The Poet's Place writings

My Family

Free write for 15 - 30 minutes about some childhood memory. Don't worry about form, grammar, or punctuation. The idea is just to get some ideas down on paper.

After you have captured your thoughts on paper, start tinkering with the phrasing to trim extraneous language, arrange specific images, and develop a rhythm that will help to convey your feelings to the reader. That is how you create a prose poem.

Next, take that prose poem and start adjusting line breaks to design a form that will complement your expression.

Freewriting:

When I was a little Bitty girl, mama and daddy taught me how to play the game aggravation, we’d play as a family, never taking sides, we
Laugh and have fun all night. Daddy me and sissy to throw knives. We got better throughout our lives. I loved being a little girl I felt free and happy because my family was great. Sissy and I fought quite a bit, but we loved each other and she’d always have my back.
She never let anyone beat me up, or let them say bad things to me.
We are now so very close, I smile when I recall those days, I love all 0f my family and all of their ways. My daddy was the king of the house, but he was the kind that ruled with love and respect for his family meant the whole wide world to him. Mama was the queen with beauty unmatched in my eyes, and sissy was three years older than I but she was a princess of the finest kind.

Prose:

My Family
By Lisa Noe

I was a happy little bitty girl, I had my family and they meant everything to me.
We spent evenings playing board games, like aggravation.
My father taught my older sister and me how to shoot and throw knives.
We are a very close-knit family, we love each other as you can dream.
My father was the head of the house, teaching and protecting us always.
My mama was warm and encouraging, she showed us love and pride.
My sister always took care of me, never allowing anyone to mistreat me in any way.

Poetry:

My Family
By Lisa Noe

When I was a little bitty girl, I was happy in my world.
My family and I played many board games
Kids nowadays don’t and that’s a shame.
My Daddy taught my sister and me to throw a knife
This is something we continued throughout our lives.
Daddy was the head of the household
He treated us as if we were made of pure gold.
Daddy and mama loved and taught us well
Now I am fifty and only time can tell.