"I Am Poem" Expectations

• Students will write a free verse "I AM" poem. They are given freedom, and not a prescribed formula, to write a poem capturing part or all about who they are. While this free verse type of poem does not limit you with rules and particular expectations, it will still require students to work hard at creating a poem that is beautiful, meaningful and vivid in its descriptions.

1. Poem reveals, in creative ways, part or most of who that student is. 

1. Students will be encouraged to use descriptive language, including proper nouns, adjectives, similes, metaphors, idioms, sharing of feelings/emotions, and vivid word images to describe aspects of who they are. 

1. Poem will be divided into independent stanzas at logical places. see the two examples farther below for how the two students wrote their poems with stanzas. 

1. The lines of poems do not need to be complete sentences, they can be phrases and at times just words. Poetry gives you freedom. You use few words to say much. See the poem example farther below: Yes, I Am a Teenage Girl

1. Poem ends in a way that wraps up the poem in a creative way and makes the whole poem feel complete.

1. Rhyme is not an expectation for this poem, but can be used if so desired. Keep in mind that the biggest challenge in using rhyme is to not be so lost on making the rhyme that your phrases end up not flowing together from one to the other but end up seeming like random, disconnected thoughts.Instead of making your poem richer, it takes away from the overall effect. 

1. In writing poems the rules of punctuation/capitalization are less strict, meaning you have freedom to choose how you punctuate, as long as the phrases and sentences don't loose the ideas you were trying to convey. Punctuation/capitalization at the beginning and end of lines are optional. Choose wisely! 

1. Student may write their poem around a larger theme that continues throughout the whole poem and which fits well with the type of person that student is. This is an effective and engaging technique. Below are examples of how this could look... 

• for one student it could be the theme of competition:

Whether it's in preparing and taking a test or during a soccer game

Why am I always trying to prove myself to be the best? 

I am stubbornly unwilling to give up on myself or on my team

I fight to the last drop of sweat, if need be

I will win or die trying!

it seems my whole life is one take after another 

repeating the same scene over and over again until I get it just right

sometimes the camera focused on my life is zoomed in up close 

as I unveil unadulterated and heart-felt emotions of frustration

the camera pans out to capture how I relate to this world

sometimes in harmony with whats going on

sometimes in clashing confrontation

me against the world

Sample I Am Poems

I Am…

by Pepper C.

Me, I am like a shooting star,

everyone cannot miss me,

I stand out with my hair and eyes, 

clothes and words,

yet I do not stand out in a bad way,

I stand out as a shooting star, a wonder to all.

Me, I am like a magnet,

always pulling things close,

in this case people.

I will never release what I grasped,

I have many friends and family I love,

I pull like a magnet, never letting go.

Me, I am me,

like a shooting star, like a magnet,

I stand out. 

I always accept a friend,

I’m special in my own way,

I’m kind and love everything,

I stick out, and am a wonder to all

Me, I am me, no mystery.

I Am Poem

by Saakshi M.

I am the ocean waves,

Rising and then dropping, again and again, 

making loud crashing sounds.

Making high and low tides.

I am the wind racing the world, 

flying faster and faster until I can fly no more 

and I hear the beating of my heart loud in my ears.  

I am trying,

Trying to cross the finish line,

trying to climb the mountain to see the valley on the other side.

I am trying to find light,

trying to find hope, in this darkness.

Sometimes I am very frustrated with my life.

With my clothes, with my hair, 

my sister, my parents, with my friends, with...myself.

I feel like an invisible cloak locks me up. 

I try and try to get out, it’s no use.

I am imaginative,

I can get trapped in a story of a book,

or lost in the jungle with a piece of paper I have written on.

For me, my life is a book,

my life is just a written story on a piece of paper,

I treasure that book and paper.

I am spirit,

a free spirit,

a brave spirit,

a hopeful spirit,

an imaginative spirit...

A WILD SPIRIT.

I am!