Dream Makers Writing Prompt (3)

Daybreak in Alabama by Langston Hughes

“When I get to be a composer

I’m going to write me some music about

Daybreak in Alabama

And I’m going to put the purtiest songs in it

Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist

And falling out of heaven like soft dew.

I’m going to put some small trees in it

And the scent of pine needles

And the smell of red clay after rain

And long red necks

And poppy colored faces

And big brown arms

And the field daisy eyes

Of black and white black white black people

And I’m going to put white hands

And black hands and brown and yellow hands

And red clay earth hands in it

Touching everybody with kind fingers

And touching each other as natural as dew

In that dawn of music when I

Get to be a composer

And write about daybreak

In Alabama.”

1.     Write a brief prose piece about what your dream looked like in the past, or looks like now.

2.     What strikes you the most about the author’s use of senses? What do you see, hear, touch, smell, taste in this poem?

3.     Re-write your prose piece adding sensory detail.

Closing

After a few days re-read the three poems and your response to each. What comparison of your dreams have you experienced that relates to the models Langston Hughes gives in these poems?

Write your own poem.

1. Do you see a re-connection to the power of dreams in one’s life?

2. Which sense of voice at what age, or emotions, do you most identify with?

3. What is your new dream?

4. If a writer what idea starter do you see as a new project: picture book, short story, character, incident scene, or new research.

5. In whatever art or life form you have for a new dream to follow this year—what are your first steps?

6. Choose one step to do the first week of this new year.