Create #15: The Edge of our Village

Here’s a poem by the American poet, Eve Merriam.

It’s very short  – just seven lines – and is an interesting and imaginative list of things you might find at the ‘edge of the world’.

What will you find at the edge of the world?

A footprint,
a feather,
desert sand swirled?
A tree of ice,
a rain of stars,
or a junkyard of cars?

Eve Merriam

Activity

I wonder what you’d find at the edge of your village? Look for smallest details (like the footprint and feather) and think of the village at particular times of year or the day (ice in the winter or stars at night).

Make a list of things you’d find, like a:

• bus stop
• bottle bank
• coke can
• Twix wrapper
• farm gate
• post box
• signpost
• a woman changing a tyre

See if you can add a word of description to each, as in: busy bus stop, flattened coke can, creaky farm gate etc.

Pick out your favourite things in the list and use them to make your own poem.

Here’s what I came up with – it doesn’t have to rhyme but Eve’s poem did, so I thought I’d do something similar to mine.

What will you find at the edge of the village?

A busy bus stop
a Twix wrapper
a flattened coke can.
A summer breeze
a creeky farm gate
a wheel and a woman by her van.

Once you’ve created your poem, please send it to us at mdf@suffolkartlink.org.uk so that we can post it to the blog site gallery for everyone to enjoy.

For this activity, you will need: –

• Paper, and something to write with or
• you could type it into your computer
• or use the ‘note’ function on your mobile phone.