In an “inspiration poem” you must:
 |
Give credit in your title to the original poem and poet |
|
Keep similar line lengths and breaks |
|
Maintain the rhyme scheme (pattern) |
|
Use your own words |
|
Maintain a similar theme |
Sample inspiration poem:
original poem:
Mirror
By Sylvia Plath
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful --
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
Inspiration poem:
Kitchen Window
Inspired by “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
By Robert Keim
I am slightly rippled and dusty. I have an open mind.
When the light strikes me I pass it along
Just as it is, unwarped by affection and concern.
My honesty can overwhelm--
A gateway into the hereafter, a small rectangle.
Most of the time I stare into the empty room
Over the dishes, and at the children’s art on the refrigerator. I’ve studied them
And feel they are part of me, like a memory.
When the woman is cooking or washing I cannot see them.
Now I am looking out. A woman stands behind me,
Staring out to the horizon to find herself.
She turns to her family, the husband the children.
I see her true self, outside of this house.
I see her tears and her trembling and hear her sighs.
I am important to her. She gazes through me often.
Each morning searching through me I light up her face.
Through me she has forgotten herself, abandoned her youth
She can only dream through me, like a starving prisoner.
