Three techniques to get pupils quickly writing original poetry using 2019 National Poetry Day theme - truth.

1. Exercise 1
Acrostic

2. Politicians
Light-fingered thieves of truth
In disguise, suited and booted and touting promises.
Expense accounts and tax breaks on their 2nd homes.
Speech-making leeches – corrupt to the core.

3. Exercise 2
I should like to paint…

4. I should like to paint the walls of my school with truth.
The inside of every church and mosque.
The slick sets of the TV news networks.
I should like to touch the feathered wings of honesty.
The rough scales of deceit,
The petals of broken promises – pull them off, one by one.
I should like to have heard the soft-spoken vows of my parents
The clinking of glasses – my sister’s first words
The welcome echo of ghost-days that are fading.

5. I should like to paint the…
The…
The…
I should like to touch the…
The…
The…
I should like to hear the…
The
The

6. I should like to find the…
I should like to catch the…
I should like to break the…
I should like to mend the…
I should like to climb the…
I should like to hide the…

7. Exercise 3
I saw a peacock with a fiery tail

8. I saw a kind priest
I saw a grumpy teacher
I saw a sharp-dressed lawyer
I saw a worried doctor
I saw a powerful King
I saw a blind prophet
I saw a sceptical scientist
Adjective
+
Character
Stage 1

9. I saw a kind priest blessing a crowd in prayer,
I saw a grumpy teacher marking piles of books,
I saw a sharp-dressed lawyer strutting in court,
I saw a worried doctor staring at an x-ray,
I saw a powerful king passing a death sentence,
I saw a blind prophet predict the end of the world,
I saw a sceptical scientist clutching his lab results triumphantly.
Stage 2 - Complete each line by having the
Character do something…

10. I saw a kind priest marking piles of books,
I saw a grumpy teacher strutting in court,
I saw a sharp-dressed lawyer staring at an x-ray,
I saw a worried doctor passing a death sentence,
I saw a powerful king predict the end of the world,
I saw a blind prophet clutching his lab results triumphantly
I saw a sceptical scientist blessing a crowd in prayer.
Stage 3 – Move the second part of each line
up to the one above it…

11. Finally - Pick one of the lines and use it as a
starting point for a poem about truth or lies
I saw a kind priest marking piles of books,
I saw a grumpy teacher strutting in court,
I saw a sharp-dressed lawyer staring at an x-ray,
I saw a worried doctor passing a death sentence,
I saw a powerful king predict the end of the world,
I saw a blind prophet clutching his lab results triumphantly
I saw a sceptical scientist blessing a crowd in prayer.

12. Oppenheimer
Stepping into the pulpit, his lab-coat seraphic,
He gazed across a sea of expectant faces,
Heads raised, supplicant, hungry for knowledge.
One hand fell to touch the freshly inked theorem,
The other made the sign of Pythagoras,
Fingers tracing perfect angles in the hushed air.
The benediction, ripe with logic,
Fell from his lips, streams of equations,
Chapter and verse. They swayed, suckled devoutly.
And clutching their clipboards, the congregation
Parted as he walked among them, hoping the hem
Of his garment might offer a brushed blessing.
He shone brightly – Shiva - destroyer of worlds.