And When I Was Born

After an earthquake just before Game 3 of the 1989 World Series, Candlestick Park was evacuated and the series was put on hold for 10 days.(GETTY IMAGES)

Free Write Prompt

Think of an important date -- your birthday is a great start. Or a poignant event--a loss. Look up the date on Wikipedia to see what else happened that year.  Copy down 10-12 things that happened that year.  Then, pick one or two on which to focus.  Or, look for a pattern of events.  Free write anything you associate among these events, and say, your birth.  Write for 10 minutes. Ready? Go!

Poem Prompt

Use these events to write a poem about your personal history and who you are. What do the events say about you, if anything?  Are there any ironies about your personality and what happened in this year?  Write for 15 min.  (Adapted from Purdue University Writing Center)

Example Poems

• ​San Fransisco, 1989: Cancelled World Series by Bruce Cohen
• Anonymous Lyric by Connie Voisine

Reflections

• What effect is created when the poem's narrative focuses on personal intimate events (playing with plastic figurines) in the simultaneous context of another public event (the earthquake)?
• Interesting patterns emerge in looking at the historical notable events: others born on the same day, deaths on the same date, political events, military events, social events.  With which will you align yourself? with which can you juxtapose yourself? ​

     Try this in your writing:

• Interview other people in your life for more information about what was going on around you.
• In this look back, explore a different persona or pov than yourself.
• Can you imagine how the story would be different if you were born in a different place at the same time?
• Toward the previous idea, change the language choice option on Wikipedia and search again.  Do other historical references emerge?
• Focus on key events from year of birth and parallel them/or juxtapose them with similar events today--for example, the formation of the Black Panther Party in 1966 and your own involvement in protest marches in the present.
• Look at the list of births and imagine greeting others in your poem.
•  Look at deaths and imagine a farewell.