"Reasons Why" List Poem Exercise [VIDEO]

This is the "Reasons Why" List Poem exercise that gives you something to do with that case you've been building in your head all day.

You can use this video to choose any topic, then to write your first draft and revise it. I guide you through step-by-step and with examples.

We look at poems by Shel Silverstein ("Sick") and Matthew Olzmann ("Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem") and how they're using repeating elements to structure their reasons why.

In the video, I suggest when to hit "pause" to give yourself time to write.

It's important to let yourself get it all down on paper at first. Keep writing past the reasons that are obvious to you, get deeper into the good stuff that surprises you.

You will tap into that powerful energy of wanting to persuade or convince someone of something, and how to shape your list of reasons into a poem using various tools and strategies of poetry.

Watch the Video

Read the Transcript

Hello hello, today I am going to walk you through writing a list poem.

Throughout my day-to-day life, there are many moments big or small where I feel moved to explain myself, sometimes even over-explain myself or even excuse or defend myself.

Perhaps you can relate.

Sometimes this happens only in my head and it never even reaches the level of conversation but I will find myself kind of rehearsing these reasons in case I need them.

So i've been playing around with a poem as a way to need those reasons, even if it never comes to be interpersonally, a way to play with language in that direction, right. This is a it's a pretty powerful energy that we bring to language, this desire to explain or persuade or convince someone of something it's a potent, generative way to come to language.

And a poem can be a way to move through and express these little defenses that might never come to be, or be put into words otherwise. Okay so today i'm going to walk you through writing a list poem where you catalog your reasons why. Why what? Well, that's going to be up to you.

And I'll share two examples of these poems with you as well. This first poem was one of my favorite poems as a kid. The case that it tries to make is one that felt apt and relevant for my life. And I had a good portion of this poem memorized when I was a kid, in part because of the rhymes that it uses and the ways that that caught into my ear. This poem is called "Sick" by Shel Silverstein.

"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more—that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut—my eyes are blue—
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke—
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is—what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is. . .Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

Okay that was "Sick" by Shel Silverstein. Reasons why the speaker of the poem cannot go to school today. And the second poem that I want to share with you under this "reasons why," and our mentor poems for what we're going to write today, is a poem called "Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem" by Matthew Olzmann. And I love this poem as well, I have taught it a whole bunch and here it is.

And he's also changing what comes after that, right? Because you, because you, because when, because when... and then at the end of the poem there's that one last big item on his list: "And one day."

And his items on this list of reasons why, they're emotionally not all the same. Some are kind of landing more funny, some are a bit more moving, some are a bit kind of shorter and clippier, some of them are a bit more in-depth and complex.

And so that "because" is gathering them all up as these items of this list, and wrapping them into this "reasons why" poem. And I just love that poem, so I'm just excited to share it with you as well.

So the Silverstein is using an anaphora also, repeating at the beginning of a lot of the lines the word "my." That one's also using rhyme at the end of the lines to propel this list of symptoms forward, using the sound of the words to give the list its own kind of sense, even as the items on the list are becoming a bit more and more absurd.

And notice how this poem also includes a kind of surprise twist or turn at the end right where, there's all this tremendous energy that is coming that has that has been built up through the rhyme, and through the passion of the reasons why, and and through the anaphora, and then the whole thing becomes obsolete right at that moment where the "you" comes in: "what's that you say, you say today is saturday? goodbye, i'm going out to play."

And Olzmann as well is addressing the "you," throughout the poem. For Silverstein the "you" comes in right at the very end at that moment, and for Olzmann it is folded way more into it, the recipient of these reasons why is being addressed, this "you" in the second person throughout from the start.

So what I'd like you to do is make a list of cases, persuasions that feel really alive for you right now. Or that did once. Or that maybe they don't affect you personally, but they you're close to them or witnessing them and they've compelled you in some way.

So this can be like things that you don't want to have to do, like going to school in Silverstein's poem... things that you do want to happen, like in Olzmann's poem like making a case for like the success of this marriage. Or anything else that you feel or have once felt like really passionately about needing to convince or persuade someone of, or explain.

And I'm going to wait here for two-ish minutes while you make your list all right, so just jot these down anything like that—these cases of persuasion, things that you feel need convincing or persuasion that you feel strongly about—and just write them down and and then we'll get going again.

You're just making a brainstorming list right now so this can just be shorthand that will help you remember what these things are.

You're doing great, keep jotting them down. What's something that maybe you often find yourself rehearsing an explanation of? Or something that you often find yourself resisting wanting to do? Or often find yourself in the position of convincing others to to do or have happen? Anything like that, just write it down on this list.

Okay feel free to pause here if you need longer.

If you have made it to a brainstormed list of 10, that is awesome and super duper. If you're close, that's good too.

Now look back over your list, and with these things that you've written down, see if there's one that kind of hums for you in a different way, that feels like there's something there, or one that you feel that you could tap for that energy and write about more.

And circle that one, if there is one that speaks to you in that way. And if there's not, then just circle the third one on your list, whatever that happens to be. And that's the one you're going to work with for this next part.

