Poetry 
(image from http://www.cplrmh.com/poetposter.GIF)
All we are saying is give poetry a chance!
(apologies to John Lennon)
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START HERE!!! So you say you can't stand poetry? It all started with your sixth grade teacher who made you write a haiku (a what?!) and then you had to stand in front of the class and read it while everyone giggled. From that point on, you hated poetry. What's the point of poetry anyway, right? Why don't they just write "normally" instead of using rhymes or descriptive words that you have to try and figure out? Let's try and explore this genre and come to a different understanding of poetry. It really isn't as mysterious and difficult as you may think. We'll look at everyday people, just like you, who have come to see poetry as something they can appreciate as an average person. Poetry really isn't just for geeky English teachers! Let's explore some sites and see if you might change your mind...even a little...about poetry! Maybe you already like poetry? Great! Then enjoy the links and see what new ideas you discover! |
Exploring Poetry A beginning... The website below is a collection of videos of average, ordinary people talking about how they came to understand and appreciate poetry. It was created by a former Poet Laurate of the United States (a person that the President appoints to be the "poet dude or dudette"...find out all about this job here: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/about_laureate.html ) Robert Pinsky. Click on "The Videos" and you will see a long list of people and poems, each with a video explaining their poem choice and what that poem means to them. http://www.favoritepoem.org/index.html Here's another poetry exploration site, done by Billy Collins, yet another former poet laurate (geez, these people must be really like poetry!) through the Library of Congress (a r e a l l y BIG library in Washington D.C.). It's called Poetry 180, a double play on words: there are 180 poems (the typical number of days in a school year, so you have a poem-a-day), and 180 degrees, which implies to turn and face the other direction or to turn away from one view of poetry and find another. There is also a link to the Library of Congress poetry page which has lots and lots more poetry stuff to explore! http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/ Here's a different kind of poetry...peformance poetry...called Poetry Slam. It's more people talking about how they connect to poetry. See what you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppwowTJg0mI Okay, so here is a site that lets you "create" your own poems. Kind of fun! Click on "Play," pick a poetry "kit" and have some fun! http://www.magneticpoetry.com/ Are you changing you mind, if only a little, about poetry? How about this: books in verse form. Here's a great site to find lots of books about lots of different subjects. http://www.sonyasones.com/greatbooks.htm
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