Post your poem here!

Ahhh, poetry is in the air, and the Dalai Lama is in Ann Arbor (or he will be on April 20th!). Consider the prompts below and write a poem of at least 8 lines and post here by Monday, March 31st. We will submit some poems (with your permission) to a writing contest sponsored by Washtenaw Local Schools. All the prompts deal with themes found in the Dalai Lama's work: peace, compassion, caring for the environment, and kindness. You may use these prompts or feel free to explore one or more of these themes in your own way. Students will be selected to read their poems to the Dalai Lama himself on April 20th in Ann Arbor and will receive free admittance to his discussion as well.

1. Personification Poem
Write a free-verse poem in which you personify a concept, such as Peace, Compassion, Sustainability (Caring for the Environment) or Kindness. First, describe the notion as a physical entity that has form, moves and, acts. Then have this entity do something, affecting your world in some specific way.

2. House Poem
Write a free-verse poem in which you discover and explore the great house of Peace, Sustainability, Harmony or Kindness. Describe the house from the outside and the inside. You may choose to make something happen between you and the resident of this house.

3. Landscape Poem
Write a free-verse poem that describes the country know far and wide as Peace or as Harmony, or as Sustainability or as Kindness. Describe the landscape from an airplane window view. Describe it from the on-the-ground view. Have the place change you in some way.

4. Transformation Poem
Write a free-verse poem in which the world as you know it becomes transformed by Peace, Kindness, Sustainability or Harmony. Describe what happens in the international world, the world around you and in your own personal life.