What’s Really New? I mixed in a lot of new poetry this semester which really stepped up our writing and thinking and discussion on so many levels. Of course the process of selecting new poems was not without some sweat and tears: see One Poem to Rule Them All, A Poetic Invitation (to the third power), and High Voltage Warning. Poetry and writing rituals helped us create a joyful community of writers and hopefully engineer a soft landing to another challenging semester (we have two weeks left as of this posting). See Kentucky Verses for a quick writing activity inspired by poetry and Advent of Love for a poetic exploration of the many loves of our lives (from food to place to people).
What’s New? While reading and studying poetry has been a regular practice in my writing classes, sometimes that means writing poetry too. That’s because each word of a poem carries weight while words in an essay are feathers that may be scattered at will. My advanced expository writing students spent their first three weeks mapping their past, present, and future for important ideas and questions and experiences (inspired by the National Writing Project’s C3WP work which includes helping students discover arguments in their daily lives). We used the same prompts offered by the Morehead Writing Project’s 2023 Small Poems, Great Writers slow marathon. Next week we are going to craft a small poem to help us focus our thinking for our first essay. In the past I have had students craft tanka poems to help focus an argument so this is not a new idea, but that process was much more scaffolded than my plan for these advanced writing students. Fingers crossed! So far they have been up for the journey and I hope I don’t lose them as I encourage them to write slant.
Update: Now that I am reading unit reflections I am finding that students found drafting a poem prior to drafting their This I Believe essays a journey worth taking. Some students reported that their essays were inspired in large part by their poems. I must admit I was worried as the weekly reflections following the drafting of the poems included much consternation about the challenge of crafting poetry, but in the end many writers were very proud of their work. Win-win! An additional note, as my first year writers plan their rhetorical analysis of games I used We Should Make a Documentary About Spades by Terrance Hayes because this delicious poem introduces so many of the lenses we can use to explore games. Fast-forward a unit and my first year writers are drafting argument essays after drawing inspiration from another delicious poem Everything Needs Fixing by Karla Cordero. Don’t you just love poetry?
Original: When I was planning my first year writing classes for the Fall 2021 semester I knew that each of us was broken in some way (due to pandemic and more) and that we would all need grace to survive this second fall of pandemic living and learning. This challenge was compounded by the fact that my first year writers were balancing the already difficult act of beginning college (many as first generation students) with the fact they had not had a “normal” senior year (let alone junior year) to support that transition. I also knew, if my students did not and my administration would not admit, that this semester would not be normal.
Yet I also teach a required class that I believe is essential for college and life (professionally and personally). I am a writing evangelist who fervently believes in the power and importance of writing. How could I go about the essential business of helping my first year students grow as writers while also creating a class sustainable for both students and instructor? Recognizing the power of writing to support both learning and emotional health, I built our work and community around the writing marathon. However, writing was not the sole source for these benefits. I regularly used poetry in our weekly writing invitations for our writing marathon and I found that poetry impacted our thinking, writing, and mental well being in countless ways.
Over the course of the semester I offered 14 different writing invitations that incorporated a total of 35 poems as well as nine songs (not sure if I really want to differentiate between the two but recognize some might be more purist than I). While the primary criteria for my choice of poem was matching theme with the ideas we were exploring through writing and class discussion, I was also interested in #TeachLivingPoets as well as female poets and poets who have been racialized. My Writing I class focuses on American values while leaning heavily into exploring our personal values as the foundation for that work which makes poetry a perfect launching pad. Specifically living poets, racialized poets, and female poets have done a lot of thinking and writing in this area so it should not surprise anyone that 25 of 35 poems were written by living poets, 18 of 35 poems were written by racialized poets, and 19 of 35 poems were written by women. What pleased me most was to discover that 22 of 35 poets fell into 2 or 3 of these categories. There were many reasons why I chose to incorporate so much poetry in a composition class but I was still surprised by the impact of this intense interaction with poetry on our community as humans, thinkers, and writers.
Poetry is Personal
Poetry may be the most personal form of communication and the best poetry offers the reader access to the heart and mind of the writer. Through that process we are able to connect with other humans in deep and meaningful ways. I chose to use poetry to help my Eastern Kentucky college students make that connection with other Americans, to glimpse lived experiences that are different from their own, and to discover that reader and poet share values despite superficial differences. Reading and experiencing poetry, especially poetry from diverse poets, makes us all better humans. Reading and experiencing poetry challenged us to question our established narratives and made us think about our own stories in new ways. Learning how to understand our story by reading the stories of others is an important human experience and incredibly important for authentic writing.
