"I am" poem

The "I am" poem is a way to create a poem while practicing grammatical structures that students can use to enhance their writing.

Come up with three objects you could use to represent yourself in the poem

Choose one. 

Come up with three pairs of adjectives to describe the object, think back to the metaphorical relationship to yourself as you do it. Write them as [adjective] and [adjective]

Experiment with the order of the adjectives.

Come up with three “ ing phrases” that express action (present participial phrase) What are three things this object can do?  Write this as an "ing phrase".  For example, if my object were a baseball, some possibilities might be:

• landing in the catcher's mitt
• sailing over the left field wall
• bouncing in the dirt in front of home plate

Come up with three noun phrases or descriptive phrases to describe the object (appositive)

Again, using the example of the baseball, these might be literal or metaphorical as in the third example here:

• a white stitched sphere
• a solid unforgiving orb
• the test of my abilities

Choose one or more from each list you have made to create a poem in this pattern:

I am a _________________

Adjective and adjective

Participial phrase

Appositive

End with a summary phrase that relates to the previous parts of the poem. 

Of course, feel free to change this up any way you want, to use more of any kind of phrase you want, etc.  The point of the exercise is to increase vocabulary, provide tools for working with writing and help students to think metaphorically, but sometimes the poems themselves are quite good.