Last week I shared my found poem about what teachers didn’t like about poetry. Some commenters agreed with the sentiments expressed, others found them sad. So, as promised, here’s the opposite poem – a found poem from the positives. I asked workshop participants to write either their favourite line of poetry or something they loved about poetry. At home, I played with the sticky notes till I had some sort of structure, and this is a result.
Poetry Rules!
With rhythm
With rhyming
And sometimes
Great timing
Expressing yourself:
Poetry lets me dream and hope
drifting through my soul
Lowering my blood pressure
Like stroking a cat
Anything quite like poetry
It’s personal
And brings out students’ emotions
Surprising teachers
surprising even themselves.
Poetry speaks from the heart
Both dark side and light
Endless inferred meanings
With rhyme and rhythm
The joy and pleasure it brings
Usually short
But deep
And dost like poetry
Where things
Have space to make sense.
Poetry can stay.
Where I was able to trace the lines from poems, I have made them into a hyperlink so you can go and read those original poems. Thanks to the participants at the ALEA/ACMI State Conference for their contributions and their willingness to be open to poetic possibilities.
Today’s Poetry Friday roundup will be hosted by Reading to the Core. Head over there to see all the other poetry posts across the blogosphere.
‘I love chocolate cake’ nothing more poetic than that! Thanks for sharing the flip side of your participant’s opinions on poetry, Sally. =)
Thanks Bridget
These are both clever, Sally (last week and this week). Good use of resources and inspiration. 🙂
Thanks Kat
This is lovely. Words like birds.
Words like birds indeed!
How clever! I can’t wait to browse back through and take a look at some of those links. I also missed last week’s poem and intend to go check that out as well. I love the upbeat tone of your poem and the combination of teacher comments and lines from poetry. Delightful!
Thanks Molly
What a terrific idea, Sally! I love your found poem, especially those last lines. Yes, poetry can stay! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks Catherine
What a fun idea–finding evocative lines in poems and riffing off them. I love your ending. Puts the subject to bed perfectly!
Thanks Violet
Hooray for positive poetry-making!
I especially love the comparison of reading poetry to stroking a cat. Thanks for the purr-time, Sally. 🙂
Thanks Michelle. Yes, I love that contributed line, too
Like all of life’s most important things, poetry can be a source of both great happiness and great frustration! 🙂
Too true!
What a lot of time you took to create this post for us, Sally. I love the ending especially, showing true love! I missed last week so will go back to read it! “As dawn goes down today/Poetry can stay.”
Thanks Linda
Diane “took” the lines I had copied to put in my comment. She’s always doing that. I should make the rounds before she does…
Seriously, what a special project – both the negative and the positive. I love how you used the responses to make these poems. And, I’ll bet the participants felt MORE positive about poetry after your time with them.
That’s okay Robyn – there are two roads, so you and Diane can each take one 🙂
Thanks for the lovely words. The whole conference was focused on poetry so I think everyone left feeling inspired.
Two roads diverged in a wood
Lowering my blood pressure
It’s quite serendipitous that I read those two lines right after I read an article about hiking and well-being. I think the universe is trying to tell me something!
lol. Yep, definitely time to go for a hike, Diane. Thanks for dropping by.