POEMS
My Love
So what,
Do what makes you happy.
Tomorrow will come soon enough.
ODE TO A WEARY TEACHER
Too tired to read,
My heart pounds to the beat
Of the clock ticking.
Vacation is coming soon.
Hey teacher-leave those kids alone!
The zipper of my brain has stuck,
I'm in luck.
Our classes are about to assemble
And leave.
Students shout, teachers smile,
As they crowd the school halls.
I can't describe the deep joy
Of goodbyes.
Hey students-leave those teachers alone!
I know I will see you sometime soon.
Too soon I fear.
The mother bird is ready
To throw her babies out.
They have stayed too long.
Weary faces on the mind,
Time to sing,
And live again.
Free of you-free of me.
POETRY LESSONS JUST FOR FUN
LESSON 1
"IF" POEMS
Materials: pencil, paper, example sheet (If I Were Thunder)
Procedure
Write 2 to 3 phrases on the board with the wording ...if I were an elephant, if I were a baseball, if I were a bumble bee...and so and. What would you do or be like?
Write student ideas on the board for each one...get as many examples as possible.
Then read the poem, If I Were Thunder.
Discuss what Thunder is being compared to, and what it is doing in each line.
Generate a list of other weather-type words. Have the students choose 2 and write ideas about each one.
For the final poem, students may choose one of the weather ideas and write a 5 to 10 line poem about it.
A drawing may be done to showcase each poem.
LESSON 2 ~
FRIENDLY POEMS
MATERIALS: PENCIL, PAPER, EXAMPLE SHEET(Friendly Poems)
PROCEDURE
1. Put a list of 4 words on the board that are not related to each other, such as apple, laughing,
screamed, pillow.
2. The students are to write a line to a poem, making sure that each word from the board is used at the end of each line. Remind the students that the poems will not rhyme and that's fine. Put the
student poems on the board when finished.
3. Give each student the paper called, Friendly Poems, and read with them the directions to this
exercise.
4. The students are put into pairs and asked to generate 6 to 8 words that are not closely related.
The words can be nouns or verbs.
5. Each partner then exchanges word lists and writes a poem using the other's work list.
6. Share finished poems with the class.
POETRY UNIT
This unit explores the "pleasure of poetry" in 4 fun and easy to do lessons.
Lesson I---No Excuses--- You can write!
For my first lesson, I want my students to approach the idea of writing poems as a fun
and easy process. I want the students to understand that I will accept no excuses for not
doing this project, due lack of poetry-know-how ...Poems can be stories or something
familiar.
I will use the poem, All She Wrote, by Harryette Mullen, to help the students understand
that they are not the only ones who make excuses. Discuss the poet's excuses for not
writing to others and then have students list reasons that they give excuses for things.
After discussing the poem and sharing each others excuses, the students will write a
letter of their own to anyone about why they didn't want to do something.
All She Wrote
Forgive me, I'm no good at this. I can't write back. I never read your letter.
I can't say I got your note. I haven't had the strength to open the envelope.
The mail stacks up by the door. Your hand's illegible. Your postcards were
defaced. Wash your wet hair? Any document you meant to send has yet to
reach me. The untied parcel service never delivered. I regret to say I'm
unable to reply to your unexpressed desires. I didn't get the book you sent.
By the way, my computer was stolen. Now I'm unable to process words. I
suffer from aphasia. I've just returned from Kenya and Korea. Didn't you
get a card from me yet? What can I tell you? I forgot what I was going to
say. I still can't find a pen that works and then I broke my pencil. You know
how scarce paper is these days. I admit I haven't been recycling. I never
have time to read the Times. I'm out of shopping bags to put the old news
in. I didn't get to the market. I meant to clip the coupons. I haven't read
the mail yet. I can't get out the door to work, so I called in sick. I went to
bed with writer's cramp. If I couldn't get back to writing, I thought I'd catch
up on my reading. Then Oprah came on with a fabulous author plugging
her best selling book.
~
Originally published in Santa Monica Review, fall 1997 .Copyright1997 by Harryette
Mullen. All rights reserved. Used by permission of the author.
Lesson 2--- All See it Differently
For my second lesson, I want the students to feel secure about themselves and let them
Know that we do not have to see or understand things in the same way.
1. Using the paper, What is Poetry? , have the students read with you the top of the page
and the directions that follow
2. Read the poem aloud, and close your eyes and get a picture of what the poem means
to you
3. Follow the instructions and make a drawing of the images gotten when the poem was
read
4. Share the pictures and discuss them with the class.
Part 2
1. Bring to class a common object or food item...flowers, apple, book, stuffed animal.
2. Pass the object around to each student and have them give a descriptive sentence
about it.
3. Show an example of a collective poem about a candle holder, and have them draw the
object.
4. Make a collective class poem, writing down given responses about another object.
5. Display the poem in the classroom.
1. A distant moon in the blue galaxy
2. A spike of death
3. A blue sun
4. A wheel with chains on it
5. Looks like a star shinning in the night
6. A black rose with a glowing center
7. A dark blue sun with a tiny spark
8. A spitting blue firework
9. Rocks jutting from a cliff
10. Ice in a cave
11. Blue iceberg
This lesson is a fun and quick lesson that can expand into all forms of writing.
1. Start the class with the following phrase, I was walking in the scary, dark woods. Put it on apiece ofpaper.
Lesson 4---Picture Poems
This lesson combines poetry and pictures. My goal is for the students to write a poem based on a given work of art or picture.
Poem based on Andre Kertesz, Melancholic Tulip, New York (1939)
A Flower’s Life