In one of my poems in Laughing Tomatoes, I wanted to express what was special to me about my grandmother. To do this I used some of the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Poets often use the five senses in order to express their feelings. In this workshop, you're going to write your own poem using the five senses to celebrate a member of your family.

"My Grandma's Songs" is on pages 8 and 9 of the book. Read the poem and answer the following questions:

• What sense does the title refer to?
• Where does the sense of smell appear? Where do the other senses appear?
• What image(s) do they give you of my grandma?
• I didn't include a direct reference to the sense of touch in this poem. Can you think of something that would show the sense of touch?

Poems usually include poetic lines and stanzas. Poetic lines are the lines in which poems are written and stanzas are the sections formed by these lines. Read this poem again and answer to the following questions:

• How many stanzas are in this poem?
• How many lines does each stanza have?
• In what way do stanzas look alike?
• Why do you think this could be important in poetry?

Now it's your turn. Choose a favorite family member to write about. Make some notes about what you think is special about them. Think of this person and ask yourself:

• When I think of this person, what do I see?
• What do I hear?
• Wha
• t do I feel by touching?
• What do I taste?
• What do I smell?

Now, write a poem about this person that includes something for each of the five senses. You decide on the number of lines in each stanza of the poem. Once you have your first draft, go back and take another look at all the things you can see, hear, feel, smell, and taste in relation to the person you describe. Then try to find more interesting ways to describe those things.

Which of these two descriptions below do you think is more original, and thus, more powerful? "Your teeth are pretty" or "Your teeth are pearls." The second description says that your teeth are not only pretty but also have the same qualities of pearls, which are precious jewels.

Thus, for example, if you wrote, "I like the sound of my mother's voice," you might want to change it to, "My mother's voice is soothing like the calm splashing of water in a fountain." If you wrote, "I like my mother's cooking," you might change this to something more specific and descriptive, "My mother's tortillas are round like little suns on the stove."