Photograph: Shane Rounce on UnsplashI use a poem of mine to show how a reader can trace craft choices on the page, then carry those observations into an original exercise.
Anicca (absence of permanence), by Shane Rounce. Author-supplied teaching excerpts.
This is an example lesson preview. It does not claim that the linked course plans have complete lessons or are open for enrolment.
Read the selected excerpts ↓I have selected short passages rather than reproducing the full poem. Read each passage once for its meaning, then again for the choices named beside it. The text is set as selectable text so its lineation remains available to assistive technology.
The river, sky and tree make change visible before the poem names an idea. The repeated negative phrasing, “does not”, gives the images a measured, almost conversational insistence.
Song and sunset offer two familiar comparisons. The break before “to matter completely” briefly holds the sentence open, then lands on the poem’s claim about value.
“Hands” first receive loss, then become open. Keeping the image and changing its action lets the second half answer the first without introducing a new metaphor.
Each short imperative or noun phrase is shaped by “without”. The pattern creates momentum while the verbs and nouns keep changing the emotional register.
The poem shifts from addressing “you” to a shared “we”. “Carry” turns remembrance into present action; the accumulating list makes that action concrete.
The companion prose compresses the reflection into two balanced sentences. Its plainer cadence gives the idea a different kind of emphasis from the poem’s images and line breaks.
Write an original poem of 8–12 lines. Begin with one ordinary object and let its physical details carry the thought. You might choose a mug, a bus ticket, a plant, a coat or something else you can observe. Invented or observational material is welcome; you do not need to disclose personal grief or experience.
In the note, point to the object, pattern, revised break and change of address. Explain what each does in this draft; there is no single correct emotional reading.
Feedback is about choices visible in the writing. Personal disclosure, belief, and agreement with the poem are not assessment criteria.
These plans connect the techniques in this example to wider practice. Each link opens a course plan, not a claim that its full teaching materials are complete.