The fifteen-Sentence Portrait
This assignment will generate descriptive writing. It is purposefully guided. So, begin by choosing a person to describe. Then follow the directions.
- Picture in your mind a person you have strong feelings for. The subject may not be a "love" interest, but should be someone you feel strongly about. The person can be living or dead but should be someone you know or knew rather than a famous character.
- For a title, choose an emotion or a color that represents this person to you. You will not mention the individual’s name in the writing.
- For a first-line starter, choose one of the following and complete the sentence:
- You stand there . . .
- No one is here . . .
- In this (memory, photograph, dream, etc.), you are . . .
- I think sometimes . . .
- The face is . . .
- We had been . . .
- Following your first sentence, build a portrait of this individual, writing the sentences according to these directions:
- Sentence 2: Write a sentence with a color in it.
- Sentence 3: Write a sentence with a part of the body in it.
- Sentence 4: Write a sentence with a simile (a comparison using like or as).
- Sentence 5: Write a sentence of over 25 words.
- Sentence 6: Write a sentence under 8 words.
- Sentence 7: Write a sentence with a piece of clothing in it.
- Sentence 8: Write a sentence with a wish in it.
- Sentence 9: Write a sentence with an animal in it.
- Sentence 10: Write a sentence in which three or more words alliterate; that is, they begin with the same initial consonant: she has be left, lately, with less and less time to think . . .
- Sentence 11: Write a sentence with two commas.
- Sentence 12: Write a sentence with a smell and a color in it.
- Sentence 13: Write a sentence with a simile (a comparison using like or as).
- Sentence 14: Write a sentence that could carry an exclamation point (but do not use the exclamation point).
- Sentence 15: Write a sentence to end this portrait that uses the word or words you chose for a title.
- Next, read the portrait. Underline sentences in which you discovered new things about this individual or your feelings and attitudes toward him or her.
- Now, use this portrait as a starting point for a poem or prose portrait or simply revise what you have. (Be sure to keep a copy of the original, so that you can examine the changes between original and revised piece.) Do anything you need to make this a piece of writing that you like. Choose a new title, use the person’s real name, and so on.
- http://jkkelleywritenow.blogspot.com/2007/05/starlight-white.html
20 comments:
Hatred
Your face is covered with hatred from me,
The red hair you have,
Kills my eyes,
As if it is the sun,
But nothing happens to you, even if you have dated him four other times before, and it scars me knowing that it’s him, and it’s
Him, and you’ve decided you want him now,
But he just wants you for your body,
And I wish you don’t make this mistake for the fourth time,
But you’re like a dog wanting more and more affection,
But now you’ve decided it’s the time to take your dignity,
And throw it away, and never look back, even though you just got it back,
And it’s the way you smell like a brown leaf,
As if you don’t want to fall form a tree,
And it pisses me off knowing that it’s the fourth time!
And your face is covered with hatred from me.
Justice Dunwoody
15 sentence Portrait
Belinda
Pink
You stand there with no cares, you make me smile.
Sitting on the red couch.
Tour arms wrapped around me feel so warm and make me feel safe.
Your sweet caring word comfort me like a teddy bear does at night.
When problems come my way, I spill them out of my mouth like tea from a pot, I can always count on you to keep them safe inside your mind like a banks safe.
You never forget.
Oh those pink leggings, and you know what I mean.
I wish we could spend a day alone together, just you and me.
I remember the time me were sad together when out sweet doggie ran away.
During the day I miss the muggy tone in your magnificent voice when your feeling down.
“Justice”, you would say” I love you, a lot.”
The smell of your cooking makes my mouth water, especially when I see the beautiful orange rice steaming in the pot.
When funny jokes would come you way you laugh as if you were a hyena.
Darien lake brought many laughs, on the roller coaster you would scream really loud, ahhhh.
Everything you own is pink, everything about you is a bright color, and for that I am glad, so I am proud to say I love you.
