Day 6 Specificity

It is through specificity that a writer manages to state universal truths. Paradoxical, yes, but true. Though not directly inspired by the Lyons poem, Marie Brandt’s Momma, Where Are You From? applies the same specificity in a children's book. Check out Illustrator Chris Soentpiet’s website for additional illustrations.

Visit Lyons’ website and read her discussion of how she wrote “Where I’m From.” Besides being a poem in its own right, Lyons suggests ways that “Where I’m From” can be a map for a lot of other writing journeys

Download a detailed lesson on how to use this poem as a model. Listen to (or read) NPR’s discussion of this poem as a springboard for a Crowdsourced Poem about Home. Also check out an anthology from various students.

Examine the following poem, paying particular attention to the specific details given.

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Where I’m From by George Ella Lyons

I am from clothespins, from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the black porch.
(Black, glistening it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush, the Dutch elm
whose long gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I’m from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I’m from the know-it-alls and the pass-it-ons,
from perk up and pipe down.
I’m from He restoreth my soul with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.
I’m from Artemus and Billie's Branch, fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger, the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments-snapped before I budded-
leaf-fall from the family tree.

 

Your Turn: Now, each of you will try to find images and ideas for your own "Where I’m From" poem! We will share.

  1. Think about items that you would find around your house/apartment/etc. That remind you of “home” or of a certain person/time in your life. Example: bobby pins, stacks of newspapers, grandma’s teeth in a glass.
  2. Items found in your yard/things you used to do in the yard: dog bones, broken fences, flashlight tag, a hose coiled like a snake. (Feel free to think metaphorically.)
  3. Items/People found in your neighborhood: The corner store, Mr. Tate’s beat-up Ford pick-up truck, the plum tree that served as home base, that crazy man with the weird hat.
  4. Names of relatives (or other important people) and/OR descriptions of things they did: Aunt Jane’s Jell-O salad, Grandma Sue’s biscuits, Uncle Ed’s silent stare, Aunt Judy, Cousin Leslie, the neighbor lady who always baked cookies for the kids on the block
  5. Sayings that you remember your parents always saying or that remind you of someone/something: “If I’ve told you once” or, “I love you thiiiiiiiiiis much.”
  6. Names of foods and dishes that recall family gatherings: black-eyed peas, that smelly broccoli dish that Aunt Elaine always brings. Also, rituals of holidays & family gatherings: opening one present on Christmas Eve, dressing for church on Easter Sunday, sitting on the curb for the Fourth of July parade.
  7. Names of places where you keep childhood memories: diaries, boxes, underwear drawers, the back of the closet, family Bible.
  8. Now, take your list and write a poem that incorporates the images you have collected.

If this is difficult for you, check out the template below. You can also download a copy of the poem and simple instructions.

Note: My assignment sheet has my own “I Am” Poem and a brainstorming sheet. Check out student samples from my ninth and tenth grade students.This project can be adapted to create “I Am” Poems as a final creative project for a biography research project and for research on a specific culture.

  • I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.
  • I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).
  • I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail).
  • I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).
  • I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).
  • From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).
  • I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.
  • I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).
  • From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).
  • I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).

Listen to Lyons read this poem.

Back to Poem-a-Day.

Updated 23 August 2023.