What I have learned from poetry?
These last few weeks, I have been observing, analyzing, and producing poetry. As I mentioned in my first blog post about poetry, the process of reading poetry is enjoyable, but the process of writing is where most people get flustered. In my elementary years I dreaded to read poetry, just like the main character in Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. However, as I have come to embrace poetry more in college, I have learned from observing professors and professional poets (e.g. Adrian Rice) the endless possibilities that teaching poetry can involve. It is not efficient to teach students long lists of vocabulary related to poetry and force them to read poems that they don't interpret as being meaningful or one they connect with. Rather, it is having students communicate their observations of what poets do and how the choices poets make influence the poem's structure. From observations in poetry literacy casts, students of all ages are engaged to discuss "poetry toolbox" components. By allowing students to find the simplest components of a poem, I think it develops students to understand that poetry is accessible to all. Educators should then allow students to "takeaway" what they found in the poems they have read, reread, and reread to then use as inspiration for "borrowing".
Benefits of Poetry Writing
(Dr. Beth Frye, Appalachian State University, slide 2)
Offers an easy and meaningful alternative to traditional writing forms
Extends students’ understanding of poetry beyond just rhyming poetry and into free verse and formula poetry
Taps into our five senses
Encourages students to play with language and form
Requires fewer words to create a meaningful message; aids students in maintaining focus…brevity
Extends and supports learning to read
Challenges students to embrace specificity in their writing (vocabulary) and to become innovative consumers and users of language …students write with MORE DETAIL
Invites students to use their voices authentically so that we come to know students’ individual personalities and uniqueness
These past four weeks I have been exploring different poetry structures to write one for myself. This week, I had the opportunity to read and compose a "So much depends upon.." poem, a blackout poem, found poem, and a ekphrastic poem. Most of these poems I have never tried before! I was so surprised that in elementary school I didn't learn about most of these poems to begin developing the idea that words carry meaning.
So Much Depends Upon...
This poem is helpful for students to understand how to borrow a poem's syntactic structure for their own poem. This poem is based off of William Carlos Williams's poem "The Red Wheelbarrow". The poet William Carlos Williams was known to write poems about objects, mostly everyday objects that others may not see their purpose entirely. Using his poem as a mentor, I wrote a poem about a grandfather clock in my house.
Blackout Poem
This type of poem allows students to use newspapers, magazines, recipes, books, etc. as their main template of words. From these words they use a black sharpie or marker and color words that they do not want to include in their poem. For example, I used a Reader's Digest magazine page about hearing loss for adults.
Listening
But when you turn off
the sound,
You tune out the world.
Rumblings,
And creakings,
We select
Focus
Pay attention
And blot out the rest.
Assaulted by sound
"Turn off"
Shut out the glorious symphony of sound
Living world is bathed.
Found Poem
This poem is similar to that of the black out poem. By looking at an excerpt either from their own small moment stories or from others (song lyrics, books, etc.), students can find their poem within this text. My favorite book is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I used a page excerpt with a scene where Elizabeth is visiting Mr. Darcy's house and realizes that he is not the man she thought he was, but rather a caring and generous man. See below!
Ekphrastic Poem
I had never heard of an ekphrastic poem before this week, but I was interested in trying. Doing this brought perspective in how many students may feel about trying varying structures of poetry. It is a little daunting to try something you are not familiar with and to ease into new poetry, the best example is to find mentor texts.
This painting is titled "The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali. It is a painting that is well known world wide. It was painted in 1931. I have always been interested in this painting because of how unique it is compared to other famous paintings.
Other pasts diminished
Forgotten
Time is the essence of present moments
Not static
Creating short films
Memories
Incomplete flashbacks of time spent
Time is the essence of present moments
Filtered and melting away
From our memory