Poetry is Purposeful
Close reading of poetry is beneficial to writers. Good poetry offers a number of entry points for exploring an idea and is valuable for that alone. However, poetry does much more than that. Poets spend a lot of time crafting their poems through careful choice of imagery, precise word choice, spare language, and how the language sounds. There are few writers who cannot benefit from learning more precise word choice and how to create a tight description. Spending time with written language that has been so carefully crafted is important for writers – especially developing writers. Reading poetry can improve vocabulary and word choice, but it can also teach writers about the rhythm of language and sentence construction. Learning to hear the beats of a poem can have a powerful influence on all forms of writing. While many of my students may never again write poetry, the craft lessons they learned from reading and writing poetry will reverberate throughout their lives. Reading and writing poetry also challenges writers to think outside the box when it comes to form and content. Poetry has many important lessons to teach writers.
Poetry is Fun
Too often we do not allow enough fun and creativity into our classrooms and the work we do there. This is especially true of the college composition classroom. I am avid reader. I read fiction books and long nonfiction pieces all the time, but I appreciate the value packed into a poem more and more every year. A well written poem can take you on a journey with only a few short lines. Both reading and writing poetry offers a tool for accessible self discovery and self expression. While I recognize that polishing the craft of poetry writing can be the work of a lifetime, it is also something you can easily fit into one class session – especially if you explore one of the short poetic forms. Working with those poetic forms and other poetic challenges can be both creative and fun. I know I find them addictive and have witnessed similar behavior in my students. Reading poetry also challenges humans to think differently about the world and the other beings who share the cosmos. Poetry opens the mind in ways that other printed works cannot because there are always spaces in poems that are open to interpretation. Writing in response to the close study of a poem can also help writers discover unexpected emotions and thoughts.
Our writing invitations for the semester include (in reverse order):
- What If You Told Your Story?
- What is the soundtrack of your life?
- What is your reason for being?
- What is the shape of your story?
- Where Did You Begin?
- Who Are You?
- Checking In
- Who Tells Our Stories?
- What can we learn from stories?
- What Stories Matter?
- What Are We Making?
- What Is Our Story?
- Exploring Our Humanity
- I Am A Writer From…
- Writing Our Way Into The Journey
Check out just the poems and songs here. In addition to my students, the Just Write virtual writing group also responded to these writing invitations. Sign up to receive our weekly invitations and join us to write together if you can. Our focus for the spring will include games and play plus whatever theme the Morehead Writing Project decides for our spring #smallpoems project.
Poetry inspired our thinking and writing. Poetry informed the shape of our narratives as well as the form and function of our language. Poetry inspired us to experiment and play as writers. That’s why I taught composition using poetry. Do you use poetry to teach writing? How has poetry benefited your writing students?
Update: I continued to use poetry in the Spring 2022 semester with my Writing II classes focused on games and play. That semester I shared 20 poems spread across 14 writing invitations (in order):
- What are games?
- Why Do We Play?
- How Do Games Shape Our Stories?
- What Do You Believe?
- What Does It Mean To Be A Writer?
- What Can Games Teach Us?
- Choose A Lens
- Invitations
- Conversations
- Shadows
- What Is Your Answer?
- What do you want for your people?
- How do you see the world?
- Reflection
I continue to use poetry for the Fall 2022 semester with my Writing I classes where I expand our “What If” exploration of personal values as part of the Morehead Writing Project‘s Building A More Perfect Union grant, Root Deep, Grow Tall and build on our This I Believe American Creed work. Here are the invitations and poems that inspired our journey this semester:
- Writing Home
- Writing A More Perfect Union
- Creeds
- Invitations
- What Stories Matter?
- What Can Stories Teach Us?
- Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors
- Reflection
- What If
- Sound and Silence
- Who Are You?
- Truth and Manifestos
- Lessons
I continue to be amazed by the power of poetry to inspire our thinking and our writing.
Update: Looking for a great way to wrap up this December? Then choose poetry! Check out my Winter Solstice Writing Challenge (with more bonus writing prompts and activities included!).
Image by Gabriele M. Reinhardt from Pixabay
