“Dog Religion” by Ken Craft

2 posts

Marking Up and Analyzing Poetry: Beginner Activities

Teaching poetry can be tricky business. By middle and high school, many students have lost their taste for it. When teaching poetry, my hope is to bring the fun back—the same joy that made Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss a treat when students were younger.

I use a routine when students are just beginning to practice the unwinding of poetry’s mysteries. Students like structure–something concrete to hold onto–until they’ve built more confidence and become more adept at analysis on their own.

My routine goes like so:

 

1. I hand out a poem and a template (attached below this introduction).

2. I read the poem aloud not once but twice to emphasize the importance of multiple readings.

3. I ask students to silently read it a third time before they begin to individually mark the poem up using the bullet points on the template (note that looking up any unknown words–-whether done by the teacher to start or individually by students–is a must).

4. Once everyone has completed instructions in the template, I read the poem aloud AGAIN just before students form groups to share highlights of their mark-ups and the thesis statements they came up with (as if they were going to write a literary analysis of their own on the poem, although they are not–- that’s for later).

5. I instruct students to write a NEW thesis statement after discussion, one cobbled together by the group, one based on new realizations from their conversation, one that may be a composite of their individual ones or something completely novel.

6. Students write their group theses on the board OR share them with me on the computer (I use Google docs) so I can put them on the SMARTBOARD screen for all to see.

7. Each group challenges weaknesses in other group’s theses, and groups either defend or concede points. This is less intimidating than you think because it is the work of GROUPS and not individuals.

8. After the activity, a final thesis is agreed upon by all the students in the room and written on the board by the teacher, who may encourage further changes or not as he or she writes by saying, “But what about…?” and/or “Does this statement apply to ALL of the poem or only part of it?” And so forth.

9. At this point, in the practice phase slated for numerous weeks, an essay is not written. This activity is meant to encourage fun through repetition and a combination of individual and group work. You may do it once or twice a week, counting on it to fill up an entire class if done right (assuming 45-60 mins.).

10. The eventual goal? Students marking up poems on their own and writing their own thesis and essay for a grade. Teachers often move to this phase too soon. Using the template and many poems as practice leads to greater success.

 

Below, you will find

  • a simple template for poetry analysis
  • four poems I have used successfully in the classroom along with my own “Teacher’s Notes” and comments about instruction
  • a list of 18 other poems I have used from Lost Sherpa of Happiness and The Indifferent World (I created this exercise before the release of my third collection, Reincarnation & Other Stimulants)

Please note that this template can be used with any poems in your classroom. If you have a textbook, however, do not be shackled by it. There’s too much great poetry around. Find good poems that you are passionate about. Write your own, even! (Trust me when I say the kids will love poems written by their teacher.)

Special note: If students have written their own poems, they, too, can be used for this process. When students mark-up and practice a thesis statement on each other’s poems, they give it special attention and can’t wait to read the work of classmates who have read and thought about their work.

In fact, it’s better yet if they know in advance that the poems they write will be used for this purpose. Think of it — THEIR writing important enough to be analyzed!

 

 

Name: ___________________________________________

 

Marking Up Poetry for Understanding

 

Poem: ___________________________________________  Author: __________________________________

 

Directions. Listen as your teacher reads the poem aloud twice. Then read the poem on your own, silently, marking it up by underlining key words or lines and adding annotations in the margins with the following prompts in mind:

