A minimum of six original poems, all different in style and form, focused around a single seed idea, from which your book should take its title. Have a specific audience in mind. (For example, my seed idea might be running. My title might be “Setting the pace: Poems for the shoulder of the road.” My audience would be other runners, including my son, who is training to run marathons and triathlons.)

Six poems (minimum)

• One strong in sensory images (include at least one simile)

• One that uses a metaphor or personification

• One that tells a story

• One that experiments with form, spacing of words, etc. (a concrete poem).

• Two of your choice

All poems should:

• be different, because you are trying out the different techniques we have been studying in class.

• show evidence of craft moves, which you may write about in your Author’s Note.

• show that you are making conscious decisions about your poems, from title to form. These decisions should have meaning and purpose, derived from your seed idea. This is what poets do.

Titles and page numbers

Each poem must have a title (which may be the first line, if you feel strongly that it should be). Pages should be numbered, centered at the bottom. Use these numbers in your table of contents.

Title page and Table of contents page

Use a poetry book you like as a mentor text. Make decisions with your reader in mind.

Comments page

Add a blank page at the end of the book, as in a yearbook, for reader comments.

Options –

• Illustration on your title page.

• A dedication

• Author’s note – about the author and/or about the making of this book

• Inspired by…. (under the title of a poem, if appropriate)

• Include one or more of your mentor poems, if it helped a lot and fits with your book.

• Illustrations or designs, hand-drawn with colored pencils, or photographs taken by you (or from your family album, not from the internet). Scan photos to insert into document.

• An unusual size or shape of your book

• Anything else you think of that adds interest to the book.

Poems must be typed or very neatly hand-written (a decision) on separate pages. Make sure you have all words spelled correctly and all punctuation, lines and spaces exactly as you intend.