So this next part, and we're going to do this in a couple of different stages. This first one is really just going to be your draft of writing a poem where you present your reasons why, one by one.

You're just getting them down on paper, tapping into that energy of whatever this one is that you've selected to work with more. Thinking about who's on the other end of this that needs to be convinced.

And as you write your reasons down, let each one perhaps reveal the next reason to you. At a certain point, you might feel that you have written down already all of the ones that are accessible to you easily, keep going. The fun part here will be letting yourself get to ones that surprise you. You might think already that you know all the reasons to rattle off, so write those down, and then keep going.

Start writing and see where it leads you. Just follow it. So you're going to write a first draft where you simply write down what comes to mind. Here you're going to let yourself get it down all on paper and then we'll keep going, okay? You'll come back and revise.

So, pause [the video] here and set yourself a timer for 10 or 20 minutes, depending on your speed and what feels right to you. Give yourself a little bit of time pressure of a container, but enough time to sink into this and get some things down on paper, okay? I want you to do this part right now, get some things down on paper. Now is a great time so even five minutes will be really really awesome, but if you have more time that's great.

Okay and when you're ready, we'll keep going here. Hopefully you have just hit play again after having hit pause, and given yourself some time to get your first draft down of pouring out your reasons why and writing beyond the part where there are reasons you already know and letting yourself be surprised by what comes after that.

So you have this draft now, and as promised, the reason why that it works to let yourself just have that first draft period of getting it all down is because you are coming back and revising! So let's do that now.

As you revise, and some people like to just start rewriting this again on another notebook page, some people like at this point to go move from notebook to typing and revise as you go. Or you could type up exactly what you have right now and then—or maybe you already typed your first draft— for this you can just copy and paste it right below that, to give yourself another version to work with. Or copy and paste it into a different document.

I like to just copy and paste it right below it, so that way all my versions are in one section. This means that you can always revert back to your first draft, or at least have the assurances that you can, which I think lets you get a little bit riskier in revision.

So we're revising now and as you revise, I want you to think back on how Olzmann used the anaphora that "because" "because" "because you" "because you" "because when" "because when" and how Silverstein used the my my my my and also the rhyme at the end.

Think about how you want to use some repeating elements to link the items on your list together and create a kind of music.

Another amazing thing about repetition is that it's not just repetition right, it's repetition that gives you room to change, to have other parts of your poem wander off and veer off or change up, or surprise the reader like with Olzmann's "because," sometimes it's "because you" and sometimes it's "because when" and sometimes the "because" isn't even there at all. So consider this.

There might already be some element when you wrote it down, maybe you just kind of fell into an anaphora, by nature of listing your reasons why. If so, that's great. Or maybe you don't really at this point have a repeating element in your draft in which case you may want to look for: what's something that's already going on in your draft that's interesting? Is there a word or phrase that you want to kind of play with keeping in the air a little bit more, and maybe bring to the foreground a little bit by repeating it throughout your poem? Is there a word in your poem that you feel for you is really key.

Or maybe was somewhere right around the moment where things got surprising and weird for you and went from being the reasons that you already knew to rattle off, to the ones that revealed themselves to you while you were writing? Some word that's centered around a moment where things feel like they shift in your draft? 

Maybe there's a word in there that you want to pull out that, that sound from that word, or something visual from that image there, and play with repeating that throughout your poem.

So that's one piece here of your revision, is think about what elements you might already have happening in your first draft that are repeating or that could be repeating and just get intentional about that.

And you can choose where you want to fall on the dial: a little bit goes a long way, or amping this all the way up, basically whether to pull this element throughout your entire poem wrapping it around it, or in different pieces and parts of it the these repeating elements can be a kind of a little flashlight, shining of attention to different moments or they can be like a really steady drumbeat throughout.

Also as you revise I want you to think about what's about giving your poem some twist near the end, whether it's a reason why that stands out from the rest of the reasons why for some reason. Or just that you go more in depth on that last reason than you do the other ones so kind of drilling in or deepening.

Or like in the Silverstein, some kind of situational surprise that changes the nature of what's happening in that poem, that made the the whole thing obsolete aside from the joy of having gone through the poem.

Or something else entirely.

But look at your ending. Because the thing about a list poem is you've set these things into motion, and so how are you going to... you're building this energy throughout, and what do you want to do with it?  What direction do you want to send it in? How do you want to get out of the poem?

So look at the end, and maybe that's a place to shift up or change any repeating elements that you set into motion. Or keep those in motion but shift something else about it or veer off in some other direction entirely.

And revision may mean writing new stuff at this point, or playing around with what you've already got, or some combination.

I'm so excited about your "Reasons Why" poem, your "Reasons Why" list poem.

And by the way, if you have already taken the "What's Your Poetry Magic?" quiz, Electric Owls, this is a list poem for you and Trilling Toad, this could also be an epistolary poem if you write it with someone specific in mind, who this recipient is of your of your reasons why, of your case.

So thank you you for writing with me today and take care. Bye bye!