- BY: Rinnah Shaw
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Are you looking for a way to collect and organize your poems into a manuscript that might one day be published as a chapbook or full-length collection of poetry? Join the Chicago Poetry Center […]
- BY: Poetry Center
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Letter sent by CPC Executive Director to all board, staff, and Poets in Residence on Monday, February 3, 2025: As news mounts of organizations changing their values or language due to pressure from the […]
- BY: Poetry Center
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From February through June of 2025, the Chicago Poetry Center is offering free online Critical Conversations: Anti-Racism sessions open to all. Drawing on CPC’s decades of workshop facilitation, Critical Conversations use poetry as a […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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For our 2nd sessions, Brennemann 2nd graders sat with me on the rugs in their respective classrooms, as I read the poem “Collecting Words” by Pat Mora, from her book Bookjoy, Wordjoy. The poet […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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At Smyser Elementary in our 4th grade classrooms, we looked at the poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo. Students learned about personification and used word bubbles or word maps to help […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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At Henry Elementary, I visited two new classrooms with Mrs. Carrion! We read Clint Smith’s “Counting Descents” and discussed imagery, enjambment, and the use of repetition and counting in Smith’s poem! Student were tasked […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For our third week, Twain 5th graders explored sound effects in poetry. Poets often use Onomatopoeia, words that intimate sounds from everyday life to emphasis the images and actions occurring in a poem. We […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For our third week of poetry, Twain 6th graders explored ideas about weather. They were asked the question “What type of weather describes your own personalities? We discussed how the weather and seasons can […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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This week was quite the variety show! For 6th grade, inspired by Leslie Reese’s “How to Write A Recipe” workshop and Shoesmith student Kamya J.’s poem “Recipe for A Great Summer”, we wrote our […]
- BY: Poetry Center
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The Chicago Poetry Center presents BLUE HOUR, a free, public monthly in-person reading series and generative writing workshop at Haymarket House (800 W. Buena) hosted and facilitated by Marty McConnell. Our May featured readers […]
- BY: Joy Young
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I can’t believe O-School students are halfway through their 20-week poetry residency. For week 14, we revisit poems we have written together throughout our residency. We read and discussed the poem “Dear Poet,” by […]
- BY: Larry Dean
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For our penultimate sessions, we read and discussed Vievee Francis’ “Clarity.” As kind of a ‘greatest hits’ literary device-wise, we examined the poet’s use of simile, personification, and in particular blank space, as well […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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For our 2nd sessions, I showed up in Brennemann 5th grade classrooms all set to introduce them to the Gwendolyn Brooks poem, “We Real Cool,” but they were already familiar with it from a […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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Spring is here, which means summer isn’t too far behind. Last week, Waters 7th graders pondered things to look forward to (big and small) before reading Rita Dove’s vacation. After discussing the astute people […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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Oh, odes. An homage to the things we hold close. Last week, Waters 6th graders were inspired by Francisco X. Alarcon’s Ode to my Shoes/ Oda a mis zapatos, an ode that delightfully indulges […]
- BY: Timothy David Rey
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After reading Michael Salinger’s poem ‘ If I Were A Gear, ‘ students experimented with metaphors and extended metaphors. Lesson Note: “The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For their second session of poetry, 5th graders explored metaphors. Metaphors are direct comparisons, saying that one thing is another thing. Together we read and watched a video clip of Michael Salinger performing his […]
- BY: Josie Levin
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This week, students leaned about another visual poetic form, diagram poems! We discussed there crossover between poetry and diagrams, how we can represent metaphors and allusions in this combined form, and how to integrate […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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Starting off our 2nd week and Smyser Elementary, we explored imagery, the five senses, and writing from our memories! We looked at the poem “When I was Six” by Aimee Nezhukumatahil. Check out some […]
- BY: Timothy David Rey
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Students wrote elegies on lost people, places, things, and feelings. Lesson Note: “…research reveals the role of elegy writing in acknowledging and nurturing ongoing bonds with lost loved ones.” – The Literature of Loss: […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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One of my favorite poetry books is Patricia Smith’s Blood Dazzler, which reflects on and embodies the horrors of Hurricane Katrina. In our most recent session at Hyde Park, the poetry club learned about […]
- BY: Noel Quinones
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Sometimes it is hard to choose just one thing we are thankful for. This week the 7th graders of Clinton celebrated gratitude by writing odes for what makes them most thankful. After reading “Ode […]
- BY: Noel Quinones
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Sometimes it is hard to choose just one thing we are thankful for. This week the 8th graders of Clinton celebrated gratitude by writing odes for what makes them most thankful. After reading “Ode […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For our second session of poetry this week, Twain 6th grades traveled to other places, through vivid imagery. Imagery is when a poet paints a picture inside their readers minds. What make a place […]
- BY: Larry Dean
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Last week, we read and discussed Philip Larkin’s “Far Out.” Unlike the previous selection, this has a regular rhyme scheme, along with four-line stanzas (called quatrains), and (mostly) unambiguous language. However, there are a […]
- BY: Josie Levin
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How do you fix things? How do you know what needs fixing? This week Waters 6th and 7th graders discussed the poem “What is handed down” by Ada Límon and what it means to […]
- BY: Joy Young
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O’ School students had their 13th session of poetry on Monday. This week’s theme was about names. I asked students: Why are names important? If you could choose another name for yourself, what would […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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Greetings! Waters 7th graders have already had plenty of experience connecting the dots between poetry and visual art. continue that trend with concrete poems, which are poems that are shaped like a object or […]
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“Writing poetry makes me feel like I can see myself, like I can see my reflection, but not in a mirror, in the world. I write and I know I can be reflected.”
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