This week, I spent a bit of my time in the practice of writing poetry. Poetry writing is not something that I have done much of recently. However, as I was writing this week, I had a bit of a breakthrough. I found a couple of poetry scaffolds and strategies that resonated with me. Knowing that I would be giving the gift of poetry to an important person in my life, I decided to use one of the poems that I wrote about that individual. The experience of giving poetry was an interesting process, but here it is.
Choosing the perfect poem was a thought that stayed in the back of my head all week as I was writing and reading poetry. However, there was just nothing that seemed just right for the individual, my boyfriend who thinks "poetry is dumb unless it rhymes and is funny," that I wished to give the poem to. The funny poems just were not resonating with me. As I finished up using a poetry scaffold found in Love That Dog, I knew that this was just the poem for my boyfriend. The poem had turned out to be a bit sappy. Typically, I am not the sappy type, but he finds a bit of joy in it. Here was my chance to show those feelings a bit more.
Giving Jon a piece of poetry was probably the most interesting part of this experience. Seeing as he is not the type to be into this type of thing and I am not the type to give a gift such as this, it was a bit of a shock to him. I had warned him that I had a gift to give him that he may not actually like. When I handed him the piece of paper and told him I was giving him the gift of poetry, he had a bit of a puzzled look and said that is better rhyme. Once he got to reading it, I saw a bit of a smile on his face. He thought it was sweet that I would choose to write a poem about him and it was nice to hear me say things like that about him. He did also amit that he still thought it should rhyme though! In the end, this experience gave me an opportunity to express my feelings to someone that I love and show them that they are important to me.
This activity could be great for kids, in that they can also experience this feeling of gving someone something as simple as words, but allowing that person to know that they are important in the life of the child. This activity is perfect for having children think of poetry of something more than words that rhyme and make no sense. They can begin to see that those words on the page can be interpreted into many things and may find others in the words they read. Knowing that there is a purpose to locating the perfect poem will help children to want to find the perfect poem and hopefully get them excited about poetry itself.
References
Creech, S. (2001). Love that dog. New York : HarperCollins, c2001. Retrieved from https://login.proxy006.nclive.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat04042a&AN=app.b2219127&site=eds-live&scope=site
I laughed out loud when Jon said, "It better rhyme!" That comment, in jest I'm sure, says so much about all of our K-12 experience with poetry. Without any rhyming words, is it REALLY a poem? I'm glad you caught the slight smile. After all, who can not smile, rhyming or not, when they're given the gift of poetry. Reminds me that "Poem in Your Pocket Day" is coming up on April 18: https://www.poets.org/national-poetry-month/poem-your-pocket-day.
I love that you used a scaffold to write your own poetry to give as a gift! I attempted to do that this week, writing a poem for one of my co-workers and friends, but I got too embarrassed and stopped writing. I laughed out loud as I read what you wrote about him being adamant that it needed to rhyme. Maybe once you expose him to more poetry he'll change his mind.
I love that you chose to give the gift of a poem you wrote yourself! I think that makes the gift much more personal and intimate. It's really cool that you were able to share this experience with someone so special to you. Thanks for sharing this process with us!
Blair, this was so sweet!! I really really like that you took this idea of giving the gift of poetry a step further and gifting a piece of poetry that you wrote yourself! After reading Georgia Heard's first two chapters, I really liked the idea of giving the gift of poetry, and like you I am hesitant to do that. I wasn't able to find a poem this week that I thought resinated with anyone in my life, so I have not yet done it. I'm really glad that you were able to have this experience and that it turned out so well for you! It would be interesting to implement this into a classroom - telling students that they…