Poetry Preparartion

First of all, you'll have to make your own decks. You could try using index cards. You'll need four "decks" total: One with nouns, one with adjectives, one with verbs, and the last with any words you want. It will probably help your poetry to use words that are as emotionally evocative as possible, but you can create interesting poems with the most mundane words as well.

On each card, write a word near the top edge, turn it and write another near that edge, then flip it and do the same on the other side. You'll end up with four words on each card, two per side. However you shuffle or flip the cards around, there will always be just one word to read that is right-side-up. It helps if each deck is a different color. For example, blue for nouns, red for verbs, and so on.

Rules

1. Take fifteen cards from each deck. Shuffle them together, flipping and rotating them occasionally. This makes it possible for any one of the words on each card to land upright (these are the words used).

2. Deal out four words (cards).

3. Players each write a poem of four lines, using one of the given words in each line. Words are used in any form, so, for example, light could be used as lights, lighter, lighting, lit, etc.

4. After five minutes, poems are read aloud in whatever state they are in. If you want a competitive game, you can vote for the best poem. Otherwise, Deal-A-Poem can be just an enjoyable group activity.

Variations:

Endless: Try two-verse poems (deal more cards); shorter or longer time limits; humorous poems; romantic poems; rhyming poems; or simply use the cards by yourself to stimulate your writing; Deal-A-Poem has been used to produce published poetry.