Welcome to our fifth session together, creating poetry inspired by our homes and the objects in them.
Before we dive into this session’s poetry exercises, here’s a brief video to encourage you in your writing: have you ever been put off writing by the thoughtless remarks of others?
Three short videos follow, each introducing a type of poem for you to enjoy creating. After each video there are visual examples to guide you.
Please type your own poems into the ‘comments’ section at the bottom of this page. We hope you enjoy these writing exercises, and are really looking forward to reading your poems!
Session 5, writing exercise 1: Limericks
Write your own limerick
Limericks are almost like jokes, with the last line becoming the punchline.
To help you find rhyming words for lines 1, 2 and 5, check out the website, rhymezone.com. It’s an online rhyming dictionary and a great help for limerick creating.
Limericks can take a while to work through, so don’t be disheartened if it takes a bit of crossing out before it comes right. Here’s mine, below, along with the messy draft I did before I was pleased with it.
When you’re pleased with your limerick, type it into the comments section at the bottom of this session. Can’t wait to read it!
Session 5, writing exercise 2: Haiku (about time, eh?!)
Haiku poems have a strict structure: three lines, with five syllables on the first, seven on the second and five again on the third. Here’s an image to guide you in your writing.
You may find it helpful to capture your ideas on a mind map. Think about what you do at your dining table, and jot down ideas as they come. Here’s an example of how my mind map for this exercise looked:
Four lovely, inspiring little films Liz. THANK YOU so much for all you have put into this project. So many people, including myself have taken far more from it than we have given and whilst that balance is uneven it is taken with gratitude and love. Now to get on with a haiku (hurrah!) and a limerick – not done one of those since Edward Lear was a boy!! X
Thanks Keith – but I don’t feel the balance is uneven at all. Every poem contributed has made it a wonderfully rewarding project to be a part of. And – as with everything in life – it’s much quicker and easier to tell someone what to do than to actually go and do it! Every poem posted is testament to time, thought, hard graft and perseverance. They’ve connected us all in an unexpected way during this strange season – what a privilege to have been part of something so rewarding. Looking forward to reading your poems this week! Liz Jx
Oh I have a wee tear in my eye as I listen to you today Liz! It’s just amazing the world you have opened up for us. I love the poetry journal idea and in fact Ruth, who is a friend and so encouraged me to join the group, presented me on Friday with a beautiful notebook to be used as a journal for poetry. Isn’t that amazing! Thank you so much again. Really looking forward to this weeks poetry challenges. Xx
Oh, Irene, you’ve given ME a wee tear reading your post! That is so kind of you, and I know Keith and Jess will also be absolutely THRILLED to read how much the project has meant to you. Your words have expressed our hopes and dreams as we sat down, way back in November 2019, and began to discuss what sort of project we would like to run. And how AMAZING that your friend gave you a notebook on Friday – it’s meant to be! I’m really looking forward to reading your poems this week, and I am so very,… Read more »
I have indeed enjoyed this week. Challenged but have enjoyed it immensely again. I have sent my attempts this week to Emily in the eternal hope and gratitude to her for persevering with me as I have so many issues posting anything other than just a comment. Thank you again for the programme and your endless positivity and encouragement X
Liz is so right – your comments have made my day. You have inspired me to overcome my procrastinating and sit down and write my haiku and limericks. There was a dear friend from Scotland…. Thank you Irene. Kx
Well it’s sad to think we are coming to an end, but so happy to have had this opportunity. So thank you so much 😊🙏 it’s been amazing, Far better than I imagined 😊
so here a my poems for this week
Limerick Poem
Cleveleys gardener called Gail
She tried to grow lots of kale
She spread out the seeds
Grew lots of weeds
Turned round and got stuck in the pail
Gail 😊
Love it! Limericks really do work like jokes don’t they? Yours has a great last line / punch line! Thanks so much for sharing your cracking poems this week, Gail. I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed the course – me too! It’s been a treat to read your work each week, thanks so much – and I hope you’ll continue to enjoy penning poem here and there now that our sessions have come to a close – you certainly have a lovely way with words. With love and thanks, Liz Jx
My Haikus poem
It’s where we had our first date
Around the table
Dinner date at eight
Gail 😊
What a lovely little haiku – made me smile! Thanks, Gail, that’s a lovely cheery poem, Liz Jx
Hi Liz, thank you for such a lovely few weeks with your poetry. It’s been amazing to be able to take part.
This is my try at a Limerick.
There was a young lady who loved her garden
With flowers and fruits, and water sounds
There was nothing that could alter a pardon
Except for those who were out of bounds
This garden was her sanctuary
No one could do her harm
Pears, blackberries and the odd raspberry
Lures visitors with its charm
Thanks Tracey – this is lovely! How nice that you have water sounds in your garden, and I love that you describe it as a sanctuary. Thanks so much, Liz Jx
Thank you Liz, I have a water fountain which is soothing. I just love my garden, its got lovely colours in at the moment. x
Here is my Haiku poem.
What is a table?
