Task 1: Metaphor Poem

To complete this task, you will first need to visit one of the most wonderful sites on the web: The Children's Poetry Archive.

It is an amazing website where you can read - and even listen to - some of the best poetry around for children of all ages, and is well worth a visit. Click here to go to the site.

You will also need to understand what a METAPHOR is. Unlike a SIMILE (which is when you describe something by saying it is LIKE something else), a METAPHOR is a way of describing something by saying that it IS something else.

To help you some more, here are some metaphors about the wordvoodoo blog:

• The blog is an ocean of words
• It is a maze with magic at the centre
• It is a blank page waiting to be written on.

Confusing? If you need some help, try some of the following:

• Ask your parents or your teacher to explain it for you
• Download the two excellent worksheets on this page
• Look at these examples from a Primary School in Suffolk
• Try out this 'Metaphor Quiz'

If you STILL need some help understanding what a metaphor is and how to use it, just email me.

For your task this week, you will need to look closely at a poem called Time by Valerie Bloom. Click here to read the poem. Why not have a listen to the poet reading the poem aloud too?
I love this poem for a number of reasons:

1. Like some of the best poetry around, this poem is BOTH simple AND complicated. The language is simple and easy to understand - but what the poem is saying (about life, getting old, and the passage of time) is really serious and complex.
2. I also love the way that Valerie Bloom uses such wonderful METAPHORS - and I love the way they are so original. When you write metaphors, the most important thing is to try and create ones that nobody has used before. The best writing is FRESH writing.
3. Lastly, I love the way she uses rhyme. Her second, fourth, sixth and eighth lines all rhyme - but at no point does it seem like she is trying to FORCE them to do so. I talk to students a lot about THE RHYME TRAP: this is when a poet uses a word even if it doesn't make sense or isn't what they wanted to say - just because it rhymes. Valerie Bloom doesn't do this.

YOUR FIRST TASK on Junior Wordvoodoo will be to write your own METAPHOR POEM. And there are a few rules you must follow:

1. You must decide on a title for your poem from the following choices: home; the sun; happiness; my world; or grown-ups.
2. Your poem must be 8 LINES LONG. And, like in Valerie Bloom's poem, they should all be a similar length.
3. You should then think of 4 metaphors for your chosen topic, each of which, like in Valerie Bloom's poem, should last for 2 lines.
4. Your 2nd and 4th lines should rhyme with each other; and your 6th and 8th lines should also rhyme. If you need some help with finding rhymes, click here. Just make sure you avoid that RHYME TRAP!
   

Also, as with EVERY wordvoodoo task, you need to try to:

• be as ORIGINAL as possible, saying things in new and fresh and interesting ways
• have FUN with language, taking risks with the words and phrases you use.

Shortly, I will post my own attempt at this task, just so that you can see what I am looking for. Then you have a week in which to plan, draft, write and post your own poem.

All poems MUST be posted by 6pm on Saturday 13th June 2009.

Good luck!