1. Imagine you are Alex. Write a 14-line poem loosely structured like a sonnet, similar in mood and tone to “Love Song for Alex, 1979.” Reveal your feelings about the relationship and use the speaker’s voice to showcase three specific character traits for Alex without stating the traits in your poem. Share the poem aloud with your audience; allow your audience members to discuss their perspectives of Alex’s traits as demonstrated in your poem. Compare the audience’s thoughts on Alex’s traits to the traits you intended.

2. Margaret Walker lived from 1915 to 1998. Use scholarly online full-text poetry databases to search for a poem by a writer who lived in a different time period but with themes similar to those in “Love Song for Alex, 1979.” Create a graphic organizer such as a T-chart, Venn diagram, or idea web to capture and display thematic similarities between the two poems; strive to show three to four specific similarities for each of two common themes. Extension: Show further similarities OR contrasts in the two titles with regard to poem structure and literary devices.