Seven Poetry Games
Writing poetry can easily feel like playing a game. There might be just a few rules, as there are in many games, or you can change the rules and make up your own! In poetry, you are invited to play! Here are seven poetry games for all ages.
In this game, you don’t have to come up with the words yourself. Instead, you find them in another source, and choose which ones NOT to use. It feels opposite to how we usually write, which is part of the fun. This game is especially good for teens and adults, but can be appropriate for any age.
To play: Clip a column or paragraph from a newspaper or magazine or maybe an old used book. Using a black marke, black out all the words you don’t want. It’s helpful to box the words you want to keep before blacking out the rest.
To prepare: I like clipping horoscopes, interviews, and movie or film reviews, because they often have good verbs and descriptive words. The next time you’re in a waiting room, ask the receptionist for old magazines, which can be used for collage poems as well.
This game is especially good for young writers not yet comfortable putting words to paper.
To prepare: Clip images and words from newspapers and magazines. If you create a lot of clippings, sort them. Words can be grouped into nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Images can be separated into landscapes, people, animals, objects. You might also have large backgrounds and tiny elements. Put each category into a labeled envelope or baggy. I use TV time to cut out words and images.
To play:: Get out all the clippings, along with scissors, glue, pens and pencils. Start with a gluing surface, maybe card stock or cardboard (such as the back of a lined pad), or an index card, or a sheet of paper. Browse through the clippings and choose ones that appeal to you. Arrange them on the gluing surface. Decide if you want to add more or take some away and when you are ready start gluing. Write or draw whatever you want to add, perhaps to connect the words and images.
3. Shape Poems
Also called Concrete Poems, shape poems arrange the words in a way that adds meaning. These poems do not need to rhyme. A French poet named Guillaume Apollinaire is credited with inventing concrete poetry, by writing Il Pleut (It Rains), a poem where the words trail down the page like falling rain.
To prepare: Introduce this form by showing examples. Children love seeing how an arrangement or image changes the meaning of a poem.
Resources: Recommended books include: A Poke in the Eye: A Collection of Concrete Poems, collected by Paul Janezcko, excellent for young children; and Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems by John Grandits, excellent for older kids, though the ideas can be adapted for younger children. Examples online:
Swan and Shadow by John Hollander
To play: Start with a shape that reminds you of something, perhaps a special memory, a favorite treat or object. Simple shapes include: a popsicle or ice cream bar, balloon, birthday cake, heart or diamond. Draw the shape in pencil or find an outline of the shape online to print. Then write a list of words that describe your experience and associations, or what that thing means to you. For example, an ice cream bar might mean a day at the beach, or an outing with Grandpa. Then fill the shape with your words. When you are done, you can erase the shape outline if you like. Your words are now a shape poem!
4. Crambo
This is a traditional rhyming game that does not involve writing, so it can be played in the car. It makes a good warm-up game for writing rhyming poetry. And it teaches parts of speech! In a game!
To play: Player A secretly chooses a verb that can rhyme with other verbs. Then Player A gives the other player(s) a clue that rhymes with the word but is not a verb. For example: “I am thinking of a verb that rhymes with day.” Each other player takes a turn asking, “Is it ___?” For example, one player asks “Is it weigh?”Tthe next players asks, “Is it play? the next asks, “Is it say?” To each, Player A replies, “No, it is not ___,” until the right word is chosen and Player A answers, “Yes, it’s slay!” (or whatever the secret work is).
Variations:
1. You can play this game with nouns instead of verbs. You will notice that many words can be both as nouns and as verbs! You can also play giving a turn to each meaning of a word. So if someone asks “Is it beat?” and the meaning is to physically beat, perhaps a drum, then another play could ask “Is it beat?” meaning to beat someone at a competition or game like chess.
2. Silent Crambo is the same game, but players guess by acting out the word silently. They can say, “Is it…?” and then show that verb in motion without making aa sound. This version needs some open space and can be played with two teams. Team A chooses the secret word and rhyming clue, using the same number of syllables as the secret word. Team B then mimes each guess, agreeing on each word quietly together without planning how to act it out. Each team member shows their own silent version of “weigh” or “say” – whatever Team B chooses to act out. Team A answers, “No, it’s not weigh” or whatever word they see being performed, until they say, “Yes! It’s ___!” Dramatizing a word gives greater meaning to the word and results in greater understanding.
