INGREDIENTS:
1. At your worst, you are what?
2. One of the most memorable punishments you received when you were young.
3. Something you got away with.
4. A punishing last line you have hurled at someone else.
- - - - -
This is going to be a poem in three stanzas. I'll help you out with your first stanza, but you'll have to fill in a few blanks for the rest.
Stanza 1:
Line 1: Your worst self.
Line 2: The punishment and what you learned.
Line 3: What you got away with and what you learned.
Line 4: The punishing last line.
Stanza 2:
Line 5 (repeat of line 2 in stanza 1)
Line 6 (new line)
Line 7 (repeat of line 4 in stanza 1)
Line 8 (new line)
Stanza 3/Last Stanza
Line 9 (line 2 of the previous stanza)
Line 10 (line 3 of the first stanza)
Line 11 (line 4 of the previous stanza)
Line 12 (line 1 of the first stanza)
By the end of it, you will have a pantoum. Exciting!
* * *
This exercise was inspired by a moment in this poem.