A writer who has been listening closely throughout the experience will distill a conversation, which transpires between the generations, into a poem or short prose piece. This written piece will be used as a closing reflection to the conversation and as a companion to the artistic rendering created for the International Conversation to be held at the United Nations

Considerations for Writers

What differentiates this particular writing "assignment" from others the writer may have done is that here he or she is being asked to take inspiration from others' word rather than from their own mind. Additionally, in this case writers are being asked to listen, create, and share their work in a very compressed timeframe. The guidelines below are offered merely as helpful suggestions given the particular challenges of this occasions and not to tell writers how to write poetry or prose.

• Remember if you are writing poetry that it is not easy to translate rhyme from one language into another. One way to portray the written piece as a poem in different languages is to use repetitive phrasing. This will give a sense of poetry and rhythm.

• It is important to capture the message of the talk. The writer may want to take notes of the important points and emphasize these in the piece

• A refrain or a repeated phrase may work well. It can become like a chorus, bringing rhythm into the poetry.

• Soft and meaningful words can inspire and give a sense of grandeur: e.g. divine, almighty, magnificent, glorious. This may help to create a piece that is inspiring and hopefully will move people to think in a similar way.

• Be bold and positive. Make the piece uplifting, rather than depressing or melancholy. Positive energy is much more motivating than negative phrasing and it reaches out to the listener in an inspiring way.

• Short, sharp and fast sentences, or with small potent words can give a sense of urgency.

• A sense of relaxation and something reflective is depicted better with meandering sentences and gentle words.

• It will help to have a beginning, middle and an end, because essentially, a recording is being made, a story is being told, something memorable is being imprinted.

• The author will be asked to present it as a closing reflective piece to the conversation, a creative inspiration made possible by the words of the speakers. This can be read immediately with very little editing because of the time factor. However, in order to present it as a submission, it may be wise to give oneself time to edit and refine the piece.