M. Sauvé English
"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." - Jorge Luis Borges
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Social commentary poem revision exercises you MUST show that you TRIED each exercise. Don't worry about doing it 'right'. Be inspired by the main idea of the exercise, if it gets you writing and revising it's right. In the end, you control the content and craft of your final copy of the poem.

Step 1: Bring a copy of your poem to class and do the first set of 5 exercises
Step 2: Revise your poem and bring this next draft into the second class

You are ADDING on and revising.

Literary Techniques

Exercise #1 - Daniel, Mary, & Sabrina (Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" video and lyrics)
Find somewhere to use imagery - the imagery of everyday, unappreciated, taken for granted things to help you make your poem more figurative or less obvious, or from nature, cause you stop and look - th
ex. 
Legend has it that these rocks are the heads of forgotten ghosts / Walking among them feels holy, possessed /
As though in their thoughts, part of their history

Exercise #2 - Emilie & Justine (Neil Young & Joni Mitchell, Young's "Sweet Joni" video and lyrics)
Use contradiction and opposites like the quote "Shines like the sun / but feels like the moon"

Exercise #3 - wordplay using verbs, nouns that refer to the same process / experience, feeling you're describing
So look at your poem, find a place where you could add in a comparison, my example

Walking those waking dreamscapes / 
The ones I paint every time I remember where 

Exercise #4 - symbolism
Think about a symbol, an object that represents a bigger idea or concept. 

Exercise #5 - allusion 
Make an indirect or direct reference to a person, artwork, event, publication, artist, song, politician etc...,
my example 
Rinsing and renewing myself / The cycle of baptism and rebirth