Year+8+Poetry+-+A+MArtian+Sends+a+Postcard+Home

A Martian Sends a Postcard Home
Craig Raine, 1979 Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings and some are treasured for their markings--

they cause the eyes to melt or the body to shriek without pain.

I have never seen one fly, but sometimes they perch on the hand.

Mist is when the sky is tired of flight and rests its soft machine on the ground:

then the world is dim and bookish like engravings under tissue paper.

Rain is when the earth is television. It has the properites of making colours darker.

Model T is a room with the lock inside -- a key is turned to free the world

for movement, so quick there is a film to watch for anything missed.

But time is tied to the wrist or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.

In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps, that snores when you pick it up.

If the ghost cries, they carry it to their lips and soothe it to sleep

with sounds. And yet, they wake it up deliberately, by tickling with a finger.

Only the young are allowed to suffer openly. Adults go to a punishment room

with water but nothing to eat. They lock the door and suffer the noises

alone. No one is exempt and everyone's pain has a different smell.

At night, when all the colours die, they hide in pairs

and read about themselves -- in colour, with their eyelids shut.

=Then, you need one of these documents - choose your format (doc or pages...)=

=[|PAGES]= =[|WORD DOC]=

=SIMILES and METAPHORS - How many can you find here?= =What's your favourite song? [|Find the lyrics] and see if you can find a metaphor or a simile.= =[|Have a look at some advertising slogans]. Can you find a metaphor?= =What's the school's slogan. Is it a metaphor?= = =

= = =**You suck.**= =I rock.= = I'm cool. = =// My head is killing me. //= = I laughed my head off. = =// You suck. //= =Can you think of a few more metaphors which are used in everyday life?=

METAPHOR POEM 1
= = =If you were a FLOWER or PLANT, which flower would you be? Why?= = = =Make this into a line of poetry:= = = ='I am a rose, pretty but pointed.'= = = = 'I am an oak tree, strong and unmoving.' =

=Now, try these:= = = =If you were a ...= = = =GAME= =ITEM OF CLOTHING= =PLACE= =FAMOUS PERSON= =FILM= =SONG= =MUSICAL INSTRUMENT= =SCHOOL SUBJECT= =FAMOUS BUILDING= =PLANET= =ZODIAC SIGN= =ANIMAL= =FOOD=

=...which would you be?=

=METAPHOR POEM 2 - THE JOURNEY= =THINK OF METAPHORS TO DESCRIBE THESE PLACES...=



















=Now, you have a choice. Write a poem (which could be free verse, or in ballad metre - you choose) about your journey - around the world, around Hong Kong, around your own home country, around the planets... whichever you choose. I'll be interested to see how lively and original you can make those metaphors...= =Present it along with images of the places you describe...=

= For those who want more of a challenge, try a description of a METAPHORICAL journey. Your journey from childhood to adulthood, perhaps... how could you use metaphors to describe that? =

=BACK TO Y8 POETRY=

=BACK TO YEAR 8 ENGLISH=