This article describes a project in poetry and visual art that leads students to explore metaphor in generative and novel ways. The author shares what she and her teaching partner Ronna Pritikin have learned about fostering brave and joyful student artist and poets. "Be an Artist With Your Words" is a twelve-session residency, in which the author and her partner have students (1) create visual "versions" of feelings and character traits in order to engage with concepts kinesthetically while building their own resource for writing about their inner lives; (2) write from "external" points of views (objects) to "get out of their head" and explore the literary techniques of monologue, personification, and hyperbole; (3) identify and explore both positive and negative character traits to extend and enrich their understanding of their own personality; and (4) revise work for exhibition and performance and thus cultivate an appreciation of rigor and the need to write for a specific audience. The author discusses how the arts-integrated poetry unit provokes imaginative and thoughtful work from fifth-grade writers.