5. Initial Telegram
Telegrams are a thing of the past. You can introduce a bit of history by recalling times when people sent telegrams, perhaps messages of congratulations, or urgent bad news. It was a way to send a written message quickly. Telegrams cost by the word, so they were short and small words were left out.
To prepare: have paper and pen or pencil handy. A children’s dictionary will help young people find words that begin with a certain letter, and also gets them comfortable using the dictionary. (This doesn’t work with an online dictionary unless you can browse through the letters.)
To play: Choose someone’s initials, perhaps your own, or perhaps a friend’s or relative’s. or a famous person’s. Write a short message like a telegram beginning each word with an initial. Feel free to use compound and hyphenated words as if they were two words.
Variations:
1. Choose a book or movie title and use the initial letters to write an urgent message.
2. Write lines or sentences starting with each initial, instead of words.
Examples using the initials LBS, from my name, Laurie Block Spigel:
Let’s Brainstorm!
Lilies Blooming! Springtime!
6. Initial Haiku
Write a short three-line poem using initials to start each line. A haiku can have a syllable count of 5/7/5, but it does not have to exact, and can just be three lines that are short/long/short. A young child can create a haiku this way. Three short lines can even be dictated to a scribe who writes it down.
To prepare: Have paper and pencil handy. A dictionary can help locate words that begin with a certain letter. A Season Word list can help find words that indicate a season.
Resources:
Season word lists: https://yths.org/season-word-list/
https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/d22bc15ada2b14fa309f849c3fddab5f.pdf
Haiku lessons for K-12+: https://thehaikufoundation.org/learn/the-haiku-foundation-education-wall/
To play: Haiku is often seasonal. Think of a time of year that you want to capture, and a few key words that can indicate it without having to mention the season. Season words are called Kigo, and there are dictionaries and lists online of season words for the purpose of writing haiku. Include an action or sound in your poem. Let the final line can be a personal thought, or contrast, or surprise. Choose three initials to start your three lines, or you can write a haiku without choosing any initials.
Example using my name, Laurie Block Spigel:
Lingering rains pause,
Bringing birdsong to my ears.
Springtime refreshes!
7. Alliterative Animals
Alliteration is repeated initial consonant sounds. Stringing words together that have the same starting sound creates a rhythm. This is especially fun in nonsense poetry. For this game, make each line about a different animal and use as much alliteration as possible. You can add an additional element, such as a food or a color or a sound or movement in each line. This gives the poem more of a pattern. Example:
Blue bears burst bouyant balloons / Dancing dogs dine on denim duds / Red-faced rabbits roar at railroads.
To prepare: Have paper and pen or pencil ready, or use a whiteboard or large sheet for a group collaboration. Books or lists of animals, and a children’s dictionary, preferably one with plenty of illustrations, can help players find good words. Brainstorm nonsensical examples of alliteration together.
To play: List the three elements that this poem will have (animals, alliteration, and ___). Create a line together as an example, or as a first line. Continue making lines together for a collaborative poem, perhaps with each player creating a line, or brainstorming lines together. Or each player can make their own alliterative animal poem. Encourage silliness!
Resources: Alliterative animal books include Alligators All Around by Maurice Sendak (an alphabet book that’s part of the Nutshell Library), and books by authors Pamela Duncan Edwards, Brian P. Cleary, and L. Ottley Cobb.
Recommended Books for
Teaching Poetry
Wishes, Lies and Dreams by Kenneth Koch, uses children’s poems to introduce the idea of making poetry to young children K-6. A seminal book in the field.
Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? by Kenneth Koch, introduces great poets to children and teens, with inspired writing activities.
Books and workbooks by Paul Janezcko, including A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms, and A Poke in the Eye.
Scholastic Rhyming Dictionary by Sue Young.
Create a special home for your poems with a handmade book using