No one is here
No one is here to take your place
The pink ribbon
You had breast cancer you didn’t last long
As your big smile pass my way
Wishing you were here, it’s not the same that your gone everything has been falling apart like a stone in mid September you will be remembered
I you were my foster mother I needed you
The softness of your brown sweater
I will wish to tell you that I loved you
When daisy barked as you came home from work
Caring, Carmel, candycorns
Your cheesy, macaroni and cheese
The smell of your brown bottle of Chanel perfume
As the Keith sweat will blast
Kids get ready for school
No one is here
In this memory you’re on my back, but now you’re swathed in black and white. Your tiny legs obscure my view, and alter the gelled up image. However, I’m remembering your smile; a flash of awkward, yet sure and confident white that shows that the world indeed has a leash, and that humanity isn’t all that human. What I would do to break that smile out of the glass, to save the small soul from its encasement behind a lifeless and apathetic screen. Into my arms. But I’d have to delve beneath the hospital gown to find the root of your grounding, a fantastic voyage that only a knife could take. I wish I could see you, see you outside of my expectations and false memories. I wish I could see you cuddle your Kayla, who’s just about as big as you. But your lifeless light left me feeling less true lately, especially since your due in a day. I love you already, though, even though I don’t know the shape of your horns. It’s almost as if I can smell your fudge colored skin burning with the floods of ejection, with skid marks and vermillion bloodstains from the force of the push. I feel you, you feel like a mediocre soul trying to understand excellence. And it rushes me with anguish when I think of how… your life is going to be destroyed the second you step out of love. To think you’re leaving the oven only to be baked like a brownie.
Ashen Twine
No one is here, not even you; you are transparent, a mist in the ashen, dreary gloom of this world I call vanished. The dark gray fog setting is unnecessary, the demise is clear in your face. Your pallid face is dead, no life, laughter or sorrow peer through your half-closed vacant eyes. The soullessness that stares through your entire being is lifeless, blank, empty as a brick wall, no recognition. It is disturbing to see you as such, I close my eyes, shaking my head and turning around; turning to a different scene, it is tinted green and more vivacious then I ever knew you to be; You are there too, this time very alive, vibrant, flourishing in the color, your face flushed. Beauty surrounds you. You smile, brushing your jacket as your eye twinkle with excitement. I wish I could take this you back, bring you home, come to know you far better and I reach out to take you hand, to lead you home. You turn away though, shaking your head as the eagle on your shirt seems to almost come alive, squawking in agreement, but why? Why won’t you return, why would you whither on earth only to blossom above? You do not explain, only shake your head, and I respect it, sighing. I turn back to the lifeless, the vacant, the dead; turn back to the dismal gray and decaying aroma. I turn back to you and look you in the eye, eyes as cobalt and cold as a sapphire, and understand. Your time is over, I cannot try to make it differently and so I take death by the hand and rush back, my eyes mindlessly filling. I race back to the earth, breaking the misty ashen twine of our relationship, of what could have been, and understand that all is as well as it could be.
Grey
We had been sitting idly in your room, you on the bed your back against the wall, me on the floor my legs curled up in Indian style.
I look at my hands and occasionally chance a glance back up at your face, your greasy black hair falling in scraggly locks into your eyes.
Between strands I can see the heavy black mascara and eyeliner running you were always partial to running in streams down your face.
I want to comfort you but my tongue is like lead in my mouth.
We were worlds apart you and I, you were so much older than I despite my birth a month before, me a small child in your shadow.
I was scared for you.
The shirt you still clutched in your hand said it all.
I wished I could comfort you.
I was but a lost sheep; you were a woman crying over a wolf.
Your sorrowful sobbing softened my heart.
I climb onto the bed, my hand shaking, and place it on your shoulder.
The smell of grey and sadness swirled around you like a sinister vapor.
Suddenly you reach out and snatch my hand hold it to your chest.
I needed to get away.
I left you there in your cloud of grey.
Shayla Sanders
My Idol
I think sometimes that I am a smaller version of you.
