Poetry

 Why Write Poetry?

Beyond the Standards

Poetry provides space for emotional expression, self-discovery, communication, creativity, and imagination, and it is a safe outlet for students (and anyone else, really) to work through difficult experiences and topics (Majewksi, 2023).

Beyond the Classroom

Poetry imparts essential and transferable understanding beyond the classroom. "Meaning," for example, isn't always straightforward or explicit. Students should come away with the knowledge that figurative language creates layers of complexity and meaning in communication. 

Understanding that words and phrases can have multiple meanings is vital in a world where our students are presented with a variety of messages (not all of them positive) embedded in the short-form media, video games, memes, movies, and streaming content they encounter. Poetry is another medium through which students practice decoding the subtle messages presented to them in their everyday lives.

Moreover, poetry can highlight the reality that not every question or problem we face has a correct interpretation or answer. Sometimes, we can only come up with the best answer and solution to meet the needs of the moment using the best evidence and information we have available. Sometimes, we synthesize our learning to improve and better our perspectives. This is what I hope to impart to my students through the study of poetry.

In the Classroom

Poetry provides a unique opportunity for students--and anyone, really--to express themselves creatively. It allows our students opportunities to experiment with language, draw on personal experiences and emotions, reflect inward, look outward, and better know themselves and their world.

The Standards

From a teaching standpoint, learning to read and write poetry supports Common Core State Standards. Students are expected to critically engage with texts in a variety of genres and settings. They must learn to identify themes and analyze what texts say explicitly and implicitly. They are required to determine word meanings and the impact of language on the expression of ideas. The compare and contrast structures of texts and identify how the structural variance contribute to the messages conveyed by the text. What students are required to master between middle school and their senior high school year is exhaustive, and poetry is one (too often neglected) tool that can support many of these requirements.

English Language Learners and English Language Development

During the "2022-23 school year, there were approximately 1.113 million English learners in California publical schools" (California Department of Education, n.d.). English Language Learners (ELL) face unique challenges in the classroom. In addition to learning classroom content, they are also engaging in English Language Development, improving their English language fluency in the areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Poetry provides an accessible, short-form medium through which ELLs can work toward developing these fluencies.

Poetry provides a snapshot of a moment, event, feeling, or an idea. Its "brevity and short lines appear manageable and therefore not so intimidating to the reluctant or struggling reader" (Hadaway, et. al., 2001, p. 799). Through activities such as read alouds and choral readings, ELLs are able to practice their reading and speaking fluency. The creative use of poetic forms such as concrete, found, and blackout poetry can be used to design safe, low-risk settings for EL students to creatively play and experiment with the English language to express themselves and construct meaning.

The fluidity of poetry and its liminal nature allow us to invite our ELLs to incorporate words and phrases in their primary (L1) language throughout their writing. In a unit I taught, I invited one of my language learners to write a poem in their L1 and translate it into English. Writing poetry was a new experience for her. She had the general idea, but struggle to get started. After writing a beautiful sensory poem in her L1 she took to translating it. She found that not every word or phrase could be transliterated, so she had to make language choices in English to convey the ideas and emotion behind the original work. I continued to support her and other EL students with examples of poetry that played with dialect and language as types of mentor texts demonstrating how they could combine their L1 and L2 (their target language, i.e. English) to create beautifully complex poems.

Social Emotional Learning and Personal Development

Let's be honest, students from seventh-grade through high school are in a challenging developmental stage. They are transitioning from childhood toward adulthood. During this difficult transformation, poetry can aid in the social and emotional learning and personal development. It can help our students give words and voice to their experience, giving them space to explore and workthrough emotions and events not easily expressed.

Poetry draws upon a singular moment, or limited series of moments. It causes the writer to slow down, gather their thoughts, and choose the right words, phrases, and poetic devices to describe the moment. Consequently, this invites our students to think about the causes, effects, and responses surrounding their subject matter. One of my students wrote about a broken friendship and the hurt caused by the betrayal of confidence. Through the writing process, the student worked through their anger, describing and articulating the causes and effects of the shattered relationship. The student later shared that poetry had given them another way to process their feelings and deal with things that bothered them.

Poetry, in addition to all of its academic uses--that need not be limited only to specific teaching of a poetry unit--is healing. It promotes the mental, emotional, relational, and, yes, even the spiritual growth and development of our students.

