Poems and Pictures

How to do it

Share a poem. Start each line with "I am from ..." and use the poem to express who you are. It doesn't need to rhyme! What games do you enjoy? Where do you like to go? What foods do you love? What do you remember from when you were younger?

You might be inspired by George Ella Lyon's 1993 poem, 'Where I'm From':

I am from clothespins,

from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.

I am fro the dirt under the back porch.

(Black, glistening,

it tasted like beets.)

I am from the forsythia bush

the Dutch elm

whose long-gone limbs I remember

as if they were my own.

I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.

I'm from the know-it-alls

and the pass-it-ons,

from Perk up! and Pipe down!

I'm from He restoreth my soul

with a cottonball lamb

and ten verses I can say myself.

I'm from Artemus and Billie's Banch,

fried corn and strong coffee.

From the finger my grandfather lost

to the auger,

the eye my father shut to keep his sight.

Under my bed was a dress box

spilling old pictures,

a sift of lost faces

to drift beneath my dreams.

I am from those moments -

snapped before they budded -

leaf-fall from the family tree.

You can read thousands of other 'I am from' poems here.

Or you can even write your poem by filling in blanks, using a template based on George Ella Lyon's 'Where I'm From'.

• Reflect on experiences that made you who you are today
• Learn about other people’s experiences
• Reconnect with what matters to you
• Be creative and used your imagination
• Share with others

If poetry isn't your thing, why not try your hand at an autobiographical essay, photo collage, drawing or video?

Have a look in the 'What you have shared' gallery to see what other people have written. See if there are any connections. Have you had similar experiences? Different experiences?

I am from is about reconnecting with yourself, taking time to appreciate where you’ve been.