways
to describe how you're feeling.
So I'm gonna give you the prompt:
Sometimes, being young in today's world feels like...
And then what you're gonna 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.
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 gonna 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 gonna 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 mention 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 gonna give you a few minutes to write in response
and see what you come up with.
Again, sometimes, and 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, 'kay?
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 gonna work on this.
Go ahead and start.
(upbeat music)
'Kay, take another minute or so.
Okay, 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 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 you'd just ask 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.
(upbeat music)