#WritingPromptWednesday: If Poems

“If I were a black bee,
I’d buzz around town.
I’d soar like a bird above the whole world
I’d drop on someone and stick in my stinger and fall to the ground.” 

In an if poem, the writer imagines what they might do if they were something, or someone, else.

How do you write an If poem?

An “If” poem can take many structures. They can consist of several stanzas of the writer imagining he/she is multiple things, or the writer can imagine he/she is one thing, and expand upon it over several lines. One structure of an “If” poem could look like:

Line 1 – “If I were a _____________________”
Line 2 – “I’d ______________” (action)
Line 3 – “I’d ______________” (action)
Line 4 – “and ______________.”

We are now accepting submissions for the 5th Annual Pizza Poetry Project. If you are not able to bring us to your classroom for a free workshop, consider having your students try to write an If poem and submit it for consideration!