Three True Things: A Poetry Workshop with Sarah Kay

She explained that “the format of a list helps your brain open up and allows you to release your brain of all the things you’re thinking about.” The goal is to be able to backtrack and see which topic is the most interesting. She taught participants that sensory details are the most important part of a poem. They are a tool that allows the reader or listener to use their five senses to connect with your piece. She described senses as things we can experience and understand differently from abstract language (time, life, love, justice, and power) and that ground us in a specific experience.  

Participants were then asked to write the word “regret.” Next, they were to describe what it sounds like, what it looks like, and what it tastes like. After that, students were asked to write what it feels like and what it smells like. This activity showed students that using sensory details as building blocks can help create the best poem.

Students then went back to the first activity completed and picked one thing they knew to be true. They were to then create sensory details explaining that idea further. They took a literal moment and wrote figurative language around it, to create a poem. 

Ms. Kay’s workshop provided fresh tools and new ways to think about creating poetry, inspiring all who attended. She has a real gift, and our students were lucky to spend some time learning from her.