Mothers and daughters (and grandmothers and granddaughters) celebrated national poetry month in style at our writing workshop April 6th, 2014 in San Francisco at The Booksmith. Instead of just sitting to write together, pairs roamed the neighborhood for inspiration and even left poetry "treats" for the public to find! To read some short poems from the group, follow our Twitter feed this month @TMWFI.
Each pair was asked to choose a color, go out in the neighborhood and then find things that belong in that color family, paying close attention to the sensory details. They were instructed to use the line, "If you want to find ______ (color)" at the beginning of their piece and again at the end.
"If you want to find orange go into the record store with the orange bike outside and look at the price tags peppered around the albums. Look up at the telephone pole and the orange Buddha's robe on the sign for the museum, and then across to the colorful rainbow painted on the side of the coffee shop. Up above sits the bright orange bucket on the fire escape, if you want to find orange."
-Casey, 9 and Maggie, her Mom
"If you want to find green you can look at the sign screaming, "Sale!". Notice the street furniture, the light posts, newspaper boxes and tops of parking meters. Or maybe you'll notice the spine of a bright green book on the discount rack. Or you can admire the trees struggling to survive in the sidewalk. You can see vibrant green in the tile of a street mural or on the vintage dress of a visitor, or you can take some money out of an ATM, if you want to find green."
-Natalie, 10 and Teri, her Mom