My first day at Washington began in a roomful of expectant students: Mrs. Nazimek’s 8th Grade classroom. After introductions, and some votes on ‘Who reads poetry?’ (Among the ‘yeses’ and ‘no’s’ there were also some promising ‘undecideds), we delved right into a discussion on Poetry’s meaning. One idea I introduced was the Greek etymology of the word ‘Poetry’ (poein) which means to ‘pile up,’ or to make, create or compose.’ We discussed where poetry ‘hides’ in our daily lives via commercials, music lyrics, and jingles. Then it was off to pen a quick Imagist/Minimalist poem like William Carlos Williams’, The Locust Tree In Flower. I read them two versions of this poem, and asked them to pattern their version on the shorter of the two.
With as little wording as possible, I asked them to describe something they saw on the way to school or regularly. Here are some of their Imagist Poems and Experiments in Minimalism. Enjoy!
Mrs. Nazimek
8th Grade, 1st Period
Untitled
Daniela V.
Boys
Girls
Walk
in
the
school
building
colorful
Book Bags
no
smiles
around
Mrs. Nazimek
8th Grade, 2nd Period
Morning School Walk
Alejandro G.
On a
mild
outside
gloomy day
kids
walk to school
in a rush
‘scaddle’
very quickly
Car Door
Santino C.
on
Through
swinging
closing
steel
creekcrackling
slambooming
skinpincher
handjammer
Lost in the Time Lapse Sky
Nadia P.
Beyond
out
colorful
moving
swaying
maejest
setting
Mrs. Nazimek,
8th Grade, 3rd Period
Red Maple
Aylin R.
Smooth
up
down
sunblown
rough
vertical
redburgan
strong
gentree
Homework
Victoria D.
Dareful
scary
hateful
over
beautiful
scaryold
terrifying
Going Down
Alessandra M.
Branch
going
soon
rearrange
Leaves