 Poetry Samples

Below, I am including samples of some of my students' work. I teach in a difficult setting. The realities of poverty, food and housing insecurity, addiction, inadequate physical and mental health services, and trauma are known by my students, first-hand. For them, these barriers and challenges aren't distant news stories or theoretical scenarios. I compete with a variety of issues for the engagement my students. Reading and writing are difficult, and not something they are eager to do.

My poetry unit is intentionally challenging. I refuse to give students straight-forward, easy answers. They must critically engage with learning goals, essential questions, and various texts. They must, to their loathing, write, write, write. I wasn't sure how my students were going to perform, but they engaged, struggled, and created thoughtful works of poetry. My pride in their work swells.

"Where I'm From" by Lucky Ducky

I'm from parents who don't realize

It's not working.

I'm from a strong mom and a dad who lost himself,

And needs to come back to his family.

I'm from the rocky roads of Mexico,

Where some parts of me stay

From family gatherings, birthday parties

I'm from the books I read, music I listen to

And I'm from a band that cares

All of these parts are 

Where I'm from

All these parts are 

What makes me, me.

"Dad?" by I. V.

I only see you for two hours a week

Seeing you makes my heart fall weak

You joke and complain

While I sit here in pain

"I love you," you said

But I don't feel that sensation in my head

Or my body, nor my heart,

It is hard for me to trust

It will not be until I have laughed with you for many hours

that I can call you "dad" without feeling pain and disgust.

"I'm proud."

Makes my heart sink

If you were, you would be there more

Be around

The things you've said, called me, commented about me

I was 7, and the words are still running through my mind

The bruises are still there from the past

The fear I still carry

The cries I still hear

All the pain you caused me

After all of that, I still love you.

Even after all the things you've said and done to me

You're my father, and I still love you, incline

It's just hard to do so most of the time.

"Childhood" by E. R. L.

I see the rain fall on this beautiful earth

I hear the rain droplets fall on the green leaves of the trees

I feed with glee and see how much they have grown ever since spring

I look up and feel the rain rolling down like tears on my glassy skin

and see how gracefully the tears of the clouds fall on Mother Earth

I smell the soaked cement, my childhood,

me and my siblings with chalk on the driveway,

seeing my mom happy

but sad to watch the beautiful art fade away as quickly as the water hit it,

just as quickly as childhood faded into adulthood.

I opened my mouth and tasted the earth;

it tasted bitter and sweet and all of the flavor in between,

but one stood out to me like it was meant for me,

oh yes, the taste smelled like the bark of the tree

I used to think of all the things that used to trouble me

I would sit there and think,

“Oh how the world would be if I was an adult 

I could do anything I could please

and I could see all the places I have ever wanted to be,

but oh, the world is no dream so no matter the wishes, 

desires, yearning, urges that would not be true”

Oh how I wish my younger self could think You are in a dream

a childhood is all I want now

and probably for the rest of my years

I will yearn and cry like the clouds do when they can't hold it no more,

cry and cry,

yearn and yearn

tears from the clouds 

I will be for now.

"I Was the Cat" by I. V.

Don’t put the blame on me

For what you’re feeling

And what you’re dealing

You put the pain upon yourself

So you can forget about everything else

The blood I can smell

You’re not fooling anyone

You say you’re done 

But the next day, you go back

Back for the attack

You can’t return

If you don’t learn

That things happen

And keep you trapped in

Don’t put the blame me

Just because you cannot flee 

"I Can't Focus" by V. M.

I can't focus.

I’m in the corner of the class,

My stomach is interrupting my thoughts. 

I can't work on the lots of class work.

I’m starving.

I’m craving. 

That 10-minute window was the only time 

I got breakfast. 

The only time I could see 8th-grade friends.

It's unfair .

Fades were caught,

so now break fades.

I'm starving cuz of injuries I didn’t cause.

I don't want to listen to today's lesson 

I'm starving, overstimulated, and tired.

Nonstop class. 

Pain for the day.

Nonstop headache.

Cake sounds nice.

Nonstop staring at the screen.

I can only focus on the screeching

Of chairs. 

God, I can’t focus for the life of me.

Poetry Examples for the Classroom

Below, I have collected a variety of poems captured and performed on video. These poems can serve as mentor texts, examples of poetry addressing various topics, or as introductory texts for your students.