Republic of the Philippines

Department of
Education
LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET TEMPLATE
CREATIVE WRITING
Writing a Short Poem
Name of Learner:

Grade Level:

12

Strand/Track: HUMSS- ACADEMIC

Section:
Date: Sept. 20, 2021 (Introduction)
Sept. 21, 2021(Development)
Sept. 22, 2021 (Engagement)
Sept. 23, 2021 (Assimilation)

A. Background Information for Learners

This lesson tackles on writing a poem with various elements and literary
devices employed with its innovative techniques. But before writing, it is
important to know the principles and their reasons for writing. Congruently, it
is all necessary to inculcate the different writing process and identify the
techniques that an amateur writer may use.

B. Learning Competency with code

Write a short poem applying the various elements and literary devices
exploring innovative techniques. (HUMSS_CW/MP11/12c-f-10)

C. Directions/ Instructions
After going through with this unit, you are expected to:
1. Read and follow each directions carefully.
2. Accomplish each activity for the mastery of competency.
3. Use the Learning Activity Sheets with care.
4. Record your points for each activity
5. Try to work on your own, if guidance is needed you may call, text or
chat your teacher.
6. Major requirement in this subject is your safety.

D. Exercises / Activities
DAY 1
D.1 INTRODUCTION
a. What I need to Know
After going through with this unit, you are expected to:
 Realize the unique features of creative writing by noting the difference
between creative writing and technical writing
 Recognize the different specific forms of poetry
 Identify the different reasons, principles and writing process.
 Create short poetry of specific forms adhering to its structure and
 Republic of the Philippines

Department of
Education
characteristics
 ● Write a one stanza poem about a given topic following the steps of writing as
preliminary activity for the lesson.

Activity 1. LET’S ENERGIZE

Directions. Are you fond of writing? Do you find it easy to write or does it take time
before you could start writing? Below are pictures which may illustrate your views
about writing. Choose one picture that reveals your idea about the writing task, and
state your reasons. Here are some questions to guide you in this activity.

 Is it easy to choose a topic for writing? Do you prefer writing with a given topic?
 How do you prepare writing? Do you consider your readers and their interests?
 What problems do you often encounter in writing? Share your experience if any?

Picture 1 Picture 2

Picture 3 Picture 4
Activity 2. MAPPING OF THE MIND

Directions. Let us now assess what you already know about creative writing by
creating two (2) mind maps of words that you can relate with the concepts
CREATIVE WRITING and TECHNICAL WRITING. Make sure you will write at least
10 words/ phrases for each concept. Use another sheet of paper.

CREATIVE WRITING

TECHNICAL WRITING

Activity 3: TITTLE-TATTLE
Directions. Let us have a short chit chat about some tips of poets on writing poetry.
Read the two poems below, complete the table below by listing down the poets’
suggestions to new poets.

For Poets (Al Young)

Stay beautiful Commune with snakes
but don't stay down underground too & be the very hero of birds
long
Dont turn into a mole Don't forget to poke your head up
or a worm & blink
or a root Think
or a stone Walk all around
Come on out into the sunlight Swim upstream
Breathe in trees
Knock out mountains Dont forget to fly

A Good Poem (Tom Zart)

A good poem paints a picture A good poem like a cardinal

For both your heart and brain.
It doesn't need a second chance
To make its meaning plain.
A good poem is like the flower
The lily or the rose.
God plants it in a poet's brain
And there its beauty grows.
Is pregnant with song
You can't help but hear its
message As it sings what's right or
wrong.
A good poem helps us remember
What the joys of life are for
It makes us want to love someone
Till death comes knocking at our door.

For Poets (Al Young) A Good Poem (Tom Zart)

Reminders for poets Characteristics of a good poem
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.

4. 4.
5. 5.
 DAY 2

D. 2 DEVELOPMENT
a. What I Know?

Activity 4. “FRIENDS TO THE END…”

Directions. School is a great place to make friends-and friends can be a great topic
for poetry because we know so much about them. What WORDS come to mind
when you think about your friends?