  • First highlight or circle any word you are not sure of, look it up with a dictionary (online or book), and write the meaning that best fits the context.
  • Note connections you make to yourself, other works of literature, the world.
  • Write questions near parts you do not understand. Then, after the question, write an educated guess as a possible answer to your own question.
  • Circle examples of imagery (the five senses) and, in the margins, note possible moods these sensory details trigger.
  • Note any other poetic elements you’ve discussed in class. How do they contribute to the poem’s mood and meaning?
  • Zig-zag underline any cool words or lines, then note in the margins why you like them so much. How many of them are examples of figurative language or unusual word pairings?
  • Does the poem take a “turn”? If so, draw a bold line where you see a sudden shift in direction and, in the margins, write, “Before the poet was talking about…, but now the poet is talking about….”
  • Important lines are often found near the end of a poem. Draw an arrow to the line or lines you believe are most important, then write, “This is important because….”
  • Look back at the title after completing your mark-up. Near it, write, “The title is important because it’s not just what the poem’s about, it also hints at….”
  • In the white space below the poem, write a thesis statement. For multiple practices, use the following basic formula:

In “______ Title_______,” ______ Poet’s Name_____ (action verb in the present tense followed by one or more literary devices) to show that ____________(lesson about life that does its best to avoid clichéd statements __________.”

 

Note: This formula has four key elements: the title in quotation marks (because poems are short works), the writer’s name, a topic, and an opinionated stand on that topic—one that someone could reasonably argue for or against.

After individual mark-ups, work with a group by sharing your thoughts first and co-writing a thesis statement together second. Beneath the thesis, make a list of textual evidence you would use to prove your argument against doubters in the classroom.

This form can be used for multiple practices, but eventually will become the basis of an analysis of a poem you choose or your teacher assigns. Good luck and have fun!

 

 

Dog Religion

by Ken Craft

 

Each morning he rises and bows

before me—parable of humility,

maw yawning, paws splaying.

 

The hollow rattle of dry meal

raining on his aluminum bowl

pops his ears. Every day,

novelty in the ritual of repetition;

every day, the Pavlovian ear perk.

Like heartbeats and bad breath,

autonomous tail and tongue.

Just so.

 

Waiting for me

to move, he approaches the orb

demurely, noses in, crunches the bland

and the brown. That lovable greed.

Those stained, pacifist teeth.

 

He feeds, license and rabies tag

keeping time at bowl’s edge. And always,

in the end, one dry kibble

is left in a bowl cirrus-streaked

with spit: his offering

to the food gods, his prayer

answered each miraculous day.

 

“Dog Religion” by Ken Craft, for educational purposes only, from The Indifferent World, Future Cycle Press, copyright 2016.

 

 

Passenger Seat, Route 1A

By Ken Craft

 

My God, the boxes:

trailers and double-wides,

the ranches and the shacks,

the sheet-clotted windows, open

doors gagging up

one-armed dolls

and stained

blankets pregnant with rain

and mildew. Post-apocalyptic

lawn mowers

abandoned mid-swath

lean against berms of tall grass

thick with the thrum of crickets

and August.

But the boxes most of all!

The pennants at the ends

of their dirt driveways

proclaiming cottage industries:

OPEN flags, once-colorful,

Once-waving, now limp and anemic

with sun and years.

The hand-painted signs

spelling Wild Maine Blueberries

or Tourmaline Here or Camp Firewood $5

in crooked letters.

And I think, with my brow

against air-conditioned glass,

my God, can they get out?

Can they escape? Are they happy?

It’s only when we hit

the pothole and I bump

my forehead that I remember

the moving box I am in.

My God.

 

“Passenger Seat, Route 1A” by Ken Craft, for educational purposes only, from Lost Sherpa of Happiness, Kelsay Books, copyright 2018.

 

 

Escape Plan

By Ken Craft

 

“This is us,” he’d say, pointing at the boxed red “x”

above our room number, “but if there’s a fire, you sure

as hell won’t have any red arrows along the hallway

carpet. You’ll have that bath towel you just

wrung water out of over your little head. You’ll be

on your hands and knees like you just found God.

And you’ll have darkness and smoke with screamers

tripping over your body. But you’ll be following the way.

The way you’re going to memorize right now: left twice

around two corners to the stairwell door. And, if that’s

not hotter than a cannon, you’ll push it open.

