This past week I had my students do a little creative activity related to a couple of poems in our textbook. After studying some things about the poems, they had to choose a line from one of them and use it to begin a poem of their own. It was a beautiful surprise to see how many slid right into this activity, and produced lovely little pieces of writing. They only "rules" were it was to be 7-12 lines, and they had to include an image with the poem.
This idea is not a new one -- to use a line from one poem to begin another. Yesterday I decided to call these "caboose" poems. As a kid, I always loved waving to the man in the caboose at the end of the train. I miss cabooses a lot! I see the line the poet gave us as the train and we're the caboose, waving to them letting them know they inspired our own writing.
***
One of my morning practices is to read a poem and write one of my own. Today I decided it was time to make a daily practice of "caboose poems" specifically. Here is my first one; the line is from Joy Harjo's "How to Write a Poem in Time of War."
where I love to be
in the morning
with music, prayer,
thoughts and words
and coffee and plans
Where I set myself
strong and vow to
do no wrong
(and fail...sometimes)
The wildlife calls
as does the sky
reminding me
I am here
while the clouds
paint and illuminate
while the sun
does its sun thing
I am finding the me
lost in the night
of dreaming
No comments:
Post a Comment