This post is cross-posted here: #SLOWCHATED BLOG.
You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what’s in your heart.
~ Carol Ann Duffy
April is National Poetry month, which means that April is a month that ONLY English teachers should be interested in … right?
EL-WRONGO-BONGO.
Poetry is for EVERYONE … even you, and you, and especially you … and your grandma, and your best friend and your grandma’s best friend. So let’s get this party started with some personal definitions of poetry. Nothing says PAR-TAY like defining words. #W00t! <smashes generic cola can into forehead>
Remember: It’s a party, so be raw; be honest. If you hate poetry, tell us why. If you love it, wreck a guitar and tell us about it. Wear a jaunty hat, and flirt with the idea of wearing false eyelashes–just for this week–just for our party. Also: Glitter. There can never be too much glitter. Consider all of this as you think up your definition of poetry.
I’m going to to ease you into this with a question, but FAIR WARNING, much of what I’ll be asking of you this week will not be so much questions as they will be TASKS or better yet … PARTY GAMES. Consider DAY 1 the ice-breaker-mingly-honeymoon-fancy cheese-and-crackers phase of the party.
Day 1 (Q1): What is Poetry? #slowchated
Lawrence Ferlinghetti said, “Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone.” Carl Sandburg said, “Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.” Bob Dylan said, “I think a poet is anybody who wouldn’t call himself a poet.” Emily Dickinson said, “If I feel physically, as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” Rita Dove said, “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.” Marianna Moore said, “Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.” Leonard Cohen said, “Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
How do YOU define poetry? Feel free to be straightforward or … poetic. I want to hear from some English teachers, of course, but I for sure want to hear from EVERYONE else too.
DAY 2/QUESTION 2:
Q2.1: What is your fave poem or if you hate poetry (WHY?) what is your most palatable poem? (Provide a link, if possible.) #slowchated
Q2.2: Tell us WHY said poem is your fave or more palatable than others … For a bonus points, do an interpretive dance. #slowchated
(Yes, it’s THAT kind of party.)
DAY 3/Question 3:
PARTY TRICK TIME–>Q3: How is education like a poem? Education is like a poem because …
Q3expansion: You can insert any edu-term in there, if you so desire … Learning/Teaching/Education is like a poem because … #slowchated
DAY 4/QUESTIONS 4, 5, and 6
I’m going to add QUESTIONS 4, 5, AND 6 on DAY 4 because I’m AGAIN breaking the rules … which sort of makes me a poet, eh? Eh? EHHH? I’m viewing questions 4, 5, and 6 as a “CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE” because I know that we are all busy people and there’s probably a good chance that none of us will have time to do ALL THREE (four really –hehehe) of these things because, as I stated before, they are more so TASKS than they are QUESTIONS, so if you would choose just one of these things, it would make me infinitely happy. I’m also hoping that by giving you a head’s up about Question 6.1 and 6.2 that it will increase the likelihood that more of you will do it (since you have three whole days to do it! Of course, if you were able to get to all three, you would get the PARTY HARDY award from this here poetry party.
Q4:Let’s brainstorm a million or less ideas for ways to use poetry (especially in the non-ELA classroom).
Q5: Write a less than 140 character poem about the topic of your choice and tweet it at us.
Q6.1: Capture a video of yourself doing an oral interpretation of your favorite poem by someone else.
or
Q6.2: Capture a video of yourself doing an oral interpretation of a poem YOU wrote.
Can you imagine what a fan-freakin-tastic archive this will be, if we all made a video?
POETRY RESOURCES for ALL Y’ALL.
20 POETS on the MEANING of POETRY
WHAT is POETRY? 50 DEFINITIONS and COUNTING
IDEAS for EVERYDAY FOR THE REST OF THE MONTH+
Don’t use the phone. People are never ready to answer it. Use poetry.
~ Jack Kerouac