POETRY in the Speech Room

I had a pleasant surprise when I opened the September issue of POETRY magazine. This subscription, published by the Poetry Foundation, is a splurge that always brings me joy; the latest issue brought more than usual. When I peeled off the wrapping I discovered Lemony Snicket was the featured writer. 

Just looking at that name on the cover made me smile. I immediately turned to his essay and read Mr. Snicket’s own words,

“Poetry is like a curvy slide in a playground—an odd object, available to the public—and, as I keep explaining to my local police force, everyone should be able to use it, not just those of a certain age.”

The next day, I brought the magazine to school to share with my students. I read parts of Lemony’s essay to groups of five, six and seven year olds. When I came to the part where he said, (speaking of his collection,)

“The only things that all the poems have in common is that they are all strange in some way, because all great literature is strange, the way all good slides are slippery.”

Joden took exception to Mr. Snicket’s comment. “Except out in Wiggly Giggly Park when the slide is wet and you don’t slide very well.”

I suppose you can get stuck on a good poem in much the same way you get stuck on a good slide after the rain. And if a slide is wet, you are likely to get soggy pants, as Landen pointed out—but I’m not sure how that ties into poetry. It probably does. I’ll need to contemplate that awhile before I find clarity.

After we read a few of Lemony Snicket’s comments, we moved on to the poetry he’d chosen for his collection. The kids loved them. One they especially enjoyed was Auto-Lullaby by Franz Wright. The poem begins with the lines:

            Think of a sheep

            knitting a sweater;

It continues on with an engaging rhythm and rhyme for five child-friendly stanzas, but I don’t want to infringe on his copyright so I’ll stop there. By the end of the poem, my students wanted to try their own hand at writing poetry. Actually, they voiced their poetry. Their writing skills are still in the primitive stage so they dictated their attempts and I scratched out the words as fast as I could, trying to keep up with the words pouring out from students all around my speech-room table. They were inspired. 

We worked together to bring a little order to the words, practicing rhyming and comparing the rhythm of their lines to those of Franz Wright. By the time we finished, these are the lines our groups created:

            Think of a squirrel

            riding a poodle

            they fall in a ditch

            and eat a big strudel.

            Think of a Team-Rex (I think he meant T-rex but we let it stand as spoken.)

            going down the toilet

            and eating a duck

            before he could boil it.

Think of a bird

            flying to the sun

in a tiny bird rocket

while eating a bun.

He ate way too much

and his tummy popped

then he fell back to earth

and did a birdy hop.

Think of a dog

who writes a blog

and when he’s done

he wakes his dad up and drinks a glass of cold milk.

When Zayd dictated the last stanza, the other kids noticed he’d altered the rhythm and rhyming scheme, but no one wanted to change a word. They felt it was perfect just the way it was. And I had to agree.

The students are grateful to Lemony Snicket for collecting these poems and in appreciation they decided to work together to create one last poem, just for him.

Lemony Snicket

Got stuck in a thicket

He found a gray cricket

And decided to lick it.

Yuck!!!

Thank you Franz Wright, Poetry Foundation, and Lemony Snicket for inspiring our young writers.