While reading the title poem of Zachary Schomburg’s Scary, No Scary, which on the surface is about revisiting a childhood home, I wondered to myself if it was possible that the poet was really trying to describe himself and using the “home” as a proxy. I followed this up by turning it into a writing prompt when I gave a presentation on “Hyper-Confessional Poetry” to the Creative Writing Club at the community college where I work.
I instructed the students to describe themselves as a “house,” what it looks like, what color it is, etc. I then asked them to go further and objectively explore this house in a poem or short story. I wanted them to describe what they see and what they feel when looking at themselves from a different vantage point, to be able to tell the story of themselves without getting ensnared by clichés and easy lines. Some wanted to go further and describe the disrepair, to talk about the rooms inside they are scared to visit.
When I’ve used this exercise in the classroom, even the students who feel they can’t write are able to produce something that is meaningful to them. Many end up wanting to read their piece to the rest of the class, which is always amazing in classes that aren’t strictly creative writing. I’ve seen it open dialogue and create bonds between students who see similarities in their “houses” without them having to come out and state what hurts or what scares them.
This exercise gives the students the ability to look at themselves in different ways and the tools to write personal poems or stories without giving way to “I” pieces that read more like therapy session notes. Of course, I’ve been able to use this same formula with substituting “cars” and “clothes” or even “watches” (with varying degrees of success!) for “house,” but it is fun getting students to challenge themselves and to challenge what they think are the boundaries of writing.
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John Findura holds an M.F.A. from The New School as well as a degree in psychotherapy. His poetry and criticism appear in numerous journals, including Verse; Fourteen Hills; Copper Nickel; Pleiades; Forklift, Ohio; H_NGM_N; Jacket; and Rain Taxi. A guest blogger for The Best American Poetry, he has won and been a finalist for various awards. He lives in northern New Jersey with his wife and daughters.