Only then will you stand like a goddamned ghost

under your towel, hold the stair railing if you can, and run

down those stairs like each step’s a wrapped gift

of years, because each one brings you closer to this exit”

(his stubby finger finds the bold, diagrammed frame

of a ground-level door), “to the fire trucks and flashing lights,

to the big sound of engines and sirens. Outside’ll be the smell

of soot and the glow of fear on all those fire-lit faces

watching this place go up. But that’s not important.

You’ll be gulping the biggest mouthfuls of smoke-ringed stars

and night-fresh air you’ve ever swallowed, and you’ll be grateful.

Damn grateful, because it’s not always the fire, it’s the CO2!

Understand? You visualizing good, like I told you?”

And then, like every first hour in every hotel, I took a white

towel, dry for the drill, and draped it over head and back. Like

a fallen angel, wings clipped by dread’s shears, I crawled

down the hallway’s edge, feeling the clench of my eyes

squint their smoldering embarrassment as other guests

walked by, feeling the hot whites of my father’s eyes

watching from behind.

 

“Escape Plan” by Ken Craft, for educational purposes only, from Lost Sherpa of Happiness, Kelsay Books, copyright 2018.

 

 

 

Simplicity

By Ken Craft

 

When you’re broken,

find your Henry David

and simplify. Reach

back, grasp your younger

hand, squeeze and hold

until your palms’

warmth mingles.

Together, walk the woods,

smell distant rain

as it rides westerlies

bareback and brazen.

 

Forget time. Keep going

through yellow birch and red

maple till you discover

an unmapped pond, sit on

a shoreline boulder,

feel the chill itch

permeate to your skin.

 

Follow the exhaling water

rings when a smallmouth

kisses the surface simply

because it exists, waiting

to be marred with life.

 

Even fish sense there is

another side, near yet far,

alluring yet fatal,

with many years to gasp and gulp

at the gilled wonder

of it all.

 

“Simplicity” by Ken Craft, for educational purposes only, from The Indifferent World, Future Cycle Press, copyright 2016.

 

 

 

 

Teacher/Author’s Notes

 

These poems are suitable for upper middle school and high school students. The presence of a few “mature” words in some simply seals the deal on poems being realistic and true to life. I read as if these words are insignificant, and if they are to me, they are to the students. It’s understood between us. We both are fully aware of the world out there. It is what it is, and we collectively know that.

 

  1. “Dog Religion”

The “turn” in this poem comes at the end with these lines:

 

…And always,

in the end, one dry kibble

is left in a bowl cirrus-streaked

with spit: his offering

to the food gods, his prayer

answered each miraculous day.

 

The poem celebrates the sheer joy for life embodied by dogs. Although the “food gods” is a joke (and a true story about my own dog!), it’s really meant to show how lucky we are and how grateful we should be for what we have. We provide for our pets, but there are many in this world who provide for us, too.  Do we take them for granted?

The poem also features use of the dash for importance, of what follows, good vocabulary words: an allusion to a Russian physiologist (Ivan Pavlov with his famous “conditioned response” experiment with bells and dogs), effective repetition, figurative language, and hyphenated adjectives.

After reading this and marking it up for thesis purposes, I have students write about a pet they own or wish they owned, using many of the same poetic elements seen here. Animals, wild and domestic, are a good inspiration for writing.

 

  1. “Passenger Seat, Route 1A”

The “turn” in this poem comes at the end with these lines:

 

It’s only when we hit

the pothole and I bump

my forehead that I remember

the moving box I am in.

My God.

 

Students pick up on the disparity between the poem’s narrator – a passenger in a car passing impoverished areas of Maine – and the scenes viewed outside the window. What they are less likely to see is the significance of the word “box,” which links car to trailers and hints at the similarities between rich and poor and middle class and in between. The “box” is symbolic of the ultimate box we will all share, a coffin. Death does not care about class or wealth, in other words. That said, I count it a success when students find the thesis in class differences and how the narrator has an “epiphany” of sorts, understanding his similarities with all humanity. NOTE: If a poem about death is too much of a downer for you or your students, take a pass on this one.

