How to Write Poems About Vacation

Vacation poems are great ways to preserve memories, caption photos or get a good laugh. Some of the poems can be jotted down while you are actually on the trip, others can follow upon your return home. You can pen these poems with a few simple tips and a lot of imagination.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Pen and paper or notebook
• Vacation photos or keen memory
• Rhythm
• Imagination

1. Keep a notebook or journal, and jot down interesting vacation ideas, thoughts and scenarios while you’re on your jaunt.
2. Pick a photo or memory that really stands out in your mind, such as the way the crabs at night skittered from the beach back into the ocean.
3. Come up with a striking first line. "The white crabs, they skittered from my flashlight at night ..."
4. Build on the event, topic or imagery with three or four successive lines. “The same way I skittered from New York. The crabs, though, they didn’t board an airplane ..."
5. End with a punch. “... but find their sweet escape in rolling ocean.”
6. Break up the lines to reflect your inner rhythm and enjoy. Here’s the completed poem: “The white crabs / they skittered from my / flashlight at night / the same way I skittered from New York. / The crabs, though, they / didn’t board an airplane / but found their sweet escape in rolling ocean.”

Tips & Warnings

• Poems don’t need to rhyme, but getting a sense of rhythm is always helpful. Play with synonyms to get the right amount of syllables.
• Don’t rush. Some of the best poems take 10 years or more to write. As long as the idea is fermenting in your head, the lines will eventually come. Just make sure you keep notes so you remember key vacation points, like where you went.
• Don’t be sappy. A great example of a poem not to write would be something like: “Roses are red, violets are blue. I am on vacation, but sad without you.” Blech!