Portraits

Begin by writing down the names of several people you know well and often come across in your home, school or neighborhood. Now pick one or two of those people and write a paragraph describing their physical attributes—how they look, sound, smell, move—in great detail.

Now use a few sentences each to answer the following questions:

• Where does this person hang out the most?
• What items do they have around them?
• Where is this person going?
• Who would they like to be?
• What is one wish they might make?
• Who might they ask for a favor?
• What you would like to say to them?

Read Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays.” What does the speaker admire about his father? How do you know?

Read Paul Martínez Pompa’s “The Abuelita Poem.” What story does this poem tell about the speaker’s grandmother? What might it suggest about the nature of writing portrait poems in general?

Read TC Tolbert’s “My Melissa,.” Whose portrait is this? What do you learn about the speaker? How might portraits be dangerous? How might portraits be a tool for survival?

Now write your own portrait poem, using the specific details that you’ve brainstormed.