I have a very simple task for you to do today. The reason it is so simple is because I want you to take the extra time to get past due work completed!

Please complete one of the following poetry exercises today:

1. David Lehman wrote a poem called “The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke.” Pick a similarly everyday pair – butter and margarine, hot dogs and hamburgers, peanut butter & jelly, etc. Write a poem about the pair.

2. In the poem “Words”, Dana Gioia writes: “The world does not need words. It articulates itself/ in sunlight, leaves, and shadows.” Think of other things that don’t speak, and write a poem about how these things express themselves. How does an apple, or a spoon, or a house communicate, etc? What might it say? Why should we listen?

3. Write a poem where every line of the poem begins with the same word or the same letter.