Not food, but sewing and crafts
These things bring me joy
This is lovely, Tracey – so good to reflect on the things that bring us joy. Thank you so much for all your poetry over the weeks, I’ve enjoyed reading it so much! You have been so courageous in the things you have written about, and you’ve crafted each poem with such care and skill, it’s been a great privilege to read them. Thank you for sharing this time and your words, Liz Jx
Hi Liz, this came to me this morning. It’s a true story that happened years ago and that my neighbours still talk about!!! Lol
There was a young lady who was weeding
Who got caught when a frog jumped up
She leapt up in shock, when the frog went down her frock
And he came out the other end
Limerick – Time and Place
There once was a time and a place
Friends wanting to meet face to face
Sadly it wasn’t to be
Instead we turned to zoom reliably
And together produced something ace!!
Good one, Keith!
Haiku – Friendship matters
Friends pass through our lives
Filling our hearts with love
Stays with us forever xxx
That’s lovely, Keith – a moment of uplifting thankfulness – which is just what haiku was made for. Thanks for sharing, Lx
Limerick poem.
outside is place Calle the garden.
for me it is a burden.
the flowers they bloom.
the bees, they zoom.
and when I’m left with the dead heading,
I’d rather be shopping in Reading
Ha! Frankly, I would also rather be shopping in Reading than dead-heading!! I dead-headed a rose from a house down our street last week – it’s a holiday home. I thought I was helping, but I see this week the entire plant looks dead since I touched it… Eek! Thanks Brigitta, your limerick made me chuckle!
Haiku Poem
Playing cards with all
Winning, losing, having fun
No work to be done
This is lovely Brigitta – it’s almost like a photograph captured in verse! A glimpse of a scene, neatly put. Thanks so much for sharing, Liz Jx
A spoken-word recording of all the poems written during Time and Place from Irene Donaldson
https://soundcloud.com/dementia-diaries/irene-donaldson-from-stand
This is such an amazing thing to have done, Irene – thank you so much for taking the time to record these poems and your thoughts about the course. Your work has been a joy, and every poem you’ve shared has been like a gift that you’ve given from the heart. You’re right that it would be great to celebrate the work produced – I think Jess and Keith are thinking ahead as to how the work produced may be shared more widely – hopefully we’ll chat about this at our final Zoom get-together and it would be lovely to… Read more »
Keith Oliver – Our Dining Room table
Sitting at our dining room table
Transported back in time
Scratches and gouges denote sibling disputes
Writing articles and poems which strained to rhyme
Shared meals including Christmas feasts
Family gathered for a customary pre meal photo
CDs and books provide a colourful backdrop
Warm lights, flickering candles shimmer and glow
Love this, Keith – what a testament to family life your table is, and what a warm feeling you have captured. Thanks so much for sharing – and to Lucy for posting, Liz Jx
You are an inspiring teacher and friend Liz. Thanks again for the typing and posting Lucy. Kx
Here are Irene’s poems
Zooming every day
Seeing faces hearing news
The new food of life
Facing each other
Eating laughing resolving
Circle of our life
Poems drafted here
My hopes, fears, dreams, jokes and love
Laid out for others
How lovely, Irene! And a great record of some of your activity during lockdown. Thanks so much for sharing these beautifully formed haikus, Liz Jx
Irene’s Limericks:
Competition sunflower seeds from DEEP
So determined to make others weep
Seeds were planted with love
And good heavens above
Now so tall they seem never to sleep!
There once was a shy lass from Fife
Who wanted to live “The Good Life”
Decided to grow now her own
So veg and fruit seeds were sown
Slugs and bugs though made trouble and strife!
These are fab! Limericks really are an opportunity for a smile and a lighter take on life. Thanks so much for posting these, and thanks too to Emily, Liz Jx
Some voice recordings of poems from Melvyn Brooks, which have come via the Dementia Diaries line – thanks to Steve Milton for forwarding.
Space is…
https://soundcloud.com/dementia-diaries/melvyns-poem-space-is
Don’t get old
https://soundcloud.com/dementia-diaries/melvyns-poem-dont-get-old-1
Un-named poem about is garden
https://soundcloud.com/dementia-diaries/melvyn-reads-a-poem-about-his-garden
Another different take on his garden poem – to show Melvyn’s process:
https://soundcloud.com/dementia-diaries/melvyn-reads-a-different-version-of-his-poem-about-the-garden
Garden Limerick for week 5
I believe I have green-fingered powers
So I planted the seeds of sunflowers
After weeks they appeared
In the space I had cleared
DEEP from the soil that empowers
This is great! Thanks Frances, what a powerful, positive limerick, Lx
Haiku – week 5
Sewing and painting
Eating, thinking, writing too
Over-used dining table
A beautifully composed haiku – thanks Frances! Lovely to think of you doing all those things at your dining table. Thanks so much for sharing, Liz Jx
I’d like to add my praise and thanks to you all for setting this course for us to enjoy. i have
loved every minute of it and will follow your final advice to keep writing in a really nice notebook. Thank you
It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you and i do hope you are able to make the final zoom meeting at 2 pm today. Take care.
https://soundcloud.com/dementia-diaries/melvyn-reads-a-poem-that-will-resonate-for-many
Hi Melvyn, thanks so much for sharing your poem – you deliver it beautifully! How great that you feel so strongly connected with the poems of Wilfred Owen – testament to the power of poetry to connect us across time and place! And I also liked your poetic sign off: My dogs want feeding, and my bones are creaking – made me smile. Thanks so much for sharing, Liz Jx