[Newspoetry] 20 Little Poetry Projects

[gillespie william k]

Twenty Little Poetry Projects
            Jim Simmerman

 1. Begin the poem with a metaphor.
 2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.
 3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in
succession or scattered
 randomly throughout the poem.
 4. Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses).
 5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
 6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
 7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
 8. Use a word (slang?) youUve never seen in a poem.
 9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
 10. Use a piece of talk youUve actually heard (preferably in dialect
and/or which you donUt understand).
 11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: "The (adjective)
(concrete noun) of (abstract noun) . . ."
 12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative
qualities.
 13. Make the persona or character in the poem do something he or she
could not do in "real life."
 14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.
 15. Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a
prediction.
 16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
 17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally
makes no sense.
 18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.
 19. Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).
 20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that
"echoes" an image from earlier in the
  poem.