How to Write an Earth Day Poem

Writing a poem for Earth Day sounds like a simple task until you sit and ponder what to write about. Earth Day is a celebration of conservation, of living green, of nature and natural resources. Earth Day is a promise to the future and a commitment to cleaning up the past. With so many different ideals to choose from, creating the Earth Day poem means discovering what part of the Earth you are passionate about.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper
• Pen
• Inspiration

1. 
    

   Choose a subject that you are passionate about. Common Earth Day subjects include forests, mountains, streams, conservation, reclamation, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and ending pollution. If you are passionate about the Earth as a central mother figure, you might write about Earth Day as Mother's Day for the Earth and open with lines about considering what gift to give her this year.

2. 
    

   Choose a poem style for your Earth Day poem. Poetry can be written in metered or rhyming or free verse. Decide what style most appeals to you. For children, the five line limerick is a popular choice and it rhymes AABBA, with the first, second and fifth lines rhyming. Check out the resources for more on writing limericks and other styles of poetry.

3. 
    

   Free write the poem. Don't worry about rhyming meter or subject matter. Free write about the Earth, the sky, the stars, the air and the water. Just put a topic on a piece of paper and write down the words. Free writing will often generate wonderful phrases that you can incorporate into your Earth Day poem. For example, on Earth Day, we should all do our part and failing that, learn how to push the cart. Those words can mean anything, but the cart is either symbolic of something on the Earth or it is a literal cart that must be filled. So fill it with something.

4. 
    

   Edit for verse and style. Free write until you have a lot of different ideas and then put together the ones that work for you. Remember, you can have disjointed ideas in paired verses. For example: The rain falls like tears from heaven, I think of the world I will leave to Kevin. When the trees fall in the forest and no one hears, is it wrong that I think we should all cry tears. Disjointed ideas, but paired together, they work.

5. 
    

   Evoke images. Remember that poetry evokes images. Like the painting or the snap shot, a poem can tell a story or it can just make you feel something. Sometimes you want people to feel things literally like: Save the Planet and sometimes you want them to feel it subtly like: Remember Earth Day 2009. Provoking that emotion is the job of the poetry.

6. 
    

   Embrace humor. Don't be afraid to make the Earth Day poem silly or toss in a little slapstick. Frankly, humorous poems are just funnier and more likely to be remembered. On Earth Day it's a birth day for the planet we live on. Too bad we treat it like we live on Uranus and are Klingons. Silly, but effective.

Tips & Warnings

• Free write until you have the ideas you want to work with.
• Don't get hung up on the rhyming meter, sometimes words that sound alike are enough.
• Write poems with your kids or work together to write one.
• Enjoy writing the poetry and remember, write about what you feel passionate about and it will show up in the words.

Resources

• eHow Going Green Guide

[cadosh]

on 3/16/2009 Great ideas! 5*

[Smireles]

on 3/12/2009 Very nice. 5*

[jhill19]

on 3/12/2009 Good article, to the point! Awesome 5*

[williamfjordan]

on 3/12/2009 nice article ... 5*