Two posts in the same week? And so close together?? First of all, thanks for being my reader! I appreciate it! Second, it was a task for class. We had to write our initial feelings, and then after we had completed the readings for the week, we’re supposed to revise our first post. So, let’s see what I changed my mind on. Oh, also, if you haven’t read my earlier post, you may want to to avoid confusion :p

I do think that after reading the first chapter of Awakening the Heart, Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School by Georgia Heard I was able to better understand other forms of poetry. This quote in particular impacted me: “When I introduce this center, I first define what I mean by ‘poetic.’ I tell students to listen for words that make a picture in their mind; are an unusual or surprising way of expressing something; give a strong feeling; or evoke a memory” (page 8). The underlined section is the part that really opened my eyes. While I still highly value the structure and technicality of a poem, I now have a greater appreciation for the more raw or intuitive nature of some of the word combinations used, regardless of the surrounding structure. I hope that makes sense.

I also now have a lot more ideas of how to actually teach poetry in my classrooms. I really like the idea of “cracking open words” to get at the deeper, richer meanings just waiting for the right words to be used. It reminds me of geodes. Regular and boring rock on the outside, but crack them open and they hold dazzling colors contained within crystals. I guess this is what I’m getting at in the above paragraph. If you can take a geode and impress me with the crystals inside, I will be much more ready to label it poetic, instead of just taking your word for it.

Aside from that, I still love poetry. Since I ended the other post with a poem based on current events, I will do the same for this one too. I wrote this poem when the Native Americans protesting the Keystone Pipeline were joined by a lot of war veterans. The combination of the two beaten down and betrayed people coming together was powerful to me. I also took structure inspiration from the song “I am a man of constant sorrow” since I had recently watched the movie “Brother Where Art Thou” on Netflix. I wrote the lines so that they could almost be sung.

Thanks for reading again!

Oh We People of Constant Sorrow

Oh we people of constant sorrow

we stand alone and face it all

and the legions of the rotten

gather forces to make us fall

 

Through dead of night

we lay in bags of ice

and shiver as they try

to make us pay their price

 

The daily assaults

grow ever deadly

and many of us have fallen

to this corrupted medley

 

They marched all this way

to poison the land

our sacred home which

they stole with deceitful hand

 

For weeks we held the line

all alone on the field

ever outnumbered

but yet we refuse to yield

 

And as the dangers grow

evil tries to force us home

all the while forgetting

we stand on lands we used to roam

 

The more they hurt us

the more they lose

and now joined are we

by those who sport a similar bruise

 

Oh we soldiers of sorrow

we stand with you

for better than most

ee know this fight is nothing new