When I think about you a yellow glimpse of light enters my mind.
You past down those chubby cheeks that cover our eyes when we smile wide.
You treat me like a little princess.
The love and care you showed me through years gives me the encouragement I need to make it through this rough life with a smile.
You love everything I do.
It made me so happy that you loved the brown scarf I crocheted for you.
My wish is that you will never be disappointed in me.
I hope you’ll be proud of me, my kids, husband, house, even my little puppy.
You always see me being my best, never bowing to the rest.
You tell me to keep my head held high, never letting my dreary eyes cry, if I can never find guidance you tell me to look to the sky.
You work so hard on Christmas Eve, smelling the dark honey brown ham and your home made greens.
You are like my very own super hero.
I love you mom.
You are my idol.
THINKING ABOUT LOVE
I think sometimes when we cuddle, that you are the one perfect girl that can make my wildest dreams come true.
When I’m with you, red hearts float through my mind.
Your beautiful features drive me insane.
You’re as beautiful as Helen of Troy.
Christopher Marlowe described Helen of Troy "the face that launched a thousand ships,” that’s how beautiful you really are.
I think I am in love.
Your lips are as soft as the silky scarf you are always wearing.
I wish that I could bend down on one knee one day and ask you to spend the rest of your life with me.
You are the lion of my jungle and the shark of my ocean.
Me and you, you and me, it really doesn’t matter as long as I got you.
Your sweet red starburst smell drives me passionate as well.
Your stunning good looks attract me like a magnet attracts the fridge.
Like Victor Hugo once said "What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!"
I think I am in love.
Mom
Love
I think sometimes you do things just because you can.
Like when you tell me not to wear red because you don’t like that color- which you don’t.
Or when you tell me to cover my head with a hat even though you know very well it will mess up my hair.
Or when you yell at me over nothing like a raging psychopath.
But I am definitely not perfect as well seems how I am always right there yelling back at you- making sure you think you’re wrong.
But you’ll never be wrong in your eyes.
I actually think you look nice in my skinny jeans and flats.
I wish to look young like that when I’m your age.
Why do you like the cat so much when she is a brat?
You’re left handed with long locks laying down your back.
You give us money, material things, but most of all caring thoughts.
You smell like Victoria’s Secret Divine Angels lotion, which comes in that glass pink tinted bottle.
Your hair sways like waves tumbling down onto the sandy shores of Virginia Beach.
You’re so pretty.
I love you mom.
Red A Close Friend
You stand there as if you’re looking in through
my body, past my soul, and into my heart.
Why is it that when anyone looks at me, all they see is a brown-skinned,
15 year old girl, but when you look at me, I can tell
you see so much more than that.
As we gaze into one another’s eyes,
it’s as if we’ve known each other forever.
When I think of you, I feel like an obese man who thinks
about eating chocolate cake all day.
I think sometimes I feel like we’re one,
like there isn’t a person, place, or thing in the whole world
that can ever separate us.
Would you call that true love?
I think the one thing that you will always remind me of is
a home-sewn scarf, only because someone takes time
to make it perfect for someone else to love,
and it’s made from the heart.
If we were to have a moment alone, I would tell you
one of my deepest wishes, I wish we were able to be together
without anyone telling us we can’t.
Although I playfully say you look like a monkey,
inside what I’m trying to tell you is that you’ll
always be handsome to me.
Some may see you as misbehaved and uncaring,
but I see you as, loving and very charming.
I’ve always loved being with you, and one thing I’ve noticed
is that you have a “signature” smell, it’s kind of like
green irish spring soap and axe body spray,
I like it.
When I’m with you, I feel like a kind in a candy store
full of their favorite kind of candy.
You make me feel as if I can just sit you down and yell,
“I LOVE YOU!” But, I feel like I’d be moving to fast.
Or will I?
In the time it took to find this poem buried in my head,
all I could think about was the color RED.
Lisi
I think sometimes we're growing apart.
I feel your purple glow around me.
