“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” Robert Frost.

Kenneth Koch published his Rose, Where Did you Get That Red? in 1973 to enormous acclaim. His book revolutionized the way children are taught to read and write poetry. Around 2000 Mary Cunningham gave us a copy of this book and it changed the way we teach poetry for ever. Gone are the Haiku and Limerick lesson plans. This year we have taught the entire school using Kenneth Koch’s brilliant ideas. Currently the 6^th – 8^th grade students have written poems that have taken our breath away. For inspiration we considered the power of music (Rhapsody in Blue), themes such as ‘The Third Eye’, ‘I used to be but now I am not,’ ‘I seem to be….’ and most recently we studied a poem by Elizabeth Bishop. After our initial mini-lesson the children get to work and the click clicking sound of their fingers on keyboards brings joy and anticipation. Here are two poems from these sessions.

 

My Third Eye

By Maia

Eyes are jealous and greedy things

Feasting upon beauty

That’s not their beholders.

The jealousy they produce,

From the sight of seeing others with something,

Anything

More then what they have.

With those two eyes

It’s so easy to feast upon the things you don’t have,

Spending unwanted hours

Staring at a computer screen.

Eyes are cherished for the prize of sight

But sometimes they block out

Seeing what they cannot see,

Closing your eyes to listen close using your third eye

Your third eye can

Hear

And feel

And smell

It shows you the greed you possess

When you only use sight

Your other senses are not put to use

Your other senses are there for use

And when you cannot see something

Use your eyes,

Your smell,

Your sense of touch,

Just because you cannot see something

Does not mean all is lost.

 

I used to be….

By Ace

 

I used to be different, and I am forever changing

Shifting from shadow to shadow

Thoughts change, and so does the world

Following my shifts

Reality bends and twists and soon all will be different again

Because we are ever changing

First we need safety

Then we need love

But when we lose our grip, then we change again.