For young writers — especially those who say they cannot write poetry — imitation is a teacher’s best friend. Even if they’re too young to know the word “gratitude,” you can ask them to make a list of things they love.
From there it becomes a specific noun exercise, a sensory detail (or “imagery” in poeti-speak) exercise. Ten items will do, although the Laura Foley example below employs 15. Once that anyone-can-create-it list is done, students are ready to make it prayer-like. “Praise be…!”
Whether you want it to be a 14-line sonnet “-ish” poem is completely optional. Once your students (or your own) list is complete, have them read Foley’s poem and mark their favorite lines. I used to tell kids to highlight “the cool lines.” Being “cool” is forever, after all.
Then it’s off to the races. One with a clear and obvious finish line for those with poetry phobia.
Gratitude List
Laura Foley
Praise be this morning for sleeping late,
the sandy sheets, the ocean air,
the midnight storm that blew its waters in.
Praise be the morning swim, mid-tide,
the clear sands underneath our feet,
the dogs who leap into the waves,
their fur, sticky with salt,
the ball we throw again and again.
Praise be the green tea with honey,
the bread we dip in finest olive oil,
the eggs we fry. Praise be the reeds,
gold and pink in the summer light,
the sand between our toes,
our swimsuits, flapping in the breeze.
2 thoughts on “Sleeping Late and Other Small Delights”
A question I’d really like answered by someone: why encourage young people to write poetry? I understand why the Creative Writing Industry’s potent propaganda wants every American over the age of 5 to write and try to publish their poetry. But what’s the point? Why stress WRITING poetry instead of READING poetry, becoming a skilled reader of verse? Learning to READ poetry well is a daunting challenge in itself.
Why promote future generations of self-involved know-nothings?
In school, kids deserve experience in many kinds of writing and in many kinds of reading. In school, we encourage writing because writing is thinking. In school, we try to show kids the rewards that can be found in different genres and how some genres are better than others to achieve a purpose and to reach an audience.
No one is saying they have to become poets or even that they have to attempt publication. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t — but at least they deserve the chance to see and to experience, through both reading and writing, what’s out there. Poetry’s out there, like it or not. As a teacher, I never said, “Sorry, children, but there are too many writers as it is and most of you don’t have talent anyway, so don’t kid yourselves about it, ‘K?”
If I had, I’d have been fired in a second and deservedly so.