The haiku of Richard Wright present a provoking mix, using some tranditional features of haiku (like structure and seasonal content) almost as a backdrop for a variety of other themes (rural/urban life, poverty, race, identity). We wrote our own haiku poems, focusing on capturing a moment.

It was my last session with the 7th graders, and at Taft. You'll notice that I have posted some bonus haiku poems, so as to feature as many students as possible. I'm very grateful to Mrs. Asvos and the Taft student poets for a truly enjoyable residency!

Reading Michael Ondaatje's poem "Sweet like a Crow" set off an avalanche of juicy, colorful, noisy poems about voices. His surprising comparisons gave rise to new leaps of wildness in the similes our 7th-graders created for their poems.

5th period

Imagine Your Voice
Patty B.

Your voice is like...
A flower blossoming, if it had a sound
Like wind chimes in the air
Like clinking bracelets.
It's soft and light
Like the pads of a cat's paws
Like the flap of drying sheets

That Voice
Emani T.

In T.S. Eliot's "Rhapsody on a Windy Night," we looked into the way that Eliot employed stanzas to illustrate a variety of transitions in his poem, as the speaker is taking a late-night walk through the city streets. Time passes from one hour to the next, the speaker moves from one streetlight to another which illuminate strange nocturnal scenes, and these scenes spark memories of other times and images. I asked my 7th-graders to write about a place they have visited, using stanzas to show some kind of transition or passage.

1st period

Letter poems bring into focus the idea of correspondence, of sending an idea from one person to another. In our case, we read a poem called "Aye Nay" by Ruth Forman, and tried writing our own letter poems...but addressed to a non-human audience (such as a place or inanimate object).

1st period

Poland
Natalia S.

I remember your smell.
Your smell is not here.
I remember the air.
There's no fresh air here.
I remember your taste.
Everything here is processed.
I remember your beauty:

In Wallace Stevens' poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," we notice Stevens' use of line breaks and their effect on meaning. I asked them to write their own series of tiny poems that incorporate some repeating image (I suggested a tree).

1st period

Trees
Jennifer M.

I
The sky changes color
like trees change their leaves.

II
The tree's leaves move

Today was my first day working with the Ms. Asvos' 7th-grade classes at the Taft Academic Center. We explored the use of simile, and making comparisons to reveal image and character. We first discussed Sandra Cisneros' vignette "Hairs," from her book The House on Mango Street.

1st period

Hair Like the Night
Andres L.

Reading George Ella Lyon's "Where I'm From," we discussed this as an alternate answer to the question, "Where are you from," one that gives the answer in concrete and sensory images, rather than just a city or neighborhood name. We also listed some of the themes she had brought up as ways to define "Where I'm From:" foods, faith, ritual, names of places, pivotal or memorable experiences, people, phrases spoken or overheard. Focusing on concrete images, I asked the students to create their own catalog of where they are from.

In Ruth Forman's "Aye Nay," we observed how the author makes inventive use of punctuation, capitalization, and colloquial language (or language as it is spoken). As this is a letter poem to a young girl, I invited the students to write their own letter poems, but to direct them to something non-human (an object, a place, an emotion, etc.).

1st Period

Dear Future
Camilla M.

I am worried about you.
No one knows what you bring,
how long will you last,
what our world will be like.

When the sun sets down,

As the students were getting ready to see the musical Cats, I decided to share the T.S. Eliot poem "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" with them. The song "Memory" is very loosely based on some images from this poem, which uses stanza breaks to illustrate the passage of time and physical movement through a late-night walk. As the speaker passes streetlights, they highlight nighttime images, and conjure up images of memory.

In Ms. Ko's 8th grade classes, we looked closely at one of my favorite "how-to" poems (poems that relay instructions): Philip Booth's "How to See Deer." Students then wrote their own poems in the form of instructions...or instructions in the form of poems, emulating Booth's use of enjambment (or sentences that wrap from one stanza to the next).

1st period

How to Dream with Peace
Maya S.

Ready, set, dream
you lay in bed,
close your eyes
thinking of what's