Your butt always finds its way into someone's face
So close as if we shared the same mind
We always enjoy eachother's company and we couldn't live a day without this friendship since we've been together since the day of our birth.
Friends until the day we die.
Your favorite pajama bottoms I'll always remember.
I wish that we never seperate.
I beg that we begin adulthood on the best foot.
Carefully, we get together, secretly we start trouble.
Happiness like the warm sun.
Loudness flows through your house!
Best friends until the end, different as night and day.
Lisi
I think sometimes we're growing apart.
I feel your purple glow around me.
Your butt always finds its way into someone's face
So close as if we shared the same mind
We always enjoy eachother's company and we couldn't live a day without this friendship since we've been together since the day of our birth.
Friends until the day we die.
Your favorite pajama bottoms I'll always remember.
I wish that we never seperate.
I beg that we begin adulthood on the best foot.
Carefully, we get together, secretly we start trouble.
Happiness like the warm sun.
Loudness flows through your house!
Best friends until the end, different as night and day.
Purple
I think sometimes you are unfriendly,
Red in the face, angered at even the slightest joke.
You resemble an athlete’s foot,
As smelly and rotten as it can be.
You have a giant hair piece sticking out of your enormous head, which makes me feel like cutting it every single day I see you.
You always find a way to annoy me.
Why do you always wear that hoodie everyday?
I wish that you would not try to stop telling that person every thing that I say.
You are like a moose,
Always having that dumb look on your face.
You always cheat, whether it be classwork, or creating lines for your poems.
I am always the target of your jokes, whether it’s in school, or over Myspace.
You smell like a moldy brown banana, rotting in the sun.
I’m going to tell the world about your “crush” on that person in this school.
Grandmother
Yellow
I think sometimes that you will come back
The yellow roses you always loved
To your small hands always so cold
You treat me like your little angel
Sleeping over, playing, doing your make up, it was so much fun they love that we share together always puts a smile on my face.
You are so beautiful to me.
Your beautiful Chinese dresses.
I wish that you had never died.
Peaches such a cute dog.
Looking at you, you were so sick, and I was so sad.
The cinnamon candles with the reddish orange flames.
Your face is as beautiful as a rose.
Why did you have to go, why.
Grandma you are so great I will never forget you.
We had been distant for quite some time,
But here you stand gazing at me with hazel brown eyes
As if you’re looking through me
To see my heart filled with hate and sorrow
I begin to turn and walk away; I count the steps to see how far I can get before I realize how much I need you.
I turn to you see you, still standing in that same exact spot
With your blue silk shirt the one you always used to where
I wish that the moment would never end
But as I look past you, I see that “female dog” walk towards us
And when I least expect it, I’m left lonely as you run to her
He hugs her, and she smears her red lip stick on his cheek, it disgusts me
I could smell the stench of the red lipstick, it burned my nose
Like when I swim in the pool and the chlorine goes in my nose
And the worse part was, that he enjoyed it, I hate him for that
I’m back where I started from, I hate him even more, and this time it won’t change
He’s finally decided who he wants to be with
And it’s fine because I know I’m better than anything she will ever be
She took him from us
And for what it’s worth, she can have him
THINKING ABOUT LOVE
I think sometimes when we cuddle, that you are the one perfect girl that can make my wildest dreams come true.
When I’m with you, red hearts float through my mind.
Your beautiful features drive me insane.
You’re as beautiful as Helen of Troy.
Christopher Marlowe described Helen of Troy "the face that launched a thousand ships,” that’s how beautiful you really are.
I think I am in love.
Your lips are as soft as the silky scarf you are always wearing.
I wish that I could bend down on one knee one day and ask you to spend the rest of your life with me.
You are the lion of my jungle and the shark of my ocean.
Me and you, you and me, it really doesn’t matter as long as I got you.
Your sweet red starburst smell drives me passionate as well.
Your stunning good looks attract me like a magnet attracts the fridge.
Like Victor Hugo once said "What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!"
I think I am in love.
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