 

 

  1. “Escape Plan”

 

The “turn” in this poem comes at the end with these lines:

 

And then, like every first hour in every hotel, I took a white

towel, dry for the drill, and draped it over head and back. Like

a fallen angel, wings clipped by dread’s shears, I crawled

down the hallway’s edge, feeling the clench of my eyes

squint their smoldering embarrassment as other guests

walked by, feeling the hot whites of my father’s eyes

watching from behind.

 

Students are drawn to the literal in this poem, often lauding the father for coaching his son for safety purposes. If they don’t on their own, encourage them to consider the boy’s point of view, however. Compliment the students who circle the word “embarrassment,” as this is more about an authority figure who oversteps bounds and abuses his “powers” to a point where it is beyond the pale. It can be paired with many other poems where power (by teacher, coach, commander, older sibling, parent, etc.) is abused.

 

 

  1. “Simplicity”

 

The “turn” in this poem comes at the end with these lines:

 

Even fish sense there is

another side, near yet far,

alluring yet fatal,

with many years to gasp and gulp

at the gilled wonder

of it all.

 

Count it a win if students focus on “another side, near yet far / alluring yet fatal” and see that this is simply a poem celebrating life and acknowledging that death is a part of it and nothing to be feared. Celebrate the “many years to gasp and gulp / at the gilled wonder / of it all,” then. This poem is influenced by the Buddhist philosophy, which encourages both awareness of our mortality and emphasis on the here and now, the present moment. This poem, then, is a celebration of present moments, and a call for all humans to keep in touch with their inner youth.

 

FINAL NOTE TO FELLOW TEACHERS: If you like lesson plan ideas and want to show it by helping me with the costs of running this site (no, it’s not free), click over to the BOOKS page and purchase one of my poetry collections. Every little bit helps — honest! Thanks.

What? I Can’t Write About This?

dogfood

One of the most enjoyable aspects of publishing a first book of poetry is–what else?–readers, but less obviously, it’s readers’ reactions to poems.

Here’s irony. Reading a lot about poetry, I often come across comments from experts, critics, and even other poets, spreading rumors like, “When writing poetry, you should never write about nature because it’s hackneyed. And certainly not love. Too Hallmark. And dogs? You must be crazy. Death? Only if you want to send your readers running while waving their arms over how depressing a poet you are.”

Yeah. Something to that effect. And then, just when I begin to second guess my work, readers of my book will tell me some of their favorite poems from are ones about nature, love, death, and DOGS.

The moral of this story is clear. As a poet, you write what you want to write. If it moves you or warms up your Muse’s harp strings, play it loud and proud! The naysayers apparently haven’t read Ecclesiastes about nothing being new under the sun. The secret is taking what’s always been there and finding personal magic in it. If it’s how the sun rays hit the boulders and cast their shadows, so be it.

Here’s a poem with strange inspiration, a combination of quotidian and quirky. It notes the way my dog always leaves a single nugget of dog food in his bowl each morning. It’s from my book, The Indifferent World, and it breaks the experts’ rules. So don’t tell the poetry police, will you?

“Dog Religion”
by Ken Craft

Each morning he rises and bows
before me–parable of humility,
maw yawning, paws splaying.

The hollow rattle of dry meal
raining on his aluminum bowl
pops his ears. Every day,
novelty in the ritual of repetition;
every day, the Pavlovian ear perk.
Like heartbeats and bad breath,
autonomous tail and tongue.
Just so.

Waiting for me
to move, he approaches the orb
demurely, noses in, crunches the bland
and the brown. That lovable greed.
Those stained, pacifist teeth.

He feeds, license and rabies tag
keeping time at bowl’s edge. And always,
in the end, one dry kibble
is left in a bowl cirrus-streaked
with spit: his offering
to the food gods, his prayer
answered each miraculous day.

— from The Indifferent World by Ken Craft, copyright 2016, Future Cycle Press