Unlock Creativity: 23 Ideas for Teaching Poetry

Sometimes inspiration for writing poetry comes easily, as easy as remembering a favorite memory or looking out the window. Aaaaand sometimes when you’re teaching poetry to middle or high school students, they sit there looking for ideas wondering what to write a poem about.

They might wonder why, oh why their teacher is making them write a sonnet about a celebrity crush or whether they should focus on their mom or their dad for a family-inspired poem. Spoiler alert: sometimes our poetry assignments limit rather than inspire students. What’s the goal for writing poetry? Is it form before function? Iambic pentameter before inspiration? Or the other way around? Or both?

Whether you’re a teacher looking for a few ideas to “spark” creativity in teaching poetry or a student who is not sure how to get started writing a poem, this post should spark ideas for what to write a poem about.

Nature as a Muse for Teaching Poetry

Nature is beauty, tranquility, chaos, seasons, symbolism. There is a lot of opportunity for students to practice show vs. tell and using their senses to describe the sights, sounds, and scents of nature.

As you are teaching poetry, try reading some of Robert Frost’s poems: “Birches” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” or even “A Hillside Thaw.” Ask students to identify the sensory details and the overall message. Have them discuss what he’s using his descriptions of nature to symbolize about human nature.

Here are some ideas for student writers focused on nature:

1. Take students outside and have them write 2-3 lines describing 5 parts of nature they observe. You can have them also choose 5 man-made objects they observe to serve as contrast.
2. Take an aspect of nature, i.e. the sky. Describe it in 10 different ways, states of being (after the rain, on a 100 degree day, etc.), or from different perspectives (a bird, a child, eye-level, looking up, etc.).
3. Write a poem about a season, i.e. a poem for winter / about winter. has inspired poets for centuries, serving as a timeless muse that captures the essence of beauty, tranquility, and chaos. The landscape around us is filled with vivid imagery and profound symbolism that can evoke deep emotions. Consider writing about a specific season; the blossoming of spring can symbolize new beginnings, while the starkness of winter may reflect solitude and introspection. Use your senses to describe the sights, sounds, and scents of nature, allowing readers to experience the world through your words.
4. Have students describe something in nature and then relate it to something about the human experience. Drawing parallels between nature and experience helps students to develop a metaphor and layered meanings for the reader.

Love and Relationships in Poetry

Tip for teaching poetry: when students write about love, 9 times out of 10 it ends up being a mishmosh of clichés. Sometimes, students don’t want to write about love or crushes as I alluded to earlier (an assignment my son had to write about a celebrity crush). “This assignment sucks,” he said in frustration (right after I thought “this assignment sucks” in my head). How much cooler to write about love for an object, i.e. a sonnet for grilled cheese sandwiches or something quirky like that.

Here are two ideas for writing about love, crushes, relationships, etc. that don’t suck:

1. I suggest having students watch the slam poem “How Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog” by Taylor Mali. Then, have them write their own poems about how falling in love with _______, falling in “like” with _____, or falling in any other emotion is a lot like _________________ (choose a random action here). You may want to have students brainstorm 10-20 random actions or things people do in life before watching the poem and introducing the writing exercise so that they have ideas to choose from.
2. Have students consider the different facets of love other than romantic: family, friends, self. Have them journal about moments of non-romantic love that make them nostalgic (or any other emotion). i.e. the bond between siblings. Have students read “Song of Myself” or one of Rupi Kaur’s school-appropriate poems and write a poem of their own to celebrate a part of their identity using some of Kaur or Whitman’s words to get them started.
3. Read Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to My Socks” and analyze it together as a class. Then, ask students to write their own odes in Neruda’s style.

Here are my directions for the “Ode” assignment, a favorite when teaching poetry:

Here are a couple of examples:

Teaching Poetry to Explore Emotions

Poetry can be written to express feelings that might be hard to explore otherwise. Joy, sadness, anger, fear – these emotions are abstract concepts that can be defined through imagery, figurative language, and description.

Begin by identifying an emotion. Then, explore the nuances of this emotion: What triggers this feeling? How does it show up in your body? What does it sound like? What does it eat for dinner? What does it do in its spare time? What does it write about in its diary? What does it whisper in your head? These questions – serious and kind of quirky – will help you to write about and define the emotion.

Writing Poetry Tip: The more specific you are, the more universal you become because you’re creating connection and engagement on the part of the reader. Use vivid imagery, metaphor, and simile to give your poem depth. Talk about ONE moment vs. all moments. Make it unique to YOU. As you do this, you’re showing readers part of the universal human experience – we’ve no doubt all felt that emotion at some point.

Writing Poetry Tip: Playing around with form can help to express and show the emotion. Consider varying line breaks, rhythm, rhyme placement.

Teaching poetry ideas for emotion poems:

1. Have students read “In a Station of the Metro” and talk about imagist poems. Then, have students choose a place and imitate the style and structure of Pound’s poem. The trick here is having students convey a dominant impression or emotion through word choice and tight, focused description.
2. Have students read “This is Just to Say” and ask them what emotion the poem is conveying. Then, have students write their own confessional poem that uses action and imagery to convey an emotion.
3. Have students choose an emotion that is less common than anger, sadness, etc. (i.e. self-conscious, edgy, etc.) and create a character for it like in the movie Inside Out. What would the character look like, act like, and why? Then, they could try writing a haiku that this character would write. For example, what kind of haiku would Ennui from the movie write?

Everyday Life as Poetic Material

Poetry can find beauty in even the most ordinary moments. I think of Ted Kooser as an ordinary moment poet. He takes an ordinary observance and makes it come to life through imagery. Try using the following poems as examples: “Porch Swing in September” or “A Happy Birthday Poem” or “Flying at Night.”

Ideas for teaching poetry that honors everyday moments:

1. Ask students what their morning ritual looks like and feels like – does it feel calm, chaotic, or somewhere in the middle. What images stand out in their mind? Maybe it’s their mom in a terrycloth robe making eggs or the sunlight filtering through the window as they groan and hit the snooze button one more time. These ordinary images, moments can be transformed through description. If students are hesitant to write in poem form, have them journal about it, underline strong images, journal again to further describe these images, then divide sentences into multiple lines and stanzas.
2. Have students read Adrienne Su’s “After the Dinner Party” and write about what happens before, during, and after a moment of their choosing. As they write, ask them to explore the larger significance of the moment and to use a repeating idea as a motif.
3. Have students read Billy Collins’ “Cheerios” and write about a seemingly normal moment in which they realized something, big or small. Have them write to speculate about what others might say and what their inner dialogue is saying.
4. Have students read “Looking at Pictures” by Lawrence Raab. Give them the assignment of flipping through the photos on their phone or bringing in a couple of meaningful photos. For writing, give them some of Raab’s words to start with. For example:
   • “And this is…” (repeat this several times to describe details in one photograph or in a series of photographs)
   • “I keep imagining…” (follow this with self-reflection)
   • “And perhaps…” (follow this with a final reflection and a list of nouns)

Ideas for writing about interactions with others:

Interactions we have with others, big or small, can spark poetry writing: a conversation with a coach, a smile from a secret crush, the laughter over an inside joke, etc.

1. Have students read “When Giving is All We Have” by Alberto Ríos and write their own short (or long) spinoff using the ending lines to write about a personal interaction or moment: “you gave me ________ and I gave you ________ and together we _________.” Students can keep writing by including an image, a metaphor, dialogue, etc.
2. Have students read “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye and write to explore moments of kindness in their life.
3. Have students listen to the slam poem by Rudy Francisco, “To the Girl I Met At Starbucks” and write a poem to someone they just met or, really, anyone in their life – friend, family member, acquaintance. I think that the poem confessional stream of consciousness style works well for an acquaintance, but can be adapted.

To see alllll of my lessons and ideas for teaching and writing poetry, click here.

Ideas for Writing Found Poems

When teaching poetry, “Found” poetry is a really great way for students to express their creativity. All they have to do is use words and phrases found in real life – signs, ads, or even conversations they overhear in a public place – to write a poem.

1. Have students write down at least 10 things they hear in the hallway during passing period or before / after school. Then, they use part of these to write a school hallway poem. You can have them do this with a partner, too, and decide on an overall “theme” for the hallway found poem prior to writing.
2. In the style of Mad Lib poetry from childhood, give students one of your favorite poems – but not before you purposefully white-out parts of it. Make a quick key for each blank – what should students put there? Then, have them find a partner and interview each other to fill in the blanks and then read the poem with student responses included.
3. Book poetry. Have students gather words from an independent reading book by opening to random pages and pointing to a random word or phrase. Or, you can guide them in a more specific way, i.e. open to page three and write down the first noun or verb you see. Then, have students combine these to create poetry (adding in their own words if they would like).

Using Art and Music to Spark Poetic Ideas

Artwork and music (instrumental or not) can provide inspiration for poetry.

1. You can have students write poems to respond to a particular piece of art or song.
2. Write a poem inspired by a theme expressed in a painting or based on a line from a favorite song.
3. Have students create playlists in Spotify… the titles of the songs will serve, together, as lines in a poem.

Conclusion and Teaching Poetry Encouragement

There are so many ways to engage students in writing poetry – to consider larger themes, emotions, and stories. There’s no “perfect” way to write poetry – if students are allowed to be creative, to explore, to express their ideas, they’ll be successful! I would encourage you to write alongside your students and to provide opportunities for students to share their poems with others – even if it’s just a line or two. Poetry can be a powerful tool for connection in the classroom.