I facilitated a poetry workshop for my son's 5th grade class today. After hemming and hawing about which lesson to work on, I finally decided on the one I called "Listen Up!"
The students took the project seriously and really worked hard at crafting a poem within the guidelines of a sound based poem from the perspective of an intimate object. Today, for poetry thursday, I share my son's poem.
Happy Poetry Thursday!
What the Homework in the Backpack Hears
A child whines.
“Just a few more minutes, mom?”
Beep, beep as he channel surfs. The shout
of the TV. Pencil dances
across my face, scritch, scritch. Rush
to complete me. Triumphant voice
yells, “Done!” Ziiiip.
Back in my prison,
I wait the night.
The rustle as crammed coats
crowd the closet; the day begins.
Grumble
of a pencil sharpener. Soft
black lines whisper as they right
my wrongs.
The click of a calculator, snap
of a pencil tip. Board
markers squeak. Oak tag doors
close and I sigh, silence.
--Eric, age 11
If you hadn't said this was a 5th grader I would never have guessed. What a wonderful poem with such a creative twist. I loved it.
ReplyDeleteVERY cool. Kudos to the poet.
ReplyDeletethis is very creative. You obviously facilitated a good workshop and well done to your son for his poem!
ReplyDeleteThank you all! Eric was thrilled to read your comments. I love working with school aged children.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with the first comment above. In fact, I'm goggle-eyed right now. *mouths a WOW* (a piece free from cliches, and rich in motion; strong "shows" rather than having just "tells").
ReplyDelete(p.s. It'd be an honor to shake your hand, Eric. ^_^ Cheers.)
Love it, Eric. Love it.
ReplyDeleteEric could teach a class in poetry! The pace, the line breaks, the word choices, the images - first rate!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your comments. My 2 boys have been playing word games with me since they could talk (and talk back! LOL). My teenaged son writes short stories and collaborates on text-based role playing while the younger one likes it when I give him poetry challenges.
ReplyDeleteSometimes we'll talk about a word choice for a particular place in a poem and he'll tell me a certain phrase has good alliteration.
Makes my heart soar.
:)
Great poem! I was right there with the poet while reading it.
ReplyDelete-Tom Libby