Activity 5: “MY FRIENDLY POEM”

Directions. Create a poem for your friends. Use the poem “We Could Be Friends,”
by Myra Cohn Livingston as a model.

We Could Be Friends

We could be friends
Like friends are supposed to be.
You, picking up the telephone
Calling me

To come over and play

Or take a walk,
Finding a place
To sit and talk,

Or just goof around

Like friends do,
Me, picking up the telephone
Calling you.
Activity 6. “MY WORST POEM”
Directions: Poems don’t have to make sense to make sense. The poem below may
sound like nonsense. Note how the message is carried out. Try to write the worst
poem ever about something you feel strongly. Then, ask assistance from peers or
guardians to check and edit your work. This takes the pressure off of getting
something on paper. But, once you get over the stress of what to write and just start
writing, you will realize that your “worst poem” isn’t that bad at all.

From Arithmetic by Carl Sandburg

Arithmetic is where numbers fly
Like pigeons in and out of your head.
Arithmetic tells you how many you lose or win
If you know how many you had
Before you lost or won.
Arithmetic is seven eleven all good children
Go to heaven—or five six bundle of sticks
Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your
Head to your hand to your pencil to your
paper Till you get the right answer.
If you have two animal crackers, one good and one bad,
And you eat one and a striped zebra
With streaks all over him eats the other,
How many animal crackers will you have
If somebody offers you five six seven and you
say No no no and you say Nay nay nay
And you say Nix nix nix?
If you ask your mother for one fried egg
For breakfast and she gives you
Two fried eggs you eat both of them, who is better in arithmetic,
You or your mother?
 DAY 3

b. What’s In

Activity 7. “BARE YOURSELF”

Directions. You should bear in mind that the more honest you are in your poetry, the
better. This is probably the only rule that you should rely on all the time. If you’re not
honest with yourself in your poetry, no one else is going to feel anything genuine
when they read your work. It can be painfully terrifying to open up and honestly
express your feelings on paper, but that’s the name of the game.

Read the poem, “On the Grass” by Guillermo E. Castillo. Note how honesty is carried
out.

On the Grass

Dear God,

I read your advertisement in the churches

And I should like to have
A catalogue of the virtues that
I might possibly wish to own
And which will finally entitle
me To live with you
In heaven.

It is understood that
This will not oblige me in any way.

Yours very sincerely,

The Sinner

P.S. I am now living at

The Hotel D’Evil

But with that

The catalogue be addressed
c/o the village priest.
This time, write your own letter to God.

On My Own

Dear God,

Yours very sincerely,

The Sinner

Activity 8. “ON THE LINE”

Directions: Identify the kind of poem according to its number of lines and other
features.

Kinds of Poem Number of lines Other features

1. 3 lines 5-7-5 syllable count

2. 4 lines 7-7-7-7 syllable count
3. 3 lines 7-7-7 syllable count
4. 4 lines 8-8-8-8 syllable count
5. 5 Iines 1-2-3-4-1 words

Tanaga, Diona, Dalit, Cinquain,

Haiku
Activity 9: “SQUARE DEAL”

Directions. See if you can spot what is unusual about "Square Poem" by Lewis
Carroll, below. Once you've figured it out or have given up, mouse over any of the
words in the first line, or over any of the first words of each line.

Square Poem by Lewis Carroll

Here’s another example of a square poem written by Kristoffer Conrad Tejada, a

professor from Batangas State University.

ALL BOXED UP
Silence is the language of my heart,
is the song that was, and remains
the music of my solitary existence, the misunderstood
language of weakling- a nobody who just passes by…
Of all the things I love and hate, this-
my silence – what makes me me, so my cruel
heart remains misunderstood by this cruel world.

Write a Lewis Carroll-style "Square Poem". Lewis Carroll created his own version of
the Square Poem: made up of 6 lines of 6 words each, that reads the same across
or up and down.
 DAY 4
c. What is It?

Activity 10: “POETIC JOURNEY”

Directions. Read the short descriptions and examples of the specific types of
poetry. Then, try to create your own individual entry for each type.

Blank Verse
A poem of consistent length and meter but do not employ rhyme. There is consistent
meter in 10 syllables of each line. It is following the iambic pentameter pattern with
five feet in each line. Only the first line is written in trochee pattern. All the stressed
syllables are marked in bold.

Mending Walls (By Robert Frost) Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.
hat sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
nd spills the upper boulders in the sun;

Free Verse
A poem without standard rhyme patterns, line and length
Little Shelter Cat by Kelly Roper I walked into the shelter and looked around.

Out of all the homeless kitties, you stood out like a beacon.

I picked you up, and you purred and snuggled sweetly in my arms.

It was like we had always known each other, always been together.

I filled out the form, made the donation, and took you home.

You're a little shelter cat no more. You're mine.

 Haiku Poems
Traditionally, haiku poems are three-line stanzas with a 5/7/5 syllable count.
This form of poetry also focuses on the beauty and simplicity found in nature. As its
popularity grew, the 5/7/5 formula has often been broken. However, the focus
remains the same - simple moments in life. For more, take a look at these rules for
writing haiku. Now, let's enjoy two short samples.

Sick on a Journey by Basho

Sick on a journey – Over parched field Dreams wander on

Limerick
A poem consisting of five lines wherein lines one, two, and five and lines three and
four are rhyming.

(From “Othello” by William Shakespeare)

And let me the canakin clink, clink; And let me the canakin clink
A soldier’s a man; A life’s but a span;
Why, then, let a soldier drink.

Tanaga
The Tagalog tanaga, which dates back to 1500, has been referred to as the
Philippine equivalent of the Japanese haiku, but this is totally wrong. Tanaga is a
poem composed of four lines with each line having seven syllables, written in aaaa
or aabb, abba, or abab rhyming pattern. Tanaga have no titles. Below is an example
of a tanaga.

bango ay todo bigay rosas siyang donselya tinik na kapamilya

man lang mapugay living life at full pelt she is a rose so pure yet her own prickles
she just overlooks
 Diona
Diona is a pre-Hispanic rhyming poem of three lines with seven syllables in each line
expressing a complete thought. This diona serves as an example.

like a red apple each day I so long for you

to depart from me

Dalit
Dalit is another type of short Filipino poem, composed of four lines with eight
syllables in each line. It was very popular during the Spanish period, and the friars
used dalit to promote Catholicism. Here is an example of dalit.

why in a foreign tongue

you often bow, verse after verse but script of your own lips
you live hand to mouth

Free Verse Poems

Free verse poems are the least defined. In fact, they're deliberately irregular, taking
on an improvisational bent. There's no formula, no pattern. Rather, the writer and
reader must work together to set the speed, intonation, and emotional pull. Here are
two samples.

ormat of "Little Father" by Li-Young Lee contrasts "This is Marriage" considerably:

I buried my father in my heart.

Now he grows in me, my strange son, My little root who won't drink milk,
Little pale foot sunk in unheard-of night, Little clock spring newly wet
In the fire,little grape, parent to the future
Wine, a son the fruit of his own son, Little father I ransom with my life.
Cinquains
A cinquain is a five-line poem inspired by the Japanese haiku. Didactic Cinquain is a
very popular form of the cinquain because of its simplicity. Instead of incorporating
stress and syllables, it uses words.

The first line is one word which is the title of the poem.
The second line contains two words which are adjectives that describe the title.
The third line has three words that tell the reader more about the subject of the poem
or shows action. Many times these words are gerunds that end with "ing."
The fourth line has four words that show emotions about the subject of the poem and
may be individual words or a phrase.
The fifth line is one word that is a synonym of the title or is very similar to it.
Here are some examples of this form of cinquain:
Watermelon Watermelon Juicy, sweet
Dripping, slurping, smacking So messy to eat
Yummy

Acrostic Poems
Acrostic poems, also known as name poems, spell out names or words with the first
letter in each line. While the author is doing this, they're describing someone or
something they deem important. Here are two examples to illustrate the poetic
form.
Alexis by Nicholas Gordon
Alexis seems quite shy and somewhat frail,
Leaning, like a tree averse to light, Evasively away from her delight.
X-rays, though, reveal a sylvan sprite, Intense as a bright bird behind her veil, Singing to the moon through