I have a poster in my garage of Nelson Mandela which came from the Cape Town town hall balcony.  On the day he made his inaugural speech a friend living in South Africa at the time climbed up and retrieved the poster for me as he knew Mandela was one of the people I most admired.

During lockdown while playing ping-pong in my garage I sometimes look at the poster and imagine Nelson cheering me on.

This gave me the idea for today’s first exercise.

Exercise one: the conversation

Think of a person you admire, living or dead, real or fictional. It could be a well-known, public figure or someone known only to you.

If you have a photo, or can google one, you can use that as a visual prompt. You can also use a prompt or saying of theirs if you can remember or find one.

Think about why this person inspires you, what do you admire about them?

Imagine yourself meeting this person. Where do you meet? What would you ask them? Write a piece of dialogue between the two of you.

OR

If you prefer, use a fictional character you have created, write about meeting them and what you would ask them.

Exercise two: favourite things

Write a list of 10 things you like – eg objects, places, activities, people. It doesn’t have to be a top 10 list, just write the first 10 things that come into your head.

Now pick one of the items on your list and note down the following:

• How does it make you feel?
• What do your senses tell you about it (run through the senses of sight, sound, smell, touch taste etc)
• What words or phrases do you associate with it

Use your notes to create a list poem.

List poems – also called a catalogue poems – are structured around a list or inventory. They follow a simple poetry form that’s been around for thousands of years. They appear in lists of family lineage in The Bible and in lists of Trojan War heroes in Homer’s Iliad.

They include these elements.

• List or inventory of people, places, items or ideas
• Involves repetition e.g. of first line
• Can rhyme or not
• Not a random list, it’s thought out and develops as the poem goes on
• The last line should be strong, funny or important

Here’s an example

You have not crossed the bridges I have crossed.
You have not listened to the music I have listened to.
You have not been in the top of the World Trade Center the way I have been there.
You have not seen the waves I have seen.
You have not fallen from horses the way I have fallen.
You have not felt the guns on your neck the way I have felt them.
You have not been in the sea with a big storm in a little boat the way I have been.

Excerpt from ‘Don’t give me Advice’ by Luis Marin

More info about list poems here: