Teaching artist Donnie Welch illustrates the steps involved in creating a descriptive poem made up of sensory experiences, memories, and emotions.

Vocabulary You Will Learn:

• Sensory poetry - A poem that describes a topic by using the five senses.

Materials You Will Need:

• A writing utensil
• A piece of paper

How to Write Your Own Sensory Poem

1. To start the poem, we’re going to use our sense of touch to write about what we feel. How does the couch, chair, or floor you’re sitting on feel? What about the clothes you’re wearing? Are you warm or cold? What else do you feel with your sense of touch? Write it down.
2. Next, let’s use our sense of sight to add the next line to our poem. What do you see around you? What colors and objects do you see in your environment or outside your window? Write this down.
3. Now let’s write down what we can hear. Think about both the sounds you can hear both closeby in your home and sounds farther away outside your home. Describe them in the next line of your poem.

4. For the next line of the poem, we’ll write about smell and taste. If you can’t smell or taste anything at this moment, you can use a memory. Look at what you’ve written about so far, and think of any memories of smell or taste you associate with those things. For example, Donnie is writing about a snowy day, so he writes about the taste and smell of hot chocolate.
5. Finally, we’re going to include some of our emotions in the poem. How are you feeling right now? Bored? Anxious? Excited? Grateful? Write it down.
6. Your poem is complete! Read it aloud to yourself or a friend or family member to see how it sounds! 

In this video, Donnie demonstrates how to write a poem about the things we are experiencing with our five senses. If you want to go even further, think about these questions: 

• Read over your completed poem and see how it sounds to you. Do you want to add any more details to the things you described in the poem or take any descriptions away? Do you want to edit the poem to make it rhyme?  You can play around with altering the poem in different ways and see what sounds best to you.
• At the end of the video, Donnie suggests switching things up in the poem – maybe starting by describing smell first rather than touch. Or you can write an entire poem by writing only about the things you see. How does focusing on different senses in different ways change the poem? 
• Donnie mentions that he felt bored and restless when he began writing; but by the end, after observing his surroundings, he feels grateful. Do you notice that writing about the things in your surroundings changes the way you feel?
• Have you ever written a poem before? If so, what was it about? How can you bring what you already know about poems to this lesson?

Accessibility

Don't forget that you can turn on "Closed Captioning" to view the YouTube video with English captions.

More about the Teaching Artist

Donnie Welch (he/him/his) is a teaching artist who runs poetry workshops for students of all abilities. The workshops integrate sensory play and movement, and operate under the belief: movement helps us understand rhythm, rhythm helps us understand poetry, and poetry helps us understand each other. For more on his work visit: DonnieWelchPoetry.com

Kennedy Center Education provides resources and experiences that inspire, excite, and empower students and young artists, plus the tools and connections to help educators incorporate the arts into classrooms and learning spaces of all types.

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Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Genesis Inspiration Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;

Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..

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