MAKING POEMS

Here is a letter I received from a student after conducting a poetry workshop in his class. 

I love creating persona or "mask" poems with students.  They may not realize it, but when students take on the voice of an inanimate object, they are thinking in metaphor.  They're also practicing the use of figurative language and stretching their imaginations in ways that video games never do. 

In one class, a fourth grader took on the voice of the Bermuda Triangle.  Talk about using your imagination!  How did he ever come up with that idea?  It was wonderful.

We also write poems in the voice of fictional characters from familiar fairy tales or nursery rhymes.  One of my favorite workshops took place in a tiny school where a group of second graders worked together to write poems in the voice of the cow who jumped over the moon. 

"Why did that cow jump over the moon anyway?" I asked the students.  "Was he running from something?  Was he chasing someone?" 

We laughed so hard before the hour was finished.  One student's idea would spark another.  On and on it went.  It was glorious!

With National Poetry Month approaching, I am thinking about poetry.  And I'm remembering some of the good times I